Power all the things

I used to have BlueSea fuse boxes mounted in my Tacoma's bed-side cubbies, but with the recent addition of a Decked drawer system, I lost access to them. Prior to installing Decked I removed all electrical from those cubbies and sealed them. This left me with a need to have a new location for all things electrical.

First of all, while installing Decked, I enlarged one of the original drain holes in the bed to a roughly 1 1/4" diameter and installed a Daystar firewall boot into it.

View from the bottom:



View from the top:



I bought a Dewalt DWST08130 ToughSystem Latching Tool Case and got to work.

First up was figuring out how to mount my Zamp 1000W inverter. There was no flat surface that would fit it, and it was too big to go inside the cases (plus it needs ventilation). I removed one of the case's latches, and used two pieces of flat-bar aluminum (from my scraps pile) to make a level surface for the inverter to attach to.



To eliminate any sort of movement/flex, I jammed a piece of 1/2" plywood into the gap beneath the aluminum (the perfectly-sized piece of plywood also came from my scraps pile).



I then dug through my random parts bin and found a latch that worked perfectly with the hole spacing I had made in the aluminum, so I mounted the latch as a replacement for the one I had removed.



After laying out my components, I drilled holes and installed rivnuts to mount everything:



And then mounted the goods:



Why two fuse boxes? Bottom one is powered by my main battery, and the top one is powered by my aux battery.

Now I don't really need circuit breakers here, since I've got them right by the batteries, but I had the CBs laying around (yet another random parts pile - are you seeing a trend here?) and figured I could use them as an easy disconnect when/if I want to kill power to a fuse box.

I decided to mount a Milwaukee M12 & M18 charger on the face of the lid. The charger is meant to "hang" on two screws/nails, so I added a pair of rivnuts and inserted bolts, securing them with a nylock nut on the far side of the rivnut. This keeps the bolt from spinning, and holds it exactly in the place I set it, which allows for a fairly snug fit of the charger. (Note the empty hole and unnecessary rivnut - that was my first attempt, in which I unfortunately tore out the rivnut.)

At a later time, I also jammed two pieces of 1/8" aluminum flat bar under the charger (after mounting it). This removes all flex and ensures that the charger will not come loose.



I also installed one dual-usb socket, and two 12v sockets on the lid. These are powered by the aux-battery fuse box.





At a later time I also installed a volt-meter socket, 12v socket, and another dual-usb socket (these are in a horizontal position), which are connected to my main-battery fuse box. I don't really care about the charge of my aux-battery (and can always check it by connecting to my solar system's bluetooth controller from my phone), but do want to keep an eye on the main battery.

On the driver-side lid of the Decked system I cut off a corner to feed wires, and glued on a piece of rubber gasket to minimize risk of wire damage. I kept the cut-off corner should I ever want to glue it back into place.



Three 2 gauge wires (two powered - one for each fuse box - and one common ground) were ran through the aforementioned firewall boot, along with four more ~16 gauge wires that have two waterproof, quick-disconnect connectors attached to them. These will power the couple accessories I need to hook up on the outside of the bed. The 2 gauge wires are all covered in split loom (from the battery onwards) which extends through the Decked system and only ends right under the new electrical box.

The box was secured with two M8 bolts to the AluCab canopy's forward rail. I also pre-drilled three holes to (additionally) secure the box to my truck's forward rail, but have somehow lost the track nuts I planned on using, so I didn't secure through those holes. It is very tight as it is (I added folded carpet in a few spots behind the box), and I'm not worried about it coming loose.

The bolts which attach the box to the rail are covered with plastic caps. I also applied generous amounts of liquid-tape to the protruding parts of all rivnuts, to minimize chance of those rivnuts (and thus the bolts inserted into them) being grounded. Not that I'd ever intentionally touch them with a live wire, but accidents happen.



And the mounted box in its final glory:





(The loose wiring is that of the quick-disconnect connectors I had mentioned. Haven't attached them yet.)

 

Nice work. Very clean.

 

Awesome, nicely done!

 

Put some solar on it and let me know how much rent is a month, I’m moving in! Nice work dude!

 

Nice job my brother...great dissertation too!

 

Finished wiring everything just now. Also covered the exposed terminals on the inverter (with electrical tape) to make sure a loose object doesn't accidentally cause a short.

RE: Solar: I actually have an anderson connector zip-tied on the top of my driver's side for connection of my 100W Renology suitcase panel. Got that aspect covered

 

Nicely contained setup. Is your main battery still in the engine compartment? If so, shouldn't its breaker be at that end of the cable?