Hardwiring ARB fridge plug

That's a nice lil accessory. I will suggest you fuse that closer to your battery. If those wires came lose or got cut/worn through it could short and fry your battery.

I will also suggest buying a deep cycle battery when your OEM wears out. A normal starting battery won't last long if you start cycling it. The LED light will draw negligible power, so no worries there, but cell phones can draw a reasonable amount. Someone can obviously correct me if my math is wrong, but an average 3000ma hours cell phone battery @ 5 volts should be about 1.25 amp hours @12v. The OEM 27F I'm guessing is around 60 amp hours. A standard starting battery, for longest life, probably shouldn't be discharged more than 10% (this is where a deep cycle battery helps with 40-50% discharge being safe). So that 10% around 6 amp hours before starting to shorten battery life. Two cell phones from empty would probably be fine, but using them excessively might cause concern.

Please note these are all estimations based on broad averages.


BTW, I learned the hard way how much capacity some of those jump packs have. I charged one along with my cell phone while parked at the dunes... it drained my battery enough that I could not start my truck. Luckily the jump pack was charged!!!

 

side note - 3rd gens have a baby 24f battery. I junked mine and replaced it with a x2 power 27F before the factory one crapped out on me.

 

Dang... didn't realize they didn't offer the 27f anymore. I just ordered an Optima Yellow Top 27f (yes I know some people don't like them), to go along with my house batteries, 2x Blue Top Optimas, also 27f. My truck battery has been pretty much dead for 3 years. It's the original from 2011. I've prolly had to jump start myself 6 times in the last year (off my house batteries, simple switch connection). When I had to do that last week I said enough is enough and ordered a replacement.

 

In case you need to jump an MRAP

 

A blue sea fuse block. The external battery pack has a 60amp circuit breaker in it. The switch panel is a cheapofrom ebay.

The air manifold is from the compressor in the front of the bed. So I can plug hoses in easier.

 

Yeah, Toyota replaced my battery when I bought my truck so it's only about 8 months old. I'm going to make the switch over to a deep cycle dual battery system.

I figured I'd pick up an amp install kit locally and run that to the bed cubby. Those usually come with a fuse to run inline and decent power wires from my experience(been a few years though).

Another possibility is installing a blue sea fuse block up near the battery and getting that out of the way (future upgrades will probably require one). That way this motorcycle power block I picked up has extra security in case of a short.

 

What gauge power wire did you use to run from the battery to the rear of the truck?

 

4g. At that distance it's good for about 60amps. I'll never need nearly that much.

 

I realize you didn't ask me, but I purchased a set of jumper cables like the below from Amazon. Split it in two, and ran the positive from the battery (fused) to the rear of the truck and to a battery switch. The negative side I just ran a short section to the frame in the fender well/under the bed.

$43 A ABIGAIL Heavy Duty Jumper Cables, Booster Cables 1 Gauge 800A 25 Ft Booster Jump Start Automotive Jumper Cables Kit for Car, SUV, and Trucks with Professional Clamps and Carrying Bag

https://www.amazon.com/ABIGAIL-A825...er+cables+hd&qid=1555531068&s=gateway&sr=8-15

Overkill for most, but I had contemplated running a hitch mount winch at one point.

 

The only draw back with most of the thick jumper cables is that most of them are copper clad Aluminum. Absolute bitch to splice, solder, or crimp.

 

Agreed. We used crimp-on with large heat shrink. Required a Hammer to crimp those suckers.

 

Grounded a high amp circuit for a winch through the frame?

 

No, I'm saying the reason I bought the heavy gauge was an original plan to run winch. Decided against said winch, but also decided to still use the cable since I bought it.

 

Now that I think about my wiring, that ground to the frame I mentioned is from the Dual Batteries in the bed of my truck. So a rear mounted winch WOULD be grounded to the battery, maybe not the one under the hood... but still a battery

 

I ran the same 1ga cables to a high amp plug under my front bumper to power my receiver mounted winch, or a short jumper cable if I ever need it, and I can turn the power to it off using a high amp blue seas switch near the battery. But I didn’t know what would be the best route for running long 1ga cables to the back, so I decided to just put the long cable (neg and positive) over my truck only as needed if I ever want to winch out from the rear. Curious how you ran the cable underneath?

 

From truck battery around back of engine bay, down to passenger frame rail where I ran it in the C-channel of the frame.




This isn't my pic, but where the blue line is is how I ran the cable out of the frame. From there I ran it behind the fender liner and in through a hole I drilled in the passenger side bed cubby above the fender well. The red circle is approximately where I mounted the ground. There was a large bolt sticking up in that locale, just took the nut off, placed my ground, and put the nut back on.

 

My GB40 will jump my 6.0 work van in -5f....

 

Looks good Ryan, thanks! What brand of fuse did you put on it at main battery?

 

I thought it was like a bussman AMG style fuse... But... Umm... My hood is up and I don't find a fuse...

Just texted my buddy who helped plan and wire this thing to ask if we put one in. I swore we decided on that, even though I originally purchased a 150amp blue sea breaker...

 

And after doing a lil more research I think we might have decided not to fuse as we were originally planning it to run a winch and was gonna need fused at over 450 amps so we just decided not to. Not saying that was a good idea... We just did our best to protect the cable from damage.