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Please be gentle as I'm electrical stupid...

The 12V socket that was on my boat died late last summer. I bought a new one with new wire. I hooked it up to the same spot that the old one was. The fuses are all correct, but now when I turn on my inflator that's plugged in to the 12V socket, the radio cuts out. When I turn the inflator off, the radio comes back on. This never happened with the old one.

Any ideas on what I can check/change?

Well for a stereo to cut out it would require a voltage drop below 10.5 volts. I would do this simple test:

Turn the inflator on and test the voltage of the battery at the same time with a voltmeter at the battery terminals. You might have a bad battery, those inflators draw a crap ton of amps.

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1981 Columbia 8.7
2015 Yamaha FZR - 87mph - sold
2006 Yamaha GP1300R - sold
2003 Chaparral 215 SSI - sold
2009 Stingray 195CS - sold
2000 Four Winns H180 - sold
1976 O'day Daysailer II - sold
Rick's Four Winns H180 Mods/Upgrade Thread

Four Winns are noted for under sizing there wires and not using marine wire. I think that the connections and/or wires are rusted producing a voltage drop.

Clean your connections and go over the wiring. Worst case, run new wires ( proper size for that distance and fused/breaker) for your radio.

If your battery was going bad, you would notice it when starting your engine.

There is a surprising mix; on my boat, all the bought in harnesses with multi pin connectors seem to use tinned wire with some nice tinned connectors that look like they should be waterproof ( not designed for continuous immersion in water, but that's a design issue). All battery cables, ground cables, charger cables, alternator to charge splitter cables, splitter to battery switch cable, windlass and amplifier cables etc are not tinned !

There were some downright weird cable sizes; chosen e.g. hehind the battery switch, 70mm2 cables connected to 50mm2 cables by a short link of 35mm2 cable.

I should not have made such a broad statement, but I am sure this changes somewhat from year to year.

I should not have made such a broad statement, but I am sure this changes somewhat from year to year.

It certainly does change from year to year; the wiring schematics provided for my 2009 boat date from 2006. They changed quite a few things after 2007, not least the type of terminal blocks ( and number of pins they contain !), so the schematics are just a hint as to what the wiring is like ( hopefully they kept to some sort of continuty as to wire colour codes, from what I have seen so far they thankfully largely did that)!

So just as an update, when we were out this weekend, I tested the inflator again. It still cut out the radio. However, with the engine running, it does NOT cut out. I didn't have a voltmeter to check what Ric suggested, but does this give any other clues (battery, which is pretty new, etc)?

Some of the 12V socket are junk.
I had one that lasted less than 6 months with light use.
Seems like you had a short, a fuse would blow.
Pick up a volt meter for $10 and check the battery when you plug in the inflator.
I wouldn't hesitate to replace the 12V socket for $5 either.

Doug

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2003 Four Winns 170 Freedom Cincinnati, Ohio / Cape Coral, Florida

You could possibly try another inflator. My inflator runs a little slower when the boat is not running compared to when the boat is running. I don't have any other issues than that with it. Maybe the inflator you have is just using way too much amperage. Did you test your battery? Sometimes batteries can seem good but actually are not, don't let just a voltage reading fool you.

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2014 Four Winns H180 RS
14' 70's Lund