Running a positive cable thru the cabin (1 Viewer)

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Any words of wisdom?

I’m planning on running a 4awg positive hot from the aux battery. Then to a breaker near the battery. Then thru the firewall. Along the passenger front and passenger rear foot well/door striker plate. Under the rear quarter panel and to the car bottle jack compartment to a power distribution box.

1) I will jacket the wire with a plastic corrugated split sheath. And run along factory loom when possible avoiding any pinch points.

2) I will be powering usb power outlets. Eventually the roof front and rear light bars, scene lights, some hatch lights. Maybe rear fridge power too.

Do in need to run a ground cable direct from the battery to this area for that kind of load? Or a will a good chassis ground and busbar suffice.

3) I contemplated running the power along the frame as I did for my Anderson trailer charging cable at the rear but if the fuse box going to be in the cabin I figured it’s safer to run it in the cabin with a good circuit breaker.


I am a electric newbie….but pretty handy otherwise.
 
Run it under the vehicle and come through a grommet into the jack compartment. If anything shorts, better to have sparks outside the vehicle than inside the vehicle.

Chassis ground can be flakey or resistive so if you're going to make a positive run, may as well make a negative run as well so you have direct ground to the battery negative.
 
I have read differing opinions on the in cabin vs out of cabin. I agree with your thoughts but others have said in cabin is safer due to environmental dangers damaging the wire. hmmmm
 
There is a way better way of doing that.

Run the cable under and along the frame and then into the cargo area through the existing grommet near the 3rd row.

Put a breaker on each end for safety.

If you look up from the underside, in front of the passenger rear tire wheel well, maybe 8" in, you'll see the grommet. That is how I ran mine.
 
look here for it. forward of the body mount.

Then when you remove the plastic trim it comes out under the step. Trim just pops off, I usually start on the inside center area and pop it off slowly.

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Providing you use properly insulated wire there’s no need to add the additional wire loom encasement for the entire length. It’s only necessary in areas that present high abrasion risk. For a primary run such as this I like to use a paired +/- such as Powerwerx bonded zip and go directly to the battery. It makes for a cleaner install. You might be fine with a chassis ground somewhere else but going directly to the battery reduces the odds of having interference issues when powering more sensitive electronics.

Place a fuse or breaker as close to the power source as possible and run the cabling to quality aux fuse panel in the rear for distribution to whatever you want to power.


 
It kind of comes out under the plastic panel, and then you can just fish it out.

Hope that helps,
 
Yeah there is a grommet in the 2nd row but that gets pinched pretty hard under the plastic trim.

I saw the one at the rear in the jack compartment. Already has a wire running thru it so may use that.

Seems like everyone voting for running it on the frame which was my initial plan until I read some people on other forums suggested in cabin.
 
Maybe run a small 18g cable along with it so you can message ACC or a switch state for later expansion via a relay.
 
Let me re-word that so it's clear.. it comes out "behind" the plastic panel. The grommet is NOT in an area being pinched at all.

SO you can't see where the cable comes out unless you remove the panel.

but you can figure out where it comes out and lift the panel a little to fish out the cable.

or you can remove the panel then it's simple.
 
Exactly .. McGaskins is who I copied!
 
Let me re-word that so it's clear.. it comes out "behind" the plastic panel. The grommet is NOT in an area being pinched at all.

SO you can't see where the cable comes out unless you remove the panel.

but you can figure out where it comes out and lift the panel a little to fish out the cable.

or you can remove the panel then it's simple.

Yes I believe I know what you are talking about.

As i mentioned the 2nd row grommet is the one that pinches. And I know cuz I ran my airbag lines thru that like they did in the project 200 video

The one you speak of is the one at the rear of the bottle jack compartment.
 
A lot of the car audio crowd runs the power cord to their amps thru the cabin…

Hmmm…I sent an email to SLEE. Just to see how they do it. Will post their reply when I get it.
 

Exactly .. McGaskins is who I copied!

A lot of the car audio crowd runs the power cord to their amps thru the cabin…

Hmmm…I sent an email to SLEE. Just to see how they do it. Will post their reply when I get it.

To clarify, I ran my duplex cable through the passenger side firewall grommet and ran the wiring down the passenger side interior trim in the channel where the factory wiring is. I realize it’s hard to tell in my pics, but I did not run it down the frame and then up through the grommet.
 
SLEE says they run it thru the cabin due to concerns of it being exposed to the environment. I’ll be doing the same.

(Frame would have been so much easier….)
 
Easy enough to run though cabin under door sills. I ran two groups on the RHS a 4g (still coiled on floor boards in 1st pic) and a multi cable group of 1x 8, 1x 10 and 3x 14g). On LHS I ran a cluster of 1x 10, 1x 12 & 4x 14 & 1-18. I run no grounds except locally to factory chassis grounding points, except for an under vehicle 1/0 run duplex run from battery to a rear Anderson plug to power a trailer mounted winch.

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yeah....that is exactly what my car looks like now

its just that I have about 15 wires from my ARB compressor and LINX pressure controls
4 wires from my rear dashcam car and trailer setup
Battery monitor wire from my Anderson charging plug for my trailer
6 wires to trigger (future) lighting setup

and now pos and neg....

getting a bit crowded in that area.

BTW in the front cab if you unclip the white clip holding the carpet to the blue clips...behind there is an empty clip part of the blue clip that will take a 1/4-3/8" bundle of wires...in the 2nd row it is occupied by something.

Was able to tidy up some of my wiring using that area...
 
SLEE says they run it thru the cabin due to concerns of it being exposed to the environment. I’ll be doing the same.

(Frame would have been so much easier….)
When you say "they run it"......they run #4 or larger through the cabin to reach the rear of the vehicle ? Strikes me as challenging, time-consuming, and not necessary, but to each their own. I've got #4 running to my rear----not through the cabin----I've had no drama for 275,000 miles, neoprene jacketing and split loom, and yes along the frame is far easier, safer, and yes, the cable run is exposed to the environment.

****Based on that pic above, apparently it's possible.*******
 

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