Auxillary Fusebox Install

[Retroanaconda]

For reference purposes, here's my Defender (200Tdi) auxillary fusebox install. We begin in the battery box:

The supply wires to the fusebox are 16mm², rated for 100 amps. As such, there is an in-line 100 amp fuse mounted to the side of the battery box. This keeps the supply safe as it is fused right next to the battery and before any routing through panels.

The two large gauge wires described above exit the back face of the battery box through a grommet, and then head upwards through the seatbox top through a second grommet-filled hole:

This takes us to the main bulk of the system. Mounted on the bulkhead behind the passenger seat we have:

The fuxebox itself is a reasonably expensive unit (£30 odd from VWP), but it features up to 12 fused circuits in two seperate banks of 6. I'm only using the bottom bank in mine for now. Each circuit is rated for 30 amps and each bank for 100 amps (hence the supply cable/fuse ratings). It also provides 12 common earths as well, although I imagine these are of less use for most remotely positioned accessories.

As it stands I only have three circuits wired in, the 12V compressor, the central locking system, and the engine cooling fan circuit:

So that's my system. I need to remember to sleeve the supply wires in some of that convoluted tubing you see in the fourth picture as well, must get around to that soon.

[reb78]

Thanks for this. Thats really useful and something i have been thinking of doing. This will prove very handy for reference. What split charge system are you using? And one other thing i wondered about with this setup is - is it ok to earth to the chassis if you run the live from the auxilliary battery and fusebox - or should you really run back to thise common earths on the auxilliary box?

[Orange]

I used a similar fuse box in my old 90. It was a Blue Sea version from a company called JG Tech.

I used the philosopy that if I was running a power feed from the fuse box to the ancillary item, then why not run an earth directly back along the same route within the same convoluted trunking. It's certainly a lot easier to keep track of all the earth points and theres only 2 places to check when the ancillary equipment stops working (the connections at the appliance and the fuse box). It then also has a direct link back to the battery which is a much better solution that having 5 different earth points dotted all over the vehicle.

If you have several appliances in the same area, I would be tempted to run several small +12v feeds and one larger earth cable for them all to link to at the other end.

James - you will find that a couple of additional 12v cigar lighter sockets on the back of the cubby box will be very handy...

[Retroanaconda]

Yep, that's on the cards. After a weekend's greenlaning with the power leads lying all over the place, some 12V sockets on the bulkhead area are something I'm definitely looking into. Going to get some from Mudstuff when I get a Mud Console, and I will give them dedicated earths as you say. Much easier for diagnosing faults. The circuits I've already installed beforehand can use the earths they've been given though, easier than running more wires

reb78: It's an X-Eng split-charge system. Seems to work fine