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| Cupboard Member Since: 21 Mar 2014 Location: Suffolk Posts: 2971   
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How are you planning on wiring up the second battery and what is it to do?
Is the second one to run stuff with the engine off or just to give a boost whilst winching? Either way, I'd be leaving the winch connected to the main starter battery. |
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14th Jan 2015 10:49pm |
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| BigRuss Member Since: 15 May 2010 Location: Norfolk Posts: 2785 
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I used 16mm2 cable to power my fuse box.
People normally use either 35mm2 or 40mm2 cable for winches, when I pre wired mine I changed all the cables to 50mm2 (that was a personal choice, I think someonenon here has used 95mm2) It is advisable to have a switch in the system somewhere so you are not constantly sending power to front bumper (water and electrics not mixing to well and all that good stuff). I too opted to put the fuse box in the drivers seat box, I ran 50mm2 +be cable to a bus bar under the drivers seat via an isolator switch, I then took the feed off the isolator switch to the fuse box using 16mm2 cable (I took it from the live side of the switch so I have a constantly powered fuse box). I then ran the -ve from the fuse box to a bus bar and back the the batteries. From the bus bars u have run 50mm2 cable to an Anderson connector on the front bumper and will run one to the rear when I get round to it.... Now I asume that it won't be long before someone comes alone and bitches about this setup but it's how I've done it and it works. Russell 2011MY 110 XS USW Black |
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14th Jan 2015 10:53pm |
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| Cupboard Member Since: 21 Mar 2014 Location: Suffolk Posts: 2971
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That sounds pretty good to me.
Mine came with the winch so the wiring isn't mine but there's a solenoid under the seat box with a switch on the dash to turn the winch off when I'm not using it. It really is a good idea to be able to turn the winch off somewhere, either with an isolator or a solenoid, so if something goes wrong you can stop it and you're not sending power to it all the time. BigRuss: the only quibble I could possibly think to have about your setup if I was trying hard is the 16mm^2 cable from the battery to the fuse box. There's rarely a nice way to do it but if you do get a fault on that cable it's going to melt/catch fire because it's not protected. That said, if there's a fault with the battery you'll have the same issue, it's pretty difficult to fuse something right on the battery and you've used a pretty fat cable 
I do like the sound of your setup 
I've seen far, far worse and indeed the PO has done far worse on mine and that hasn't caught fire yet! |
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15th Jan 2015 8:54am |
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| BigRuss Member Since: 15 May 2010 Location: Norfolk Posts: 2785
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Your right Cupboard, the worst that can happen is the cable melt and catch fire, to mitigate this I've looked at the continuous loads likely to be pulled and making sure the cables won't melt!
The cables from the battery box to drivers seat box are 50mm2 and the 16mm2 to and from the fuse box are taken from them. Russell 2011MY 110 XS USW Black |
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15th Jan 2015 9:24am |
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| Cupboard Member Since: 21 Mar 2014 Location: Suffolk Posts: 2971
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The amount of times I've seen farm machinery where there's a cable to supply, say, a radio in the cab that's taken from the battery through a really convoluted route straight from the battery and only fused right by the radio is silly. If there's a fault anywhere along the cable run and the cable shorts to the chassis (entirely possible, especially on something that bounces around a lot) there's no protection whatsoever and that cable is the thing that's going to melt.
As soon as you think about what the fuse does and what the risks are it becomes obvious, but if you're going to put a fuse in it's very tempting to put it in the dry cab where you can change it easily. |
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15th Jan 2015 1:02pm |
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