Old Electronics,etc. Keep or Remove?

[Bill Root]

When the P.O. made updates to electronic equipment he left the old stuff in place. For example, he installed a complete Raymarine E120 suite but left the old Magellan and Loran stuff. I have the display units, wiring, relays and lots of other parts under the flybridge and in the engine room. I can see some reason to keep some of it for establishing a history of what was there. On the other hand, there's enough wiring and complicated stuff in the boat that it seems keeping the old is just adding to clutter. What do you think?

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Pull it all out and clean it up.

 

[Bill Root]

I'm inclined to agree, Sky, but I wonder if any others have a different point of view.

 

[Artzco]

I've been working for about two months now identifying wiring and labeling. There was so many old PO additions and "subtractions" that it was a rat's nest. I've added terminal blocks and found wires that went to a dead end with no real purpose. In many cases, i stripped it out after ensuring they were of no value or couldn't be used in the future. Most of the labeling has helped my sanity. Many people don't realize how much damage they do and also pose some danger in their poor wiring.

 

[sportfish 45]

"I can see some reason to keep some of it for establishing a history of what was there"



Like a museum theme ?

 

[MikeP]

It's the reason marina's have dumpsters. Make use of it! That's where all the old 'troncs from our boat went. Sadly, the new stuff that replaced it is now 6 years old and obsolete!

 

[luckydave215]

One of the jobs I performed when we got our 60C was to remove all the non original (PO) wiring that went from nowhere......to nowhere.
There was enough to fill up the back of my Suburban. It must have weighed 100 pounds!
Now the only non original wiring on the boat is for electronics, and I re-did all of it from scratch with properly color coded marine wire, heat shrink crimps, new terminal blocks, etc.
It felt good to make a clean sweep.

 

[saltshaker]

If you're not using it, get rid of it. You didn't keep your old 8 track did you?

 

[MikeP]

Funny you should mention that...there is a very nice 57' Chris at our marina that has the original 8 track and a large selection of tapes mounted/housed in a nice oem cabinet. I thought it was really cool. So even though I totally agree with the "out with the old/in with the new electronics-wise," I guess I'm a bit inconsistent in some ways.

If that was my boat, I would never remove that 8 track system. I'd just install an iPod or memory-card based unit for daily use or maybe even buy a unit that can take also take CDs (do they still make CDs?)

 

[Bob Bradley]

Hate to admit it, but I also still have the old 8 track. It has a John Denver Rocky Mountain High tape in it that still plays, with a match book wedged under the tape so that it plays "correctly".

But to the original question, rip it all out and dump it. I spent a day pulling junk wiring from my overhead console when I first bought the boat. I nearly filled my cockpit with the rats nest. I found many live, untaped dead end wires just coiled up there.

 

[Bill Root]

Thanks for all the feedback, as usual. The "pitch it's" win. Actually, that's what I had planned to do, but I just wanted to do a head check before getting started. Now I have to figure out how to cover up all the holes.

 

[SeaEric]

Just this Spring I removed to old carcass that housed the original record player in my 1966 41 TC. The guts had gone away years ago.

I agree. Pitch the old stuff in the dumpster, or offer it free to someone who wants it.

 

[Bob Bradley]

Put it on E-Pawn. Some idiot will buy it. You might even wind up on Leno's "Sold or Not Sold on EBay".

 

[krush]

There may be gold in that old junk....literally