Big Three Wiring Upgrade - 2nd Gen Tacoma - Writeup with pictures!

Very nice. Great write up. I'll look at that one when I eventually do the mod.

 

Was just looking at these, and the wires they compare (factory to jeepcables) look like the exact same internal size with a thicker casing....

 

I see the photo you are talking about. I think it is showing the OEM cables uses thicker strands versus ToyotaCables using finer strands. Should mean their cables are more flexible and when you are talking 1/0 that is not a bad thing.

 

If anyone has done this and their stock wires are good, I'll buy them! Send me a pm! My positive wire broke going into the fuse box, and my negative clamp broke off. TIA

 

So there are a lot of factors when it comes to Voltage Drop, Flicker, and Ampacity of cable to any source. Keys to remember; how many electrical components are hooked up to one cable, how long each component is running, and what’s running at the same time. We often build very conservative to actual load/s. Assuming your driving at night with all lights/fogs on, juicing up 2nd battery or backup source, running winch, and blasting 12” Subs to AC/DC (my choice) all at the same time… it might actually be a good idea to do this to your power supply. Wouldn’t want the fogs in the rear to go out or dim while on a steep embankment tied to a tree. Or just stop the song till you make it out (kill the mood)… You would need to have a lot running at the same time to warrant anything bigger than stock cable. The only thing from my experience that warrants larger cable is audio equipment because it’s a constant large draw and typically far away from source. Hope this helps.

 

The major factor for my initial proto/install (not the kit found in this thread) was not necessarily the conductor size but the terminal quality. I found that the factory stamped lugs were corroding away to nothing and the stamped battery-side connections in particular were allowing corrosion to creep way up into the factory wiring. The cost delta between equivalent-to-factory conductors and 1/0 and 4 AWG was actually pretty marginal, so it was a "Why not?" proposition. (The cost of a factory replacement harness compared to a custom solution made me puke blood).

I agree that in terms of conductor size only, most people probably don't need to up size, but then again most people with plate bumpers, sliders, and farm jacks won't ever get the full benefit of those, either.

IMO the major benefit of a Big 3 upgrade for most people is corrosion resistance and modularity, with conductor size being a bonus.

 

Head lights, heater and plow motor so far has not come to a stop when I lift the plow.

 

So what’s everybody’s opinion on the “big 7”wiring upgrade kit for our trucks? Considering
www.JeepCables.com now offers there “big 7” upgrade kit with an external fuse to avoid routing the increase in current capacity through the smaller fuse box wiring.
Planning on a wiring upgrade to pave the way for future winch, air comp, and misc electrical additions. I like the kit approach for its simplicity, but would go diy if need be.

 

System maximum current doesn't change without changing the alternator to a higher amperage alternator AND increasing system load (with e.g. a seriosly monster sound system, outer space life support systems, or whatever). If you upgrade from the standard alt (90A? 100A?) to the tow package alternator (130A) you can easily replace the fuse to match with the OEM tow fuse. If you change to an aftermarket high amp alt (I've seen up to 300A) you can source and replace the factory fuse just as easily.

I'm not sure how that kit would run, necessarily, since either way you should be running the alternator hot to the fusebox feed, which is fused internally and bussed to the battery and the rest of the system.

 

quick question, why not just connect to the battery and then have the battery/alternator connect to the fusebox (w/ a proper fuse of course)? The only reason I ask is that the audio guys keep saying hooking directly up to the battery is that much better for the audio and will be way easier to install.

 

I have a question for the class. Does the stock wiring incorporate a fusible link to the starter or alternator?

 

It does not.

 

@deanosaurus made a reference to it, and I will be more vocal about it … that middle wire going from the battery to the alternator should not be unfused. If that wire gets a short you can possibly blow the battery and/or the alternator. The shorter wire goes to the fuse box which is fused, then it goes to the alternator. Thus, you dont need a high amp fuse. 100-amp fuse should be sufficient.

 

Given the problems with the setup shown in this thread I'm not sure why it's still stickied.

 

I'm about to do a slightly modified version of this. Does the shorter wire going from the battery to the fusebox also touch the alternator wire inside the box? (when completely stock) or does it have to first pass through the fuses in the box before flowing to the battery?

 

Yo! I looked up your write up and the discussions here and here and was completely unaware of the flaw in Bamatoys wiring setups. The wiring I have was one of the originals from Bamatoy as @henryp mentioned here. . Ill put together a sketch soon to ensure that I understand how this wiring is really meant to be to not ignore the original fused setup.

 

wait. i blew my alternator fuse back last fall doing unrelated stuff, if i bypassed the alternator fuse how else would it have blown?

 

No telling without knowing what you were doing or what might have accidentally touched what - that fuse is on the input bus for the fusebox, so it could have been any number of things.

Here's a post with an abridged diagram:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ghts-aux-panel-and-more.712981/#post-25425658

 

thank you.

 

Taking a second look at the abridged diagram, if you had the alt running to the battery running to the fusebox, it's entirely possible that the fuse blew due to current going through it "backwards" (from stock configuration) from the alt - the alt would have simply been on the wrong side of the circuit (leaving the battery and the rest of the fusebox outputs unprotected by the fuse, which is the problem with the configuration presented in this post and others on TW).

Here's the abridged diagram of the correct configuration:



Note that if the generator is coming in through 2C, the fusebox output (the line disappearing off the bottom of the diagram) is unprotected by the alt fuse, and an overcurrent flowing from 2C would have still blown that fuse without protecting the output.