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Is a clean battery wiring setup possible?

4Eyedturd

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 1, 2020
Member Number
1725
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321
Loc
Waco, TX
When you’ve got 5 things running to the positive and battery terminals is it possible to have it not look like a disaster? Even with military style terminals mine look like I started wiring yesterday. Do you mount a terminal strip discretely and just one fat cable to the battery like these?

85-C1-DEA9-0-F18-47-FB-A3-A5-13-BB84-F5-D896.jpg
roll a die 3
 
I would, but leave starter/winch direct.
There is a made in USA version of that on Amazon.
 
Find a surplus cucv truck power hub on ebay or someplace.

Much cleaner looking and has positive and negative posts, if you have the space on your trucks firewall.


www.hillbillywizard.com

CUCV Military Truck Electrical Distribution Block

Hillbilly Wizard sells the hard-to-find parts you need to build your project vehicle!
www.hillbillywizard.com www.hillbillywizard.com
 
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4Eyedturd said:
When you’ve got 5 things running to the positive and battery terminals is it possible to have it not look like a disaster? Even with military style terminals mine look like I started wiring yesterday
Click to expand...

what are you connecting to the battery?
 
Positive side
Alternator, starter, fuse box, Terminator X, Fan relay supply and fuel pump relay supply.

Negative
Chassis ground, 2 Fans, motor, Terminator X
 
Blue seas makes great distribution bars. I just have a main positive and one smaller wire going to a blue seas 12v fuse panel
 
Look at either a power distribution block, or something like an SPOD. A block will get you down to one connection at the battery and multiple connections on the block in a better area of the vehicle. Benefit of an SPOD is built in fusing and relays.


4x4spod.com

4x4sPOD™ - Power Management Solutions

sPOD™ power management solutions are engineered to provide a simple and safe way to control any 12/24v electrical accesory from a central control panel.
4x4spod.com 4x4spod.com
 
4Eyedturd said:
Positive side
Alternator, starter, fuse box, Terminator X, Fan relay supply and fuel pump relay supply.
Click to expand...

terminate the alt and starter at the battery, get a buss bar close to the fuse box and branch out from there.

so i think you are on the right track with the thing you posted.

4Eyedturd said:
Negative
Chassis ground, 2 Fans, motor, Terminator X
Click to expand...

no need to have all those terminate at the battery. give the thread below a read. it goes off topic towards the end

irate4x4.com

LS engine grounding

My understanding of the LS platform is that it very picky about how the grounding is done. (I'd imagine all computer controlled engines are the same) Here's what I have: LS3 crate/6l90, PSI stand alone harness/ fuse block and it has its own battery that's mounted in the back of my gutted JK...
irate4x4.com irate4x4.com
 
So, you still have the following hooked directly to the battery positive terminal, and a similar number, maybe 1 or 2 less on the negative terminal.
Alternator
Starter
Ham/race radio
Winch
Buss bar/fuse block

Maybe you can get away with race radio and winch not directly connected to the battery, but I'm pretty sure both manufactures would recommend it.

Seems like this is the cleanest setup, care of M92PV4U, in the thread linked by mobile1syn. Anyone see any reason not to do something like this where nothing going directly to the battery?

20171128_102549-1-jpg.703337
 
I think a busbar setup will be the cleanest and most organized you're going to get. I did something similar on my Bronco. I had a stacked "theater seating" setup going on with the postive and negative busbars. I don't have a pic of the completed setup, but here was when I was mocking it up. The busbars I used weren't super high current rated, but my plan for a winch was to stack the lugs on the same stud. Blue sea does make some pretty beefy busbars like those pictured above that are rated for a lot of current.

20190820_223627.jpg


The setup I've kind of landed on for lower power accessories (i.e. not a winch) is a switched relay setup feeding a bussmann fuse panel. They have one switched power stud and one unswitched power stud. This then feeds a sealed relay/fuse panel.
20220415_162310.jpg
 
Seeing (+) and (-) buss bars side by side where a bolt or wrench could short them seems like a great idea. :laughing:

Those bars should get covers and a tall plastic divider mounted between to prevent shorting. Krugfords standoff mount is a nice way to package and save space and should help some with shorts.

Also, a master switch between the batt and (-) buss would be nice. Better chance that someone would shut it off when working on something, and gives a quick disconnect option if you're working on it live and fuck up.
 
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The buss bars Ive posted in the past have insulating covers and also are attached to the firewall so less chance of a wrench falling and causing a short.

Will post pics later this evening of the bar in action on my 1985 K30 M1028A1.5 sporting 2/0 positive and negative cables.


20230825_113831.jpg
 
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In my race car refit I daisy chained the wiring off each component before it when possible.

Fans are powered from a fused lead off the alternator post which is ran back to the starter junction block and fused with MRBF fuses at the buss.
 
Went with these from Moroso. I think they're better than the military style because you can disconnect items individually or pull the whole thing off the post if you want to disconnect everything. Helped keep it somewhat organized and fewer connections/crimps compared to a distribution block/strip. No issues running it for the past year. Summit carries them.

Moroso 74098 Moroso Multi-Power Battery Terminal Distribution Blocks | Summit Racing

mor-74098_xl.jpg
 
This was the best I could do on my 4runner. Big cables are the starter and winch, smaller stuff is power to body systems, fuel injection, and one to the fridge. I don't have electric fans, yet.
20210326-223856.jpg

Looks like this when covered.
20210326-223828.jpg

You can link the alternator to the starter wire and that removes one large wire. I think that was fairly common back in the day. Winch is high amp load and should go straight to the battery. Everything else I like having on a switched circuit of some sort. That way when the key is off the circuits are off. Had a roommate that couldn't help himself from fiddling with my CB radio back in the day and leave it on. Tried to move the truck a week later and the battery was dead.

There are some options like this that could help:
MSD Solid State Relay
 
Obs chevys had the bus bar setups on the firewall under a plastic guard.
 
krugford said:
The setup I've kind of landed on for lower power accessories (i.e. not a winch) is a switched relay setup feeding a bussmann fuse panel. They have one switched power stud and one unswitched power stud. This then feeds a sealed relay/fuse panel.
20220415_162310.jpg
Click to expand...


I pulled one of them off a copcar years ago, just saw it a bin I was digging through a few days ago, didn't really know what it was. Thanks:beer:
 
20230121_120039.jpg


Buddy had a 2015? Suburban, it had a busbar type thing on top of the battery. I snapped a pic meaning to research it and see if it's worth trying to retrofit, but haven't.
 
I’ve always preferred the basic accessory fuse block with a breaker to the battery.

Very easy to kill power, check fuses, etc.

They are cheap, use common hardware, and easy to find.
 
I moved the battery to the trunk and put those Amazon bus bars in. I need to shorten some now and zip tie some shit up

DA3271-D7-507-A-49-AA-9-FC0-C8-F9-D8-BEF4-FA.jpg
 
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