Show off your aux fuse panels.

Just PM me with your address.

 

Did you see my edit?

Edit: Just noticed a potential problem for me. I have a 2nd Gen and you have a 3rd Gen. Not sure if it will fit my truck. I have never compared the two gens for similarities. Guessing it will not fit mine.

 

Had some time to finally get my cigar plugs and usb plugs mounted into a panel. I’ll get them pre wired at some point and get them installed.



An always on cigar, ignition cigar, and two
Switched cigar plugs along with an ignition and a switched USB.

 

What size/kind of aluminum are you guys using to make your plate?
I made some mirror mounted light brackets out of 1/8” 6160 T6 Aluminum. I think it might be a little overkill for this plate though.



Shoot some links if you know a good place to buy some aluminum sheets.

Thanks

 

Cooking sheet or baking pan from Salvation Army.or goodwill.

 

How’d you make those, you have a brake or shop access?

 

I thought i was going to able to avoid this rabbit hole for my lights by getting a voswitch but I have a few other electrical accessories to add so now I’ve been buying parts (power tray, blue sea 6-fuse box, ground bus, mrcb, shrink tubing, sleeve tubing, ring terminals, etc)


I’ve kind of hit parts paralysis and keep buying more stuff that I need to make it decent.

Thanks!


1-How are you guys mounting the mrcb?
Ideally it should be close to the battery as possible.

I was thinking of making a small plate and mounting that to the battery hold down bracket.



2-Are you making your own leads off the battery to the mrcb?
I guess I’m going to need pretty flexible #2awg and something to crimp larger lugs.


3-Anyone changing the battery terminals so that the additional feeds can be attached with less of a mess?

I have a lead for my winch that I have disconnected at the moment.

 

I annealed the aluminum, then used a vise brake to bend, then re-tempered, then powder coated. Paired them with some Diode Dynamics SSC1 Pros.

 

Working up some templates to make a fuse block tray.

 

Very nice work!
I don’t have a vise and nothing to mount one too, i guess I could probably rig something.

I thought that would weaken the AL, going back n forth?

Was it a pita to install that mount on the mirror?
That’s kind of a better spot.

 

If possible mount it to your auxiliary fuse box tray

 

the aluminum is 6160 T6, it’s pretty strong. Annealing the aluminum makes it much softer and makes it pretty easy to bend with a brake. I highly recommend a vise brake, but it limits you to 5” wide, unless you pay some serious cash for a larger brake. After bending, you can re-temper the aluminum to harden it again. In the end it is not as strong as the original T6, but pretty close. I can almost stand on one of the brackets without it bending. Definitely strong enough to mount lights.

You gotta be committed to lights on your mirror arms since you will be drilling into the arms. There is not much room inside the mirror arms. The holes need to be planned precisely for the hole to pass the wire through and so that you can fit a lock nut on the three mounting screws.

It was kinda complex, but not hard. Working with aluminum is cool. it is easy to work with, strong, won’t rust, and is fairly cheap. For things like the fuse block tray, I can make it whatever shape I want so I can make sure I still have full access to the original fuse box, the relay box next to it, the brake sensor plug, and other connectors that would normally be hard to get to after the tray is installed.

I plan to do the same for an onboard air mount under the hood and an air-tank mount where the spare used to be.

I’ll do a full write up on the mirror light project, here on TW, soon.

 

1. Im interested in hearing suggestions for mounting the breaker as well. Most install it onto the power tray, but having a small bracket solely for the MCRB, closer to the battery is a great idea.

2. To make your own 2awg leads, you can use a hydraulic crimper or a hammer lug crimper. HF has a decent hydraulic crimper for $70 or you can pick up a hammer lug crimper for about $15-$20.

3. in the end, the plan is to only have one cable connected to the battery running to the aux power tray, then any accessory connected from the tray. The goal is to not have anything else connected straight to the battery.

I plan to use the BlueSea 12 fuse block that has 6 constant and 6 switched fuses, with a high amp relay to activate the switched side when the ignition is on. My issue is space. The BlueSea panels have the negative bus connectors on them, but how useful is that since most accessories will be grounded to the frame anyway. The neg bus takes up space on the fuse block and I think it will not end up being used much. So, I was thinking of two separate 6 way fuse blocks without the negative bus connectors.

I’m still brainstorming and planning.

Any thoughts or input would be appreciated.

 

Thanks for all of that, and that was what I was aiming for, minimal battery connections. It looks like the pos lead for the voswitch has an inline fuse so I can just rig up one mrcb mount on the battery hold down.

Good point on the negative leads. I bought the 6-fuse with the ground connections thinking I’d run the ground for anything in the engine bay but I guess I could have used the ground bar. That would be double lugging if I was at full capacity.
The 6-fuse without the grounds would be half the size!

When I temp fitted the blank power tray it seems like it’ll hit the brake reservior, I’ll probably use some split fuel line as a bumper (not touching it).

 

I’m curious how it turns out, I can’t envision how it won’t be in the way of the fuse boxes.
It looks like the power tray i have just covers that small relay odd shaped box next to the main.

The power tray was a lot but it was a black friday sale and saves me from another level of project ...I wish I had the vision, drive and tools to do all of that! As it is all of this stuff has sat under my bed for over a year and I’ve moved it out to force myself to get it done or start it already!

 

You can get a hole saw and cut out that corner that will hit the reservoir. There are two different styles for that reservoir depending on the trim level of the Tacoma. Most of the off the shelf ones would hit it for me too. I figure, instead of buying one and then modifying it, I’d rather make one that is exactly what I want.

 

On my offroad it just needs to be trimmed slightly it locked in well, I just don’t want to lose the layout space.

For sure custom is ideal, for me I have enough projects!

 

Just remember that most fuse boxes are limited to 30A per circuit regardless of the total limit. That goes for both Blie Seas and Bussman so if you have a higher current circuit(compressor, sound system, etc) it will need a dedicated breaker or fuse.

 

True,30A per circuit and 100A per block.

Very seldom will you need something higher than 30A or 360W. If so, you could still run a higher dedicated circuit, but instead of off the battery, go off the breaker. Just don’t exceed the limit of the breaker. I plan to get a 120A breaker. If I get to 100A of accessories, I’d upgrade the breaker. I don’t see that happening for a while, but there is definitely room to grow.

I’ll have 6 for switched and 6 for constant power. You can do a lot with 2 blocks capable of 100A each, even though they are limited to 30A fuses. Initially, I’ll cap each block out at 60A. At some point I can take the relays off of the power tray, and upgrade accordingly (given room constraints).

Now, If I remove the interior of my truck and fill it with amps and speakers, then I would be thinking of going straight to the battery.

 

I just like to remind people about that limitation since compressors are a common choice for addition. Straight to the battery still requires a fuse or breaker though.