Car Camping / Trip Reports / Photos / Buildouts / “Overland” / Expedition Rigs Area (homeless?)

@Scott B. Better late than never

 

Has anyone hooked up a ARB compressor to a Blue Seas fuse block? On paper its right at the max amperage of what each terminal can do. I'm worried about it melting but also would really like to keep from having extra stuff running to the battery because it looks terrible having a bunch of shit hooked up to it.

 

I think you'll want to run power direct from the battery with some type of inline fuse. I don't think 10 gauge wire will connect to the Blue Sea fuse block very well anyway.

 

That was my thought. I'll just use the wiring loom it comes with. Thanks man

 

You could fuse it at the max rating of the fuse block at 30amps.

Which compressor do you have?
http://store.arbusa.com/Assets/PDF/compressorTechnicalSpecifications.pdf

Yeah, like Samian said maybe just run it from the battery with a circuit breaker or a fuse.

 

Here's mine: volt meter has been running since installation over a year ago.

 

I did the same but with the positive only. My blue sea has a breaker on the positive side so it's just an added layer to the compressors inline fuses. Mostly did it to keep the battery terminal from being too cluttered.

I do have the compressor and both locker switches running through the blue sea though.

 

I have the

$338 CKMA12 On-Board Air Compressor High Performance 12 Volt for Air Locker Differentials and Tire Inflation

CKMA12. My Blue Sea block is about 6" away from my battery. It's connected via 1/0 with a breaker on the positive side and 1/0 on the neg side to the chassis. Only things plugged into the block is a ARB fridge, 2 port USB port and 30" light bar. Only the usb and fridge are ususally the things that get used the most.

 

The usb probably doesn't use much. The fridge might spike when it turns on but otherwise doesn't draw much power.

Ooooh...I didn't see the max load of 32amps on the ARB chart. Yeah, I'd wire is separate from the Blue Sea fuse block. Especially if you plan on adding more accessories later on. I have the same fuse block and from the sound of it a similar set up. I have a couple items I don't run through the fuse block...at 1200 watt inverter being one of them.

I'm in the process of redoing my accessories wiring system. Everything is wired into an aux battery so it's isolated from the rest of the truck. Unless something draws very little power it all gets run through a relay. Each switch will be on it's own fuse separate from the main power source for that accessory. For example my fridge is at the end of 30 feet of wire in the back of my truck. It peaks at about 20amps. So I'm running 10 gauge (fused at the blue seas block w/ a 20 amp fuse, kinda underkill sorta) back there. The switch is in the cab will be wired to 18 gauge. I could run this into the same fuse and location on the fuse block as the main power but a 20amp fuse is too big for 18 gauge wire so the switch will be on it's own 5 amp fuse (edited). I think that should work. I gotta run it by someone who knows what they're talking about.

 

I have my ARB compressor through my fuse block. It's the bigger single compressor on a 30A fuse with 8AWG wire. Switch is on a relay and I think it was 14AWG I used, which is overkill but I had it kicking around.

I have a similar setup too, but I don't think it's necessary to wire the compressor separate from the fuse block. The only thing I've run separate is my winch which is on it's own breaker. The BlueSea fuse block is rated for 100A total... I have no issues running compressor, a bunch of different lights, fridge, heated seats, heated mirrors, CB radio, VHF radio, and other stuff I'm probably forgetting. If everything were to actually peak at the same time it might trip the breaker on the fuse panel but wouldn't harm anything. And so far I've never had a need to transmit on both radios while having the compressor peaked and the fridge kick in, with all the lights and heated stuff on at once.

Your plan for the fridge switch confuses me... I think there might be a typo? Don't use 5AWG for the switch. Do you mean it'll be on its own 5A fuse?

 

The ARQ one?

 

Oh yeah yeah, I meant 5 amp fuse, not 5 awg.

It'll go like this - fuse block (fused 5 amp, 18 guage wire) > switch > relay > ground
Power for the fridge itself will go from fuse block (20amp fuse, 10 guage wire) to #30 on the relay and out #87 all the way to the back of the truck...about 25-30 feet of wire.

 

Okay. That switch plan sounds good as long as your switches are good for 5A. I have all of my switches (7) on the same 5A fuse on the fuse block.

10 AWG for 20A over 25-30 feet is going to result in quite a bit of voltage drop, but would work. There are some charts around for sizing wiring... bluesea has one here that recommends 6-12 AWG for your application, depending on acceptable voltage drop.

 

Thanks for the link. That's a nice chart.

I hadn't thought of putting all the switches on the same fuse. That's a good idea. All my switches are rated to 20amps. The only ones I"m putting on relays are ones that are over or near 20amps.

 

Typical automotive relays only need like 0.2A through the switch to turn them on. Putting lots of switches in parallel on 1 fuse takes a while to add up.

 

makes sense. I'm going this route. It'll be a lot simpler too.

 

Yeah

 

Thanks for the inspiration on this. Went away with my action packer that I couldn't find anything in, and it sucked how everything got dusty AF in there. Decided on the DeWalt Tough System tool box because of how custom you can make it and it's dust/water proof. I was able to transfer everything over from the action packer and I have plenty of space left over. I was thinking of getting one of the smaller tool boxes to stack on top, but as of now it's not needed.

 

And it's on wheels. I got ride of one of drawers and replaced it with bins because I found I would frequently want to carry my bins with all my kitchen crap somewhere the truck couldn't go. Wheels sounds pretty nice.

I need to downsize my camp kitchen. Just about the only time I cook when I'm not at work is when I go camping so I like to have a pretty good assortment of tools etc.