YotaFun

I have two questions.

Since I have the Panels all off on Tess.
I want to run some wires for some off-road lights.
I was wondering what gauge wire should I run for
oh 110-130W lights?

Also
I see people have set up aux fuse boxes.
this second questions has two parts.
a) where do you get these aux fuse boxes?
b) how are they wired up and where would be the best place to mount it?

I figured since I am in there with all the panels out,
I would run all the wires I need so all I have to do is Plug In and Go.

drguitarum2005

heres a quick wire gauge chart. at 130 watts (highest case scenario) youd be drawing about 10.83 amps so 14 gauge would be your best bet...you could probably get away with 16, but 14 would be the safer bet.

http://www.batterieswholesale.com/ba...wire_gauge.htm

for my aux. fuse block, i just got a cheap 6-blade box at my local auto parts store. it doesnt have a watertight casing or any protection like some high-end ones do, but mine is plenty sheltered. i have it mounted against the back wall of the engine compartment right under the closed hood, on the same wall where the wiper motor is. i used some 10-gauge wire (12 would work too) straight from the battery with an in-line 30 amp blade fuse (the fuse block is rated for 30 amps, so i shouldnt be going above it) and it just ties to the IN terminal on the fuse block. i then plug my auxiliaries into the fuse block with a spade coennctor and use an appropriate sized fuse.

YotaFun

So where can I pick up a good amount of the wire?

drguitarum2005

home depot, lowes, autozone, pepboys, napa, basically any auto parts or home improvement store

dibble9012

Heres where I got my fuse and relay boxes. (I got the bottom connection box instead of the side connection box) Going to upgrade soon, adding 3 100w driving lights. So thats 500 watts (3 driving lights @ 100w ea, 2 high beam headlights upgraded to 100w ea.), so the fuse box has to be wired for about 40 amps, I'm wiring mine rated for 50 amps. 8g wire to the battery with a 50 amp circuit breaker. 14g wire for each lamp. I am wiring everything up so it is possible to put HIDs instead of halogen lamps in eventually. (HID's pull a lot of amps when first started).

It's probably not a good idea to wire all the headlights and driving lights to the same fusebox (it something blows you wouldn't have ANY lights). I have factory fog lights off a separate circuit, so if my fusebox fails I'm not totally out of light.

drguitarum2005

thats very clean lookin dibble

dibble9012

Thanks It's still not mounted properly because I started before winter, didn't feel like working on it in the cold (our garage is really tight for my truck, plus it's a mess right now ) The labels did not come with the fuse and relay boxes, I just made those in MS word, if anyone gets the same box I can email them the file.

I'm going to replace the fuse box with a larger one from the same company, instead of having two fuse boxes.

I like to keep everything as clean as possible. I also wire everything so if I ever sell the truck and want to remove the accessories, it's just a matter of unplugging things, no cutting of wires. Also keep wiring diagrams of everything in case I need to troubleshoot down the road, or to give to a future owner.

Another point to make. Most of the fuse boxes you see have separate tabs for each fuse leg, meaning if you have a 6 fuse box, there will be 12 tabs to connect wires to. To make my fuse box run off of only 1 wire from the battery, I just drilled a hole through the base of the fuse box, where the hole lines up with the end of the tabs, then I got the correct gauge wire, inserted it in the hole, and soldered the wire to each leg on one side of the fuse box. Now I only have one battery wire, and the 4-6 wires that go to the accessories. I covered all the connections with epoxy to keep water out, and to prevent any possible shorts. (Hope this all made sense)

drguitarum2005

good call on making it all use one connection. mine has 6 fuse slots and 6 connection slots. it just connects my single 10 gauge from the battery to all 6 slots, provided a fuse is in there. i need to look into a good way to seal it off though as it's just open right now...