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| jont Member Since: 02 Apr 2011 Location: Aylesbury, Bucks Posts: 242  
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Any advice on the gauge/thickness/rating of the wires I would need to go from the battery/earth terminals to something like the Blue Sea 6 fuse box ?
Thinking of using it to power the sub, spotlights and rear camera - and some spares - so no heavy load apart from the spots - but would have a relay in-line for those like below: (thanks to Paul at landrover-connectors for the pic and a cheap genuine aux lighting switch  )
 Click image to enlarge |
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14th Oct 2013 11:43am |
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| custom90 Member Since: 21 Jan 2010 Location: South West, England. Posts: 19677 
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Better to go over kill than not enough and if you want to add something that will draw too much power, your current power cables will be useless and you'll have to buy unrated ones and refit yet again. Not cheap or a job you'd want to do often.
Some to look at here: http://www.incarmusic.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=0+gauge Depends really on what power the items consume. Diesel$ Live$ Matter. ⛽️🛢️👨🔧🧰⚙️ RED, WHITE & BOOST! 🇬🇧 |
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14th Oct 2013 12:45pm |
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| mikeh501 Member Since: 07 Jan 2013 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 1142
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ive got a similar setup as your wanting to build but with more accessories.
I believe the Blue sea 6 way fuse box is rated for 100 amps so i wired mine with cable which would take at least 100 amps, and put an inline fuse in there too at 150 amps IIRC. Given im not old enough to remember SWG/AWG I sorted it out like this! 1.) add up the load in watts for the thing(s) you are wiring. It will say on bulbs or amp etc. Your looking for maximum watts i guess on the AMP. 2.) Now youve got your total watts number e.g 500watts. 3.) Divide 500 by 12. 12 because your landie is powered by 12 volts. Tip: I normally divide by 10 to give a little headroom as the lower the voltage the higher the amps! 4.) That gives you the number of amps you need. 5.) goto this website (or others) and pick out the cable you need which will carry at least the amps necessary, and then go for the one which is next size up (within reason) http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/VWP-...inwall.php 6.) You will see that in our example 500watts of load gives us approx 50 amps, and a 7mm2 cable gives us 57 amps. (only caveat im aware of is that the longer the cable the lower the amps you can pass through it, but runs of 10' or less doesnt make a big difference) Id also chuck one of these into the power feed to your fuse box. http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/VWP-...lders2.php MEGA Fuse holder and 150amp megafuse. |
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14th Oct 2013 12:51pm |
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| ZeDefender Member Since: 15 Sep 2011 Location: Munich Posts: 4731  
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Just did my Blue Sea - Original earth and (1st) battery cables remain 50mm2, live cables between batteries and Blue Sea are 35mm2, cables between 2nd battery/earth and fuse box are 25mm2.
Tim at Mobile Centre sorted them out for me and they work a treat Tell someone you love them today because life is short.
But shout it at them in German because life is also terrifying and confusing... |
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14th Oct 2013 2:55pm |
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| leeds Member Since: 28 Dec 2009 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 8578
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The Blue Sea 6 gang fuse block is rated at 100 amps total current per block with a maximum of 30 amps per circuit.
As a rough rule of thumb on larger cross section area cables you are looking at 7-8 amps continuous rated per square mm of cable. Much easier to remember that then SWG/AWG/CSA against continuous current ratings. Brendan |
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16th Oct 2013 10:36am |
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| ZeDefender Member Since: 15 Sep 2011 Location: Munich Posts: 4731
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That's a neat way of calculating it - useful in future
Tell someone you love them today because life is short.
But shout it at them in German because life is also terrifying and confusing... |
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16th Oct 2013 2:02pm |
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| jont Member Since: 02 Apr 2011 Location: Aylesbury, Bucks Posts: 242
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So gone for some of this (CM16) to wire the fuse box in to battery:
http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/VWP-...ycable.php and some of this (ref 65) to go to spot lamps/relay: http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/VWP-...dcable.php Does that look about right ? |
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17th Oct 2013 2:34pm |
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| mk1collector Member Since: 17 Sep 2009 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 6769  
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Sorry to hijack but what relay etc (diagram would be good if anyone has time) should I use if I don't want to rig the spots upto the main beam? I just want to run an led light bar from the switch without being on with the main beam.
Cheers Ray |
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17th Oct 2013 2:41pm |
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