hi, I have an issue I need help with. I love my land cruiser, but the old owner has a lot of extra lights and things hooked to the battery. I want to keep some of the lights and extras but want to make it look organized like I see every else’s. I bought some new cables from someone on this site but I’m not sure how to start. I want to add one of those fuse boxes and the new cables. I’m pretty good fixing things but I don’t understand electrical. Is this something I can do on my own?
I need help from electrical experts
- Thread starter SANER
- Start date
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First thing with electrical is you have to have plan, don't start all willy nilly or you'll have a tangled nest of snakes.
Second, think of it like water, it must flow from High to Low, Hot to Ground.
There are several places to look up the size of your wires for the load, Engineers Tool box is one.
If you are drawing more than 15amps through a direct switch, think of running relays. This uses smaller (less expensive) signal wires for long runs, and heavier (more expensive) wires for the load.
Plan ahead, list what you want to power.
How much power does each thing use in Watts (Watts/12v=amps) The amps and the distance they need to travel determinane wire size. The bigger the wire (smaller the gage number), the more power it can carry.
Second, think of it like water, it must flow from High to Low, Hot to Ground.
There are several places to look up the size of your wires for the load, Engineers Tool box is one.
If you are drawing more than 15amps through a direct switch, think of running relays. This uses smaller (less expensive) signal wires for long runs, and heavier (more expensive) wires for the load.
Plan ahead, list what you want to power.
How much power does each thing use in Watts (Watts/12v=amps) The amps and the distance they need to travel determinane wire size. The bigger the wire (smaller the gage number), the more power it can carry.
LINUS
Waiting for the Great Pumpkin
I know your pain - fighting that right now on the Tundra.
As mentioned, a drawing of your final plan is worth it.
Factor in what you have, and what you want to add in time.
My 80 has enough extra it got a fuseblock, but for my Tundra I’m doing Terminal Tamers. They were originally a marine item, but are versatile.
They are far from an auxiliary fuseblock, but if your needs are simple, worth a look.
https://squareup.com/store/boat-steering-solutions-llc/
As mentioned, a drawing of your final plan is worth it.
Factor in what you have, and what you want to add in time.
My 80 has enough extra it got a fuseblock, but for my Tundra I’m doing Terminal Tamers. They were originally a marine item, but are versatile.
They are far from an auxiliary fuseblock, but if your needs are simple, worth a look.
https://squareup.com/store/boat-steering-solutions-llc/
- Thread starter
- #4
I think I would prefer the fuse box. How hard is it to take my old cables off, add the fuse box, and plug the things I want to keep back in?
LINUS
Waiting for the Great Pumpkin
If you prefer the fusebox, take the time to do like @Rusty Marlin said.
I’m decent with wires, but I learned young from my Dad, so even wiring a house or doing 220v doesn’t phase (bad pun) me.
Really take the time to draw out all your plans, a list of amp draw items to size all wire to the right guage, etc.
Plan, plan, plan. Draw a blueprint & look it over for weak links, then you can confidently buy supplies once & right.
Blue Seas is a quality setup, and doesn’t require any special tools to build the fuseblock like a Bussman, but Bussman can be more flexible.
Write down & organize all thoughts - it’s how the quality/clean setups you see in pics here were born.
I’m decent with wires, but I learned young from my Dad, so even wiring a house or doing 220v doesn’t phase (bad pun) me.
Really take the time to draw out all your plans, a list of amp draw items to size all wire to the right guage, etc.
Plan, plan, plan. Draw a blueprint & look it over for weak links, then you can confidently buy supplies once & right.
Blue Seas is a quality setup, and doesn’t require any special tools to build the fuseblock like a Bussman, but Bussman can be more flexible.
Write down & organize all thoughts - it’s how the quality/clean setups you see in pics here were born.
That question concerns me. What do you have for tools? And what do you know about 12V Battery systems?
Mechanically, its a piece of cake to take off the cables, just start waving the correct size wrench at them.
But lets start more simply, if this comes off as condescending, I apologize now, but that question really does scream neophyte to all things mechanical and electrical.
When working around the positive side (+) of the battery, its best to disconnect the ground side (-) first. Assume anything metal is ground, if you accidentaly touch a wrench from the (+) to anything (-) you will get an instantaneous flow of amps in the several hundreds (to the limit of the battery). Think of amps as the powder in a firework, very lower powder, like a cap gun, and the accidental brush with ground goes snap and you get a little blue spark. But when you have a large amount of powder, you can blow things up KABOOM!. At hundreds of amps, if you were to drop your wrench between the (+) and the (-) terminals of your battery, the battery terminals will instantly melt in giant blue arc that sounds like a gunshot and melt a chunk out of your steel wrench, and if there is a gas leak in the battery and there is Hydrogen gas present, blow the battery up spaying sulfuric acid all over you anything else in the area. These are facts. I am not telling you this to scare you like the bogyman; I have actually done it, all but the blowing up of the battery part anyway. The rest was scary enough.
So, shall I continue your education Paduan? Or have I insulted your intelligence?
LINUS
Waiting for the Great Pumpkin
^^^^ OK, that may be a bit harsh.
I made sulfuric acid for a living, it is a nasty animal - but maybe telling him that was a bit overboard. Or I’m desensitized to all things sulfur.
Telling him you can accidentally ‘weld’ by bridging the battery terminals may be a bit more realistic, just saying.
And welding is such a pretty blue color of blinding white light, hahaha
I made sulfuric acid for a living, it is a nasty animal - but maybe telling him that was a bit overboard. Or I’m desensitized to all things sulfur.
Telling him you can accidentally ‘weld’ by bridging the battery terminals may be a bit more realistic, just saying.
And welding is such a pretty blue color of blinding white light, hahaha
I just want to know the level of class I'm about to teach, is this 101 or a 400 series?
- Thread starter
- #9
Yes both insulting and condescending...apology accepted. I am good with a wrench and have done many mechanical repairs. 12v systems and electrical in general is foreign to me. That’s why I’m here. I have a garage full of tools and have arched a box wrench on a positive terminal when younger. Do you need my complete history before asking a question Obi Wan?
Read, read, read some more. Go to other forums and read what other people have done (powering lights and stuff is the same on almost any vehicle really). Get some ideas of what you would like, and how to accomplish it. Then make a list of what you need to power up, how you want it to run, and what you want in the future. Then, make your own circuit drawing and post it up in here, along with your plan for us to dissect and criticize.
The drawing and plan will show what you've learned so far so those of us that work with flowing electrons will know how to respond. We can make adjustments to your plan and further educate where needed before moving forward.
My $0.02.
Or, just let everyone give you a different opinion and kludge something together.
The drawing and plan will show what you've learned so far so those of us that work with flowing electrons will know how to respond. We can make adjustments to your plan and further educate where needed before moving forward.
My $0.02.
Or, just let everyone give you a different opinion and kludge something together.
- Thread starter
- #11
^^^^ OK, that may be a bit harsh.
I made sulfuric acid for a living, it is a nasty animal - but maybe telling him that was a bit overboard. Or I’m desensitized to all things sulfur.
Telling him you can accidentally ‘weld’ by bridging the battery terminals may be a bit more realistic, just saying.
And welding is such a pretty blue color of blinding white light, hahaha
Thank you for the advice. A plan is what I need. I have the cables and bought a blue sea 5029 box that should be here Monday. Just thought there was a fairly common way of doing it since all the threads I’ve read look similar. Drawing electron flow charts and all that isn’t happening...I don’t have the experience. Maybe I’ll just ask my ex boyfriend to help.
LINUS
Waiting for the Great Pumpkin
Never ask the ex.
Even the goofiest answer you get here beats an ex.
Unless he’s a EE.
Seriously, we can be more helpful if you give some basics like what all your finished expectations are, where (distance-wise from the battery you mount the fuseblock, as distance matters for wire guage) you want to mount the fuseblock in the vehicle.
If you do that, lots of people can give you damn near your Lego instructions type of way to install.
Some of us like the learning process, some just want completed product - not to judge, just say which you are & give some specifics - take the good info as the bad info will get called out by those here who really are EE’s in the real world.
We’re a goofy bunch (just saw how new you were - we give the Mud welcome of
- so you see how you fell into a ***very serious*** crew).
Give more info, get better quality advise. That’s Mud.
Even the goofiest answer you get here beats an ex.
Unless he’s a EE.
Seriously, we can be more helpful if you give some basics like what all your finished expectations are, where (distance-wise from the battery you mount the fuseblock, as distance matters for wire guage) you want to mount the fuseblock in the vehicle.
If you do that, lots of people can give you damn near your Lego instructions type of way to install.
Some of us like the learning process, some just want completed product - not to judge, just say which you are & give some specifics - take the good info as the bad info will get called out by those here who really are EE’s in the real world.
We’re a goofy bunch (just saw how new you were - we give the Mud welcome of
- so you see how you fell into a ***very serious*** crew).Give more info, get better quality advise. That’s Mud.
Nope, that's perfect, you'll be fine.
its not rocket surgery, but its possible to burn the truck down to the rims if not done properly.I like to put auxiliary stuff together in one fuse box based on what it is or where it makes sense, think of it like a sub-panel in a house/garage.
There's the main panel (main fuse box) and then a sub panel out in the garage that takes its power from the main, but distributes it from the sub.
So figure out where you want the fuse block (sub panel). It can go pretty much anywhere convenient with room for wires around it.
I put mine on the firewall above and left of the brake vacuum booster, its a convenient flat spot.
there's a couple of options, there's a Hot Buss type fuse block or there is the individually wired terminal type.
12 spot with Hot Buss;
individually wired type.
You can convert the lower one to the upper type by creating jumpers that go from terminal to terminal on the hot side. Not as convenient, but if you want to put in a switch before the fuse you can do that on the lower type. On the upper type the switch has to go after the fuse, it really doesn't matter which way the circuit is built that's up to the designer, you.
With the bottom one though there is one advantage, you can run both signal wires and main power through it with different taps, allowing the use of relays to trigger larger loads.
