Ken the electrical guy Q n A

There’s an updated version of the mod. The one you were looking at was the first version and found to be flawed.

see @TacoRAhmas posts above.

 

I’ll be adding a single arb compressor and rigid ditch lights , the compressor is 17-25amps and the lights are 7amps each . I’ll be using the oem supplied harnessesfor both . Will I be okay hooking them up with the eyelets directly to the battery, They both have a relay and in-line fuse built in . This is a 2020 offroad if that matters .

 

The ARB should have come with instructions but yes you’ll want to hook up the wires that are attached to the fuses to the battery.

 

Would it be better to add a fuse block so the battery doesn’t have bunch on eyelets on it

 

Yes this will be a much better way to go.

setting up the foundation for off road accessories is one of the most common jobs I do for trucks besides dual battery set up’s.

if you can swing it busman sells a small sized relay/fuse box that will work great for what you need.

blue sea is the company I use for fuse blocks if you wana go fuses only

Or if you want, switch pro is probably the best thing going for off-road vehicles accessories. It’s the most expensive but the cleanest, most versatile, and least amount of wiring required option

 

Just got a 2021 SR, figure I can use a lot of the blank switch plates as switches for accessories down the road. I'm going to be using a secondary fuse box with circuit breaker (Blue Sea I think is the one everyone uses, the one you can get an engine bay mount for). One of my coworkers at the Dodge dealer I work at, current mechanic but used to do electrical work as his primary job, cautioned me about doing lights this way saying it may be excess drain on the alternator and factory battery. Looking at a 32" lower light bar, dual ditch lights (3"x3" diffused Rigid lights), and fog lights (3"x3" Rigid SAE Fogs). Once I get a roof rack I'd be doing a 40" Rigid bar on the Prinsu Access Rack. Trying to keep my warranty good. I know if the alternator or battery cooks with the accessories on it wouldn't be covered, but being that it's a separate electrical system it should (key word is should) protect the rest of the factory electrical under warranty, hence why I don't want to put an HO alternator in the truck just yet. Any tips for me? Or go full send and void the electrical with dual batteries and an HO alternator?

 

Do you have a link to the bushman one you recommend

 

last questions (for now)
1. Where do you buy your 12v supplies?
I need basics. Wire, nonisulated crimp connectors/ ring terminals, heat shrink. Don't like buying from Amazon and I need a decent variety pack. I don't want to buy 100 at a time from mcmaster

2. What's your preferred connection technique?
I don't trust heat shrink crimp connectors. You can't get a decent crimp without destroying the heat shrink.
I'm planning on using nonisulated crimp connections capped with solder with dual wall heat shrink on top.

 

Ok well without talking to your coworker I'm not too sure what he's talking about. If he works as a professional mechanic/past electrician I assume he has at least base knowledge of electrical. I'm assuming he means one of two things.

1) In the event that there was a possible issue toyota wouldn't warranty the truck because you have electrical modifications to the truck.

2) He's talking about using these lights when the truck is off and sitting. This would explain the excess draining on the battery. Most vehicles come with standard lead-acid "starter" batteries and are not a great choice to be used as a independent battery bank. AGM deep cycle batteries would be better. Also I might assume that he's saying with only the starter battery and not a dual battery set up.

In the event that he's talking about the warranty, I cant speak to the conditions of your warranty. I think it's varies from dealer to dealer and the terms. I have had a few customers that were concerned about this. My solution was I designed the system the way I would a race car. The electrical system was routed in a way that was easily removable and utilized deutch style connectors at transition points. It took the customer about 15 minutes and all 6 of their lights could be completely remove/installed back onto the vehicle. They have all reported back that it worked perfectly and the dealer was non the wiser. I will say that this option was more expensive because of the extra connectors and other msc parts but they wanted piece of mind for warranty work.

If your coworker didn't mean what I assumed he means, I do not agree with him at all. Maybe he hasn't done a lot of offroad/overland type installs but this is probably the most common electrical modification done to trucks today. I mean shit even the stock F-150s driving down the street have a 50" on the roof lol.

If you are really concerned heres what I would do.

Get a table you can place close to your truck. Get all of the lights you want to power. Get some 10 gauge wire and crimp, solder, twist and electrical tape all of them to your positive leads from your lights. Just make sure when you sit everything down it doesn't short on a ground wire or the truck. Don't spend a bunch of time making it pretty just make it safe. This is for testing purposes before you go through the work of installing everything.

Do the same thing for the grounds of your lights. 10 Gauge. safety attach all of grounds.

Using either alligator clamps, a pair of vise grips, anything really that will securely hold the ends of your 10 gauge wire to the battery terminal. Hook up your positive lead. Leave the ground disconnected for now.

Get a multimeter or volt meter. You can secure the leads with the same way you secure the wires. Turn the dial to DCV 20 or DC volts 20. Turn the truck on and let it get up to operating temp so the truck is idling at normal rpm in park. Turn on the headlights, Radio, AC basically everything. When the truck idles down from its warm up cycle write down the voltage measurement displayed on your multimeter.

Now hook up the ground you made for your lights using 10 gauge. Write down this number. It's going to drop but by how much will tell us if you current electrical system can handle the load, is it handling it well, ok, or badly. We can learn quite a bit from voltage drop. Try to record any detail you can. Did it drop then rise back up? Did it drop then hold? Did it drop then slowly tick down? Where did it stop? the more detail the better.

Depending on how much your lights draw this will effect our drop. Now The number may not drop. This would mean that your alternator just laughed at your electrical load and your more than good.

On my truck I have the headlights on, Radio blasting with about 3500 Watts of amp, and the AC on and the volts sit at 14.1volts. That being said I have a aftermarket alternator, dual heavy duty batteries, and some ridiculously large cables running through my truck. However It's an example of where I personally like my systems to be at. Moneys always a factor but If I'm building a system this is where I like it to be at when I'm done.


I'm not the guy to ask If you should modify a vehicle lol. I modify everything man lol so I'm biased. In the end if your voltage drop is significant then you have a two options.

1) upgrade your alternator
2) use less or more efficient lights.


If you want my opinion.

Go HO alternator
Go dual battery
Go solar
Go ACR

Set up clean, labeled, and electrical robust electrical foundation to add all of your non factory accessories. Make the system easy to work on and easy to add or remove accessories.

Electrical foundation basic package.
1) Way to mount a fuse/relay block
2) Fuse block or fuse/relay box.
3) Large fuse/circuit breaker to protect the entire system and or make servicing easier.
4) Labels
5) Switches

After that the sky is the limit. There's a lot out there.

If you really want to go this route let me know when can talk privately and discuss your budget and I'll help you order what you need.
If you really don't want to have deal with any of this and you live in CA I also do installs Fri-Sunday at your house.

If you do the test I layed out above post your numbers here so we can all discuss together.

 

$26 Blue Sea Systems 5025 ST Blade Fuse Block 6 Way Circuits with Negative Bus and Cover, 100 Amps

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Sys...ld=1&keywords=bluesea+f&qid=1607272833&sr=8-1

Here's the blue sea Fuse Block I recommend people use. They offer a lot of different configurations so you ll have to decide which is best based of your preference. Its mainly how many circuits and if it has or does not have a ground bus.

$68 COOPER BUSSMANN - 15303-4-0-4 - FUSE RELAY BLOCK, MINI, REAR TERMINAL

https://www.amazon.com/COOPER-BUSSM...&keywords=bussman+relay&qid=1607272938&sr=8-2

Here is the bussman relay/fuse box I recommend. A lot of companies make mounts for these. The only downside is you have to build it or have someone build it for you. Its cool because you get to wire it exactly the way you need but bad because you have to source some parts/tools.

 

Q1:

Where do you buy your 12v supplies?
I need basics. Wire, non insulated crimp connectors/ ring terminals, heat shrink. Don't like buying from Amazon and I need a decent variety pack. I don't want to buy 100 at a time from mcmaster

A1:

We'll it kinda depends on what I need and how fast I need it.
I have and still order from
https://prowireusa.com/default.aspx
https://www.delcity.net/
https://www.wiringdepot.com/store/c/174-New-Clearance-Specials.aspx
https://www.remybattery.com/
Amazon
McMaster


Q2:

What's your preferred connection technique?
I don't trust heat shrink crimp connectors. You can't get a decent crimp without destroying the heat shrink.
I'm planning on using non insulated crimp connections capped with solder with dual wall heat shrink on top.

A2:

My prefered connection technique will vary depending on what I'm doing and my physical/financial limitations. I will say that probably the one I trust the most is a non-insulated butt or splice connector accompanied by a medium wall adhesive lined heat shrink. I do a lot of really tricky and very precise harness construction so at times I'm comparing heat shrink wall thickness down to the 0.01. That being said overall it's probably my favorite. I will solder when space is extremely limited but I have to take extra steps in insure my joints are stressed relieved and in a position along the harness where it will not be making any turns and is relaxed. If that makes any sense lol


I also really enjoy making plug and play harnesses so I should include deutsch as a connector style i like.


I would suggest looking at your crimping tool more closely. You'll notice there's a different part for crimping insulated connectors. I was doing the same thing until one day I was online and saw someone crimp a insulated connector and was like oh shit lol I've been doing it wrong. Hey thats the name of the game progress>perfection.

 

Have any suggestions for crimp tools(for non insulated 10-22 awg connectors)

I have one for insulated connections and the standard Fisher Price my first wire strippers/crimper. Neither one will work well for non insulated connection
I was considering getting the ones linked below

$30 Klein Tools 1005 Cutting / Crimping Tool, Made in USA, Cutter / Crimper for 10-22 AWG Terminals and Connectors, Terminal Crimper for Insulated and Non-Insulated Terminals

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006M6Y5M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_TUsZFbZE3WF8D?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

His main concern was that lights would be too much draw, truck running. I disagreed, but agree your solution of testing before hard install is a way better idea than hooking it all up and going big or going home. Finances are always a limitation, but I'm setting aside funds to do it right and make it look like a professional was there not some kid with Busch Lights and a free afternoon! Got the extended warranty through Toyota thinking I'd never mod the truck...but we all know how long that lasts (less than a week for me). Gonna call and see if I can get the refund sent to me and not the bank, put that extra cash towards parts Dual battery and solar is end game, but I'll start with an isolator and batteries first until I get a roof rack to put panels up. Thinking 200W solar should cover me quite nicely since I don't plan on that much electrical being there and on for when the truck isn't running. Appreciate the feedback, I'm sure I'll poke my head in and ask questions as electrical work starts being...well, electrical work. I did a full harness from scratch for my buddy doing an LS swap on his '94 V6 Camaro, so this shouldn't be too difficult to wrap my head around

 

No problem bud. If you can handle
Making a harness for a LS swap this should be easy peasy.

look forward to hearing from you and hopefully pictures. Good luck buddy

 

I think Klein is a good brand for electrical tools. I think some of their older stuff was top notch but the new stuff isn’t bad. I use my snap on set a lot but it works just as good as my Klein’s. I just like the rubber snap on uses for the grips better than the Klein.

 

Is that the correct style I should be looking for?
Regardless of manufacturer

 

Yeah this style will handle non insulated Butt, splice, spade, ring, fork, hook or any other standard style style connector insulated or non insulated.

plus the thick handles are nice for getting a nice firm crimp without wearing ur hands out

 

Thank you for this thread first of all. I have had a backup camera that will not work for 2 years now. It will work if you jiggle the rca connection in the back of the head unit and push it to one side kind of a fuzzy picture. Ive tried different units nothing. I've tried different screens and monitors with the camera cable, those work. Its like the male from the camera and female from head unit were just not meant to be one. I have had the truck at two different places one being specific to vehicle electrical and nothing. Idk any ideas would help. thanks

 

You’re very welcome, I value your gratitude.

Not all RCAs are the same. However it’s not common to get the special sizes.

Without being there here’s my best guess.

1) the RCA cable is junk and internally broken and or damaged. You are experiencing different outcomes because of different mounting or physical locations of the monitors causing a different stress on the cable. Some positions will alleviate the issue inside the RCA and others will move the wire the other direction or even in its normal resting position cause and issue.

A lot of times the conductor will break inside the insulation. When you move it to one side the accessory will work because you physically reconnected the wires. I’ve seen this a lot with phone chargers.

The other possible but unlikely option is different style connections as you mentioned. The RCA style port on the head unit may be slightly different than your camera video cable and cause a misalignment.

What camera and headunit do you have. If you can get me the user manuals or instructions some times they call out the connectors and or ports. We might be able to find out answer there.

Another option is cut the RCA end off the wire and install a new one.

 

@Kens04Taco, I have another question for a mod I have in mind. I’d like to do the 12V power anytime mod, but don’t want to leave the outlets running all the time. Links to the mod here:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...et-relay-modified.407458/page-5#post-14721205

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...et-relay-modified.407458/page-7#post-22831529

My goal is this: add a dash switch, which can manually turn on power when the vehicle is off while leaving stock functionality (power on with engine on) unaffected. Could I just run a wire from the dash switch to the existing ignition-activated relay, or would the ignition signal flow “backwards” up to the switch and fry it?