Show off your aux fuse panels.

They both provide the same basic function, except the breaker will pop and can be reset without replacing anything. More like a house breaker. Inline fuse is what is in your fuse box. It pops, you then replace it. Both are designed to protect your fused system as a whole.

 

None, over the last 50 years or more houses have been getting their old fuse panels replaced with breaker panels where you don't throw out a part but instead just reset the breaker. Same thing in your truck only the transition isn't complete although now you can get individual breakers to replace fuses and Bussman has an extended cover for their rtmr to fit over them. Most still use fuses in a box and a breaker to feed the box for the convenience of have a switch to disconnect the box to work on that part of the system. The first thing you do on many projects is disconnect the battery. In any case you still have to identify the reason why the fuse blew or the breaker tripped. They're both fail-safes to protect against carbeque, a necessity but not supposed to be normal operation.

 

No. Either or depending on your loads. If you want rfi protection or wet locations you will want a fuse, if you don’t mind a slightly higher incidence of false trips with DC spikes then breakers are very convenient for high current situations. I personally use fuses for low current loads.

 

breakers are often better suited for inductive loads like motors, power supplies, fridges, that have a high in-rush current when they start, as the breaker mechanism reacts somewhat slower and tolerates that condition exactly. Fuses can be built to handle those characteristics as well, but generally for non-inductive loads such as your lights, or sensitive electronics, you want protection that reacts quickly. Keeps the smoke inside your expensive electronic's parts so it can continue working. Breaker's advantage that it can be reset applies for example - On board air pump, let it cool down, reset breaker, restart compressor.

 

It is refreshing to hear from someone who has a clue.

 

What do you mean? Everything is just hardwired to the battery isn’t it?

 

That’s a great idea, these extension cords are getting expensive the further I drive. Red/Black is interchangeable right?

 

lol

YES!

 

silly people. I should start a mod thread on altering the function of your AM/FM radio antenna. Disconnect from your radio, and add an inline diode in the correct polarity configuration, and wire to the positive on your battery. It grabs free RF energy out of the air, de-modulates the wide spectrum RF into Pulse Width Modulated DC power (use fancy words, it helps make it believable) to keep your Battery charged up. Also only use a red colored wire with a longitudal yellow stripe on it. Designates the functionality, and is available from Marine stores. Perhaps a title such as "why didn't my 3rd gen come stock with this option?" should attract the correct demographic.

 

Waht? too much?? I just ruined my credibility, didn't I?

 

lol dare you to do it...

 

thought of a few more additions - "Since your Overlander/Adventure rig is not your daily driver, and just sits in the garage/parking being bombarded by Radio Frequency waves, why not take advantage of that." add some shit about efficiencies - single diode, 50% of the available power is dissipated in the antenna, so <25% efficiency, but cheap. Improvements could be adding 1/2 wave CB whips at all 4 corners of your truck, to capture broader range of radio spectrum, double as tree branch diverters, should get you much closer to 93% efficiency. Might have to add limiter or fuse if your mall crawling area includes frequent lightning storms.... etc.

 

It would make sense if it was your one and only daily driver though.

 

I have found, from a friend who asked, that using red-grey with a depletion mode MOSFET in pi shaped configuration (naturally) with air-core inductors makes the “(+)-lead” AM radio impedance shift about 93 deg. to ground, so I often have had to resort to a triode’s deflection plate to solve that. Is that what you guys do as well?

 

Oh, wait, what? This isn’t the ham thread? My bad.
As you were fuse only peeps.

 

pushing into the Depletion mode is soooooo overrated.

 

Alright, I have a set of questions that may very well get me mocked in this thread but we'll find out. Not by any means a 12v expert but trying to learn.

Under the hood I have one of the Genesis Offroad dual battery kits - if you're not familiar it's essentially a two battery mount in the factory battery position with an isolater between the aux and crank batteries and a bus bar. Right now I've got two Odyssey group 34-PC1500 AGM batteries in there, works great.

My issue:
I acquired an extra PC1500 from a friend, and I've been wanting to add a solar controller/battery charger to the system to keep the AGMs topped up. I also need to run power distribution to the bed for a fridge, inverter, and small 12v accessories (lights, USB ports, etc). So I'm thinking, is there any reason I can't put the third battery in the bed, connect it in parallel to the existing aux battery under the hood (with a breaker in between for safety over the long cable run), and then wire the solar/charger/bed fuse block for accessories into the third 'house battery' in the bed? Simplifies the number of runs to the bed and - bonus - extra capacity for a little extra weight.

The main questions I'm working through:

1) First, is there anything obviously dumb I'm not thinking about with this plan?

2) Trying to figure out if it makes sense for the cable run to the house battery to come off of the bus bars on the Genesis kit or off of the existing aux battery posts, or if it matters.

3) In terms of safety, I am confused about the appropriate amperage to use when calculating wire gauge and circuit breaker capacity for the run between the existing dual batteries and the bed battery.

4) For the future solar controller/battery charger, my assumption is that connecting them to the bed battery should be fine to keep all three batteries topped up?

Thanks for any advice!

 

@Dor in response

1) first thought is do you have a need for the capacity of three group 34 batteries? Because of time in camp, or amount of load?

Ensure all 3 batteries are of the same type, and fairly close in capacity. Reason being any charge controller is seeing all 3 batteries as a common battery together, yet batteries of different capacity and type will have different charging needs.

2) decide if the loads of your 'house' need to be supported by all 3, two, or just the one battery in your box. If the expectation of your loads within your box can be met by just the one battery, then you may only need a charge wire from the front that supports charging your battery, but not supply the loads, then have your solar panels through it's charge controller charge just the one battery. I believe there are charge controllers that have both MPPT solar panel input as well as a built in DC to DC charge controller to accept input from your front end batteries. Not familiar with the configuration of the Genesis unit soncant answer your query directly.

I'll edit this when I look up the combined charge controller product and post link.

https://www.ctek.com/products?categ...ome&last-clicked=filter-productrecommendedfor

https://www.renogy.com/dcc50s-12v-50a-dc-dc-on-board-battery-charger-with-mppt/

 

Hey, thanks for the input.

Yeah, part of the reason I'm thinking about this is that I already have the three identical batteries - the third is sitting on a shelf as a spare. The need is only duration, not load. Even if I add an inverter to the system it will be no more than 700W and I'm going to try and get by with 500W, but that won't be anything close to a constant draw. The problem to solve for is low but constant draw - fridge, lights, and charging electronics and camera gear.

If I understand you correctly, you're suggesting setting it up so any load to the 'House' battery only pulls from that battery, and that battery is charged through a combination of solar and some charge from the front. That makes sense, but in that configuration would the solar controller be positioned to top up all three batteries? This is where my ignorance kicks in - I know AGM batteries suffer in our trucks as our alternators don't put out sufficient voltage, and that is part of the problem I'm trying to solve for the sake of battery lifespan.

Edit: Ah, just saw your edit w/ the product and, if I'm reading correctly, the answer to my second question is 'Yes.'