Show off your aux fuse panels.

For a close looped system (aux battery / solar setup) Would you still recommend grounding to the chassis?


This setup is INDEPENDENT / separate from the Main battery.

 

meh. someone can dig through my build if they want to see it lmao

 

So the world can see!!!

 

Keep in mind the existing battery ground cable carries all other chassis grounded currents and is not an overly large awg to begin with. I ran the same size wire from my ground busses back to battery neg as I did from battery pos to the breaker avoiding any possible overload of that wire. Also, I see no reason to court faulty grounds by running current from every accessory through the frame. What you can do is combine ground returns in a single larger wire from remote locations in a way not possible with positive wires.

 

I made hot/ground wiring harnesses. Hot from the switch went to the relay, ground to the aux fuse panel. Personally it was a cleaner looking and more manageable set up for me. I ran all my wires with the assumption of having to trace them in the future. I highly doubt I will have to BUT no better time to prep for it then the install.

A slower and methodical install makes life way easier down the road. All my connector colors are color matched and even have color matched electric tape a few inches up the harness.



Also put a hole through the firewall for the harnesses. Made more sense to me then trying to force through the factory one. I have six wires going in and could probably fit twice that.

 

Work in progress. This is based on the buseman fusebox Tacozord made a write up about.

 

Yes.

 

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone killing a negative battery cable by grounding too many items around a vehicle.

 

Agree on the single ground. I added a ground bus to my panel for my accessories

 

How would you know if it ended in a carbeque? Granted it's unlikely unless you exceed the current for that cable but it's rated lower than the bussman and much lower than a Blueseas panel plus using a higher gage cable to the breaker than you use back to the battery is lopsided engineering.

 

It is possible if the combined loads at any given moment exceed the capacity of the battery to chassis wire size. Starter and alternator current paths are through separate negative cable to engine block. In your favour is the short length of the battery negative to chassis ground point. I believe stock wire size is #4AWG. An upgrade to #2AWG is a good idea.

 

Wouldn't the 80amp breaker on the panel box protect the #4AWG in that circuit?

 

Not sure if that chassis ground cable is #4 but it is smaller than the 4awg to my breaker, so if you're bothering to use #4 to the breaker for all your added accessories it makes sense to either upgrade that wire or run a separate ground to the B- clamp. If you don't do ground returns from your accessories then an upgrade would be in order. If you do run grounds return wires back to a ground buss then it's simple to run a ground cable from the buss that matches your auxilary supply cable.

 

I am doing that... 4 AWG from the battery to the breaker, 4AWG from the breaker to the Blue Sea, 4AWG (Negative) to the chassis. It's just hidden below the panel. The photo below is prior to adding the negative buss for the accessory grounds but you can see the 4AWG (-) cable running off the Blue Sea in the upper left of the Blue Sea box.

Since the photo below was taken I've added a negative buss for grounding accessories, pre-wired the relays mounted below the panel and added a wiring harness for the overhead switch panel inside the cab. I also modified the panel to make it fit better around the brake reservoir and improve access to the factory fuse box. Also added pos/negtative wiring for accessories to the relays with weatherproof connectors (labeled with switch/relay number). Adding an accessory is now a matter of running the +/- wires back to the panel, adding a male connector and plugging in the the corresponding relay connector - and of course adding the fuse to the block in the corresponding slot.

I went with adding a negative buss since the negative terminals on the Blue Sea were too crowded for my liking and it was getting hard to pre-wire all the relays mounted to the bottom of the panel. I needed some more room to route wires and keep it "neat". I also wanted my accessory grounds in one place to eliminate or chase down any grounding issues.

Worked great for my behind the grill lights! I'll try to get some pics of my current set up - on crutches due to foot surgery so getting around is a bit of a hassle....

 

Looks great! Now all you have to do is move it from the chassis clamp to the battery clamp to bypass that chassis ground wire. It already carries everything on both the engine bay fuse box and the in-cab fuse box so why ask it to also carry your accessory fuse box as well when the B- clamp is mere inches away? It just seems odd to choose the chassis clamp instead.

Edit- well fuck me for a dim witted retard. Unless the engine block is electorally isolated the current return path could use the starter/alternator ground, Doh. But then why bother adding a chassis ground? Hmm, I still think it’s a better idea to start wiring from the battery and end back at the battery.

 

The (-) 4AWG ground wire coming off the Blue Sea shares the same grounding point as the battery. Both the NEG battery ground and the Blue Sea are bolted to the inner fender, pictured just above the the battery NEG post.

 

Any circuit path starts at the battery and ends at the battery, not the chassis. The chassis ground wire is a means to connect all other grounds to the battery, not the other way around. B- is the ultimate ground destination, not the frame. Sharing a bolt on the frame still leaves all current from your Blue Seas box finishing through some other wire to get to the battery. Either the wire it’s bolted with or the other starter/alternator wire but only if the engine block is electrically connected to the frame. The motor mounts may prevent this which might be why both the chassis and the engine block have separate ground returns to the battery.

 

I'm pretty sure I have enough slack in the (-) wire to run it over to B-. It's only a few inches away..... I'll try pulling it over there and if not enough slack I'll make a new cable.

 

I hope it does.

 

Agreed. The neg terminal to chassis is bonding more than intended as primary path. Naturally it is used but I drop a separate negative from the battery for branch blocks.