Hurricane Salvaged Electronics

I hope I don't come across as a vulture here but I hate to think about all the perfectly good electronics and other accessories that might end up in landfills crushed with their totalled boats.
Does anyone know of an insurance salvage yard or how to keep some of this stuff from just getting thrown away from all the damaged boats in Florida? I am sure there are plenty of people like me that would buy functional used equipment from a hurricane salvaged boat.

I would assume (there's that word again) that salvage boats are sold by the insurance companies to salvage yards who then disassemble and sell what ever they can.

Sending them to the crusher doesn't help the insurance companies recoup their payouts.

Will some wind up on eBay?

Do you really want electronics that might have been saturated?

I live in N. Texas, we had no impact from Harvey. But there are already warnings about buying used cars that were flooded. Never the same.

I would wonder about electronics. Where did the salt water penetrate.

There is little to no market for used electronics and other parts from damaged boats. I think there may be a couple of salvage yards in the NE, but I don't know of any in the South.

You have substantial risk on any used electronics because the older they are the less likely their manufacturer still supports them. I had 2 different Furuno plotters fail one at 12 years the other at 15, I loved Furuno but I found that you cannot even buy a screw from Furuno for either unit, much less a circuit board. Older Raymarine equipemnt is the same way.

If the boats were damaged but not sunk, while the insurance company may "total" them and just pay off the insured value, that isn't the end of the story. Everything on the boat adds to its valve and the insurance comapnies don't strip boats before they sell them in an auction to people who repair and resell them. Generally, if the electronics are still functional....i.e. were not submerged in water......they stay with the boat.


I suspect you would be better off simply because of the lower risk by shopping the market for good pricing on new generation electronics.

All good advice, I was only thinking about what happened in Florida years back. Boats were just crushed and buried in landfills. No big deal. My equipment is working fine, but I'd love to upgrade it all rather than see perfectly good electronics tossed in the trash.

I think you would find that there are very few late model boats with serviceable electronics / parts that get "totaled" or even have significant insurance claims in comparison to the total number of boats in a storm impacted area. Boats that are damaged beyond reasonable repair are usually those old / derelict and contain little if no salvage especially in the electronic arena. With respect to buying and installing electronics that are "salvaged" brings the question - would I want to go through all the effort to prepare, cut, wire, and outfit my boat then install used/questionable equipment? I decided to do a complete electronic upgrade on my DA and update the early 2000 Raymarine equipment to the latest Garmin; just preparing the boat - removing the old equipment, wiring, data network, components, cleaning, new power, breakers, terminal strips, fuse blocks, helm structural modifications, etc, took me a month. I don't think it's worth the effort to consider salvaged electronics.... But that may just be me.....

ttmott said:

I decided to do a complete electronic upgrade on my DA and update the early 2000 Raymarine equipment to the latest Garmin; just preparing the boat - removing the old equipment, wiring, data network, components, cleaning, new power, breakers, terminal strips, fuse blocks, helm structural modifications, etc, took me a month. I don't think it's worth the effort to consider salvaged electronics.... But that may just be me.....

Click to expand...

I'm adding a component right now. I agree 100%. I'm digging out old wiring and trying to keep everything as neat and secure under there as I can - it's a big job. I'll also have to take a saw to the dash panel. That's scary enough, but if the unit I'm doing that for had possibly been partly-submerged in the gulf of Mexico and failed next season as a result, I'd be one unhappy dude!

One struggle I don't have is power. My terminal block has open slots and the net result of updating means fewer components. I know you did a complete re-design of your dash, but why did you need new power?

RollerCoastr said:

I'm adding a component right now. I agree 100%. I'm digging out old wiring and trying to keep everything as neat and secure under there as I can - it's a big job. I'll also have to take a saw to the dash panel. That's scary enough, but if the unit I'm doing that for had possibly been partly-submerged in the gulf of Mexico and failed next season as a result, I'd be one unhappy dude!

One struggle I don't have is power. My terminal block has open slots and the net result of updating means fewer components. I know you did a complete re-design of your dash, but why did you need new power?

Click to expand...

I added two Noland engine analogue to NEMA 2000 converters as well as the NEMA 2000 backbone.. There was not enough slots for fuses in the existing helm fuse panel so I added a Blue Seas blade fuse block. Probably should have said I revised the power.

I have two Accesssory switches (I understand that SeaRay didn’t put two on all 400DA’s), so I run the 0183 network from one, and the tapped the 2K from the other. Did you put your 2K power on a switch, or is it always on?

I have a Garmin card reader that’s always on. I figured that it won’t pull enough power to justify switching it...