Show off your aux fuse panels.

Here it is pre install. Got the plate finished today. Probably wire it up this weekend. Not bad for an angle grinder and some files with some good ol elbow grease.

 

Got the panel installed and wired up. Feeling good about the way it turned out. While I was at it I replaced the battery terminals also.

 

Looks great! How did you get the bends?

 

I clamped it to a piece of aluminum angle bar, and smacked the shit out of it with a mallet.

 

Awesome!!!! Was thinking of making one of my own. Don’t have a lot of tools but this gives me faith it can be done with minimal tools. Thanks.

 

I made mine with a drill, jig saw, a big hammer, and a vice to make the bend.

Could it be better? Sure, but building this mounting plate cost me nothing.

 

After I made it I saw a few examples of people making it with lexan. Had I not already made this one I would have probably opted for lexan. Waaay easier to work with.

 

The edge trim is a nice addition. Some day I'll have enough accessories to warrant these....

 

Doesn't take much to start making a rat's nest. I only have 6 things on my fuse panel, but I was getting real annoyed at all the add-a-fuse and wire taps I had in various places. So much cleaner, and easier to trouble shoot if you do have a problem, plus you won't be left stranded if something kills a important circuit to run the truck.

 

Thanks. I wanted to be sure none of the wires became damaged from rubbing against the aluminium.

 

Looks like snakes on a Taco!!!

 

Noise free, Power!

 

Updated the Aux panel to include an aux relay box as well. Redid all the previous attempts at wiring and now have a simple system that requires 1 ground and 1 power wires to set any accessory i might have
I'm beginning to see why people buy switch pros and the variants...





but my system is a fully build dumb-system. just fuses, relays, physical switches, and bloody knuckles putting it all together



To anyone interested in the Upfitter switch retrofit info can be found here;

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/upfitter-6-switch-overhead-console-retrofit-for-3rd-gens.682225/

 

looks good, but you may want to upsize that 14ga wire feeding that other breaker. It looks like you only have 4 5amp fuses on that, but thats also about max

 

yeah it's just a wire to get things to work for the time being, but currently it is a 10ga wire as it is the largest i had on hand. I intend to wire in a 1/0 from a secondary battery (future project) but i should wire up a patch cable out of the spare 1/0 in place of the 10ga sometime soon


Only thing on that line is a strip of 12v LEDS for the bed (about 14 feet), the same LEDS but in a 4 foot length on the underside of the hood, and 2 lines that power the switches inside the cab that do nothing more than activate the relays. it's set up as switch 1-4 on one line, switches 5/6 on another line - i could have made it different but figured to keep with the OEM wiring by Ford.

the 5A fuses are the smallest i had on hand but much better than nothing

 

Also, if you’re going to connect all your grounds to the chassis clamp
You should upgrade the wire from there to B-. I changed clamps to allow all 3 major ground cables (motor, chassis, and aux) to connect to B- but upgrading the chassis ground would do, especially for those that ground their accessories to the frame.

 

oooooooohhhh.... Yeah you're correct with that.
when i pieced this together, i tried isolating the circuits the best i could with the fuse panel and all of my accessories are in fact wired to ground back at the fuse box. Ended up focusing on nothing but my aux system and never considered the battery neg cable (at where i'm connected to) to be undersized... i'll upgrade that the same time as i do the patch cable between the breakers tomorrow if the weather is permitting.

Thanks for the help there, i appreciate it as I'd never consider something like that.

 

We gotta look out for each other. These threads are an awesome resource but also an easy way to screw up big time.

 

Finally got around to finishing this up...now I just need more accessories!
Bussmann RTMR with Paranoid Fabrications panel