I've been doing a bit of research in to twisting wires in multiple layers. If done right the finished product is impressive.
Obviously I didn't do this, pictures are from a thread about doing it on corner-carvers.
Three layers of wires.
Not if you size the cutoff properly
Kapton tape.
I don't disagree with this
Serviceability and cool factor is one of them
That's how every night switch ive dealt with on equipment is.
I totally don't disagree, but do think there is some middle ground in there as well. I have yet to see an OEM harness that is spiral wound, strain relieved and covered in heat shrink, and yet many of those go 200k or longer now with no issues. On top of the fact that most of these projects are 'special' and will most likely be changed or cut up significantly in 10yrs necessitating a whole new harness. Was inside the back of a Osprey at the local air show and didn't notice any heat shrink or spiral winding on the litterally miles of wire looms in that thing.
This is how I do mine. modular, removable, serviceable. Room for expansion.
WhyWanted to visualize this, so modified again. Starter, welder, alternator still able to be cut off, winch has it's own separate leg with no junctions or breaks in the cable:
Race car Reddit circle jerk ****.
info.waytekwire.com
I'd assume the chart is showing continuous, uninterrupted amperage, with extra safety factor built in on top
Here's another chart from waytek that says 1/0 is good for 500 amps at 25' - I'll just go off of that:
Battery Cable Charts
Dug through my notes, but couldn't find what I wrote regarding required cable size. Gave WARN a quick call and they told me I'm good to go - they usually recommend people just use 2 ga. no matter what, so just going to run with what I got and not worry about it.
#1 I hate harnesses that are wired-in-place. If you can't pull a switch panel out quickly because there's some dumb sensor or relay wire running 10ft away, just no. Do better. I can have the entire harness - both chassis and engine - out of my car in about 5 minutes with nothing more than a 3/8" hex driver and no random connections hanging out. Easiest and cheapest way to do it, no...but maintenance-wise and trail fixability, yes. See #2 -
#2 I built a 6-pole binding/terminal strip onto the top of my fuse box. 3 are just hot and 3 are switched from extra switches on my console panel. I have not had to use a single one in 9 years, but having 3 constant hots and 3 switched - where the switches, fuses, and feeds are already part of the existing harness - means I probably won't have to redo this thing ever.
Main fuse panel has 3 big feeds - 2 positive and 1 ground - the rest is all weatherproof multipin connectors. Whole fuse box can come out of the car in 30 seconds.
It took me one night at a kitchen table with a bunch of beers to sketch the whole system out and order the hardware/connectors/tooling to build it. I realize I'm in the surprising minority who actually enjoys wiring and does it as part of my career these days but the amount of stupid **** I've had to fix, diagnose, or field repair on some fairly high-end builds is rather amazing to me.
Built it specifically that each panel can plug directly into the fuse panel for bench testing, and then just an extension bundle built to go between them on the chassis.
It's just time & money. My whole rear lighting harness works off a 4-pin trailer light converter.
I built the whole fuse box into a 'project box' sorta thing so none of it ever has to stay with the chassis. Apart:
Together:
Guts:
Topic of this thread - that's a 3/8" stud that passes through the firewall and has the feed from the battery on the back of it. Did the same for a ground later. Makes it stupid easy to add things in a pinch and also a convenient jump point if I need one or need to give one.
Like I said, quite literally built it on my kitchen table (same thing for this panel, just made an extension for where it goes in the car). Whole thing comes apart easy.
Double-edged sword of doing things this way is I rarely get to enjoy the benefits of it, because it just works and never has to come apart
OEM are also worried about EMI (they can't have their vehicles blasting out random radio noise, causing interference in other equipment). You're not going to have your buggy tested to comply with FCC. (Unless you live next door to a ham radio nerd.)
The plastic "tangs" that locks the terminals have a tendency to get loose if you remove the terminals a couple of times. There is also no secondary lock system on the Eaton boxes so terminals can pop out of the back if you are unlucky.I will definitely be reading your post multiple times in the future to try and glean more details out of it
In the bottom right of your last pic, there is a bundle of red wires that appear to be unlabeled - how do you keep track of what's what now that their all pinned into the back of the Eaton box when you were building it out?
I've heard a couple negative comments regarding the Eaton mini fuse boxes, the general jist of which being that they're not heavy duty enough. Think there was a post here (Hydrodynamic? I'll have to go back later and look for it) about the box overheating or something burning on it. Talked to a buddy of mine who works on heavy equipment who claimed they'd had issues with them, and his consensus was "just stick to full size fuses." Out of all the Eaton fuse boxes people are running, a couple negatives had me planning to go with the Blue Sea fuse boxes, although I have not ordered those yet. Wondering your thoughts on that?
That's how I justify letting me wire cars to most of my customers : "remember so so with the fancy turnkey buggy that never worked right until I rewired it? I can do the same thing for you."
