Chris wrote: "I have a 14' jon and am going to be hooking up a trolling
motor, fishfinder and lights to a single battery. My question is, is it ok
to hook up all the power wires directly to the battery or do you recommend
running power to a box of some sort
and then connecting everything there?"

Running one wire from the battery to a fuse block makes it a lot easier to
remove the battery. It also to me makes it easier to keep good contact with
the battery since the more connections you have coming from your battery the
more prone you are of corrosion between the terminals. It also makes it a
lot neater installation if you have a place to mount the fuse block under a
console or under the seat (if there is a compartment for dry storage).

When I had my 14 foot jon, I had dry storage under the rear seat. I sealed
it by installing a piece of plywood on the floor of the compartment then
silicone the edges. I then mounted the battery in the compartment with a
circuit breaker panel. All my switches that controlled my running lights,
spot lights (for frogging and finding your way home when there is no moon in
the swamps) were mounted in the front of the seat compartment right under
the driver. I did not have a console only a tiller motor. When I ran the
wires for the running lights, I ran them through the ribs on the side.

Sarge