Battery terminals, fuse boxes, etc. I have no idea what to do….

[Notyourmomslx450]

What’s a good, reasonably priced battery terminal.
Do I need a fuse box?
What’s the best way to get power to my fridge?

I need to clean up this rats nest in a bad way and want to do it up right.

 

[3rdGen4R]

Slee has a battery terminal I plan to but. Others like to use the military connection terminals. I think the slee battery terminal is like $70 dollars.

 

[Cruisertrash]

What’s a good, reasonably priced battery terminal.
Do I need a fuse box?
What’s the best way to get power to my fridge?

I need to clean up this rats nest in a bad way and want to do it up right.

Dude … get a fuse panel for all this stuff for sure. Grab some milspec-style terminals for easy connections. That’s shit is too ugly for how nice of a truck you got. Happy to help plot it out with ya if electrical isn’t your lifelong love.

 

[3rdGen4R]

SLEE - Billet Battery Terminals - Set - Slee Off Road

Features Billet machined from Buss Bar aluminum Tin coated for maximum corrosion protection Special machined ends to fit Toyota OE battery connections for 100 and 200 Series Land Cruiser Negative terminal has 3/8"-16 treaded hole to install negative terminal adapter if needed. Does not...

sleeoffroad.com

 

[Notyourmomslx450]

Slee has a battery terminal I plan to but. Others like to use the military connection terminals. I think the slee battery terminal is like $70 dollars.

I don’t want to spend 150 bucks for a battery terminal. That doesn’t fall into my category of “reasonably priced”

 

[CORunner]

I used a set of terminals from Rugged Rocks for my 2nd battery. Quality is good. Priced at $45.

https://ruggedrocksoffroad.com/power-distribution-terminal-blocks-by-rugged-rocks.html

You can find cheaper ones on Amazon, but quality could be lacking.

For my fridge, I ran a fused 4 AWG wire to the back and mounted a fuse block on my drawers for fridge and other power needs.

Depending on where you need power distribution you may want a fuse block in the engine compartment.

 

[Stuckinthe80s]

Keep what you have at the battery end but consolidate it down to one wire going to a fuse block like others have mentioned. I would put your distribution block in the cab just to limit the numbers you have to run between the engine bay and the people bay. Depending on the load, a 4 awg wire should suffice like @CORunner said.

If it's just for your fridge then a 10 awg positive and negative wire set ran straight off of your battery, fused and ran to your fridge will work as well. You'll just have to remember to unplug your fridge when you get to camp at night. I did this for two camping seasons and it worked fine. The cooler temperatures at elevation combined with a good amount of cold thermal mass in the fridge kept the inside temp below 40 degrees all the way through the night.

 

[DaveInDenver]

I'll throw out the argument that it's OK to have more than one cable terminated on a battery but you should only terminate two classes. Either a cable that's large (e.g. your starter or winch circuit, neither of which is an ideal candidate for moving from a direct-to-battery connection without a lot of thought first) or a primary feeder that will branch it out in a distribution or fuse block.

I'll disagree with Nic insofar as even if you're just adding a fridge (or radio or whatever) circuit don't skimp. Sure, you can do it right with one circuit on the battery but take the opportunity to design in a proper feeder to a fuse block for the fridge even if it's only one termination on a block of 6 or 10. The work you do now will save you a lot of headache when you do eventually want to add another accessory.

Same with grounds, BTW. Don't be tempted to take the easy route. Add a ground strip when you put in a fuse block so that you're not stacking half a dozen grounds under one bolt.

FWIW, I have a 6-position fuse block under the hood fed with 4 AWG through a 60A from the battery. One 30A circuit on it feeds a 6-position in the bed of my truck with 8 AWG, nominally the fridge but I broke the panel out into a cigarette (10A) outlet and several PowerPoles (each fused at 15A). Another 30A circuit of the engine bay block feeds a smaller panel under my passenger seat that I use to power radios mainly. That little panel doesn't have fuses so it relies on the radio harness to have fuses. The engine bay block also has fuses for power to driving lights.

I've dedicated one circuit on both the engine bay or bed fuse block to serve as an input solar charging point on the house side (thus likely with the dual batteries forced isolated).

 

[nakman]

I've had good success with the Amazon mil spec terminals, they come with covers too. $20

Amazon product ASIN B08Z1PZVDY
then yeah, run a big ass wire to a fuse block like everyone else has said for the positive side. Put a fuse or circuit breaker close to the battery, something like this. $20

Amazon product ASIN B08BZNGB7M
I like the circuit breakers because when you want to work on stuff you just push the button... just like at the house. For the negative side, if you have the wire/space I like to run a dedicated negative back to the same battery- but others will say you can just ground to the frame next to wherever you put the fuse block. I currently have 2 trucks with auxiliary fuse blocks, one wired each way, and both are working just fine.

 

[Cruisertrash]

@Notyourmomslx450

CE Auto Electric makes custom cables for a good price - whatever length, gauge, and termination that you want. Great quality too. They also have a ton of nice fuse blocks. Some cost a little (or a lot) more than Amazon, but you get what you pay for especially with waterproof blocks. I've bought cheap fuse blocks and had ground or hot posts shear off when tightening the nut down, I would suggest avoiding the cheap stuff because it's cheaply made.

CE Auto Electric

There's a hot rod shop called On Track Performance on Dartmouth just west of Santa Fe that has battery terminals and covers (and other electrical things). I forget the brand name, but it's good stuff. They're a good place to know about anyway. They've got build your own exhaust pieces, Autometer gauges, brass fittings for water (limited JIS selection but they DO have some), Redline oil, etc.

As everyone is saying, planning things out FIRST is key. Make a map/diagram/schematic and measure distances before buying anything. Especially with the fuse block, mapping things out will tell you how many circuits you need, what type of fuses, etc, and then you can get a block to accommodate all that plus some growth.

 

[DaveInDenver]

I've had good success with the Amazon mil spec terminals, they come with covers too. $20

The thing to watch with mil-spec terminals is you actually do *not* want real mil-spec. The gubermint wants RoHS followed, which is a dictate to eliminate lead from electronics and true military battery connectors would be cast zinc. These are the ones that tend to fracture. The cheap ones are usually still lead so would not be acceptable from a legitimate DoD battery terminal contractor.

What happens is when you use "true" mil-spec terminals but on a non-mil-spec battery with posts that are Goodness knows what size but just probably *not* mil-spec or SAE so likely undersized. Zinc is not flexible and when you try to squeeze down to the undersized post the terminal cracks. The terminal has to be a snug fit before you tighten the bolt.

So in this case cheap junk is usually preferred. Although you want the high end cheap junk so at least the casting is relatively good and the holes are round-ish. Some battery lugs are true rough crap, like they were poured using the lost Lego block mold method.

Just FYI, the "right" term for these things are ordnance terminals and if you can find them East Penn makes a very nice pure lead set. They look a little less bulky and are very clean and smooth compared to the generic ones you see everywhere. Their part number is 5315 for the positive, 5316 for the negative. Usually about $10 to $20 to get both and the ones I've received said US-made.

 

[Cruisertrash]

That’s good intel @DaveInDenver. Never thought about the different materials. The ones On Track sells (that I bought) are Fastronix brand and they are VERY soft for what it’s worth.

 

[Stuckinthe80s]

Oh, and I've got both the hydraulic style and hammer style crimpers for the bigger gauge wires that you are willing to borrow whenever you want.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Oh, and I've got both the hydraulic style and hammer style crimpers for the bigger gauge wires that you are willing to borrow whenever you want.

Oh geez, a hammer crimper? You're killing me, Jones.





But realize I believe in calibrated crimps. Ever wonder why some terminals you get have colored bars on them?

 

[Stuckinthe80s]

Oh geez, a hammer crimper? You're killing me, Jones.





But realize I believe in calibrated crimps. Ever wonder why some terminals you get have colored bars on them?

Does "super" mean you hit it super hard with a hammer?

And to be clear, I mean this little guy:

I don't know, I think a properly stripped wire using the proper gauge terminal can get a good crimp with a 5lb mallet. I realize that just because my 80 hasn't burned down yet isn't a great measure of success but it's something.

 

[DaveInDenver]

I don't know, I think a properly stripped wire using the proper gauge terminal can get a good crimp with a 5lb mallet.

Well, it does depend on what you mean by "good" though. My guess is the prevailing assumption is that "good" means "moar mashed!"

A proper crimp is enough but not too much. It's true of the hydraulic crimpers, too. They tend to over crimp. Yeah, that's possible.

This is one of the standard websites that is often referenced at this point: https://marinehowto.com/making-your-own-battery-cables/

I happen to have a set of FTZ crimpers like he shows (amongst lots of other crimpers for all sorts of things). So does Marco.

 

[rover67]

Yep I have a set of those big crimpers, if ya need 'em lemme know soon, I'll be out of town all next week then a bit more week after. I can leave them out and you can head up to the house and grab 'em or maybe bring them down tomorrow or saturday sometime.

 

[Daytonadogie]

This might help clean things up a bit.

https://www.bluesea.com/products/5024/ST_Blade_Battery_Terminal_Mount_Fuse_Block_Kit

 

[Daytonadogie]

This might help clean things up a bit.

https://www.bluesea.com/products/5024/ST_Blade_Battery_Terminal_Mount_Fuse_Block_Kit

Gray wire is a fusible link to another fuse block

 

[Telly]

This might help clean things up a bit.

Hey this looks pretty slick and keeps everything at the battery. My battery looks just like @Notyourmomslx450 and I'm running out of room in the engine bay for a fuse box. I also need to run power to the cargo area for a fridge and what not. Following this thread closely.

Edit: Amazon sells the Blue Sea kit for $29 bucks. Amazon product ASIN B00SE6Z2WI