Advice wanted on wire gauge plus overall setup

SportsmanJake

Adventurer
Hello,
I am ready to purchase my parts but wanted to run through my plan with the experts of ExPo. Below is a quick mockup I put together (circuit breakers are not included in this diagram).

Tundra_Wiring_mockup.png

Questions:

  • Will 2 awg wire be sufficient for everything pictured here?
  • Are the Blue Sea bus bars the right choice here?
  • Can I wire the Blue Sea ML-ACR to the bus bar? Or should it go straight to the battery?
  • Should I wire winch directly to battery instead of the bus bar?
  • Will i have any trouble with the Fridge power when I connect it to Fuse block 2?

Thank you! Any help or comments are appreciated.
 

DiploStrat

Expedition Leader
Use this toy and you can size all of your wires. Plug and play as desired: https://www.calculator.net/voltage-drop-calculator.html

Blue Sea has a simple chart somewhere on their web site.

N.B. Check the charging voltage of your Tundra. Some Toyotas do not reach 14v. In this case, an intelligent relay, like the Blue Sea, may not be your best option, unless you raise the voltage of your truck.
 

rickc

Adventurer
Jake:

What is battery 2? Is it a deep cycle? I recommend connecting the winch to the truck's main battery 1 posts and run your truck when you are using your winch; standard practice; power the winch from your alternator through you main battery. Use battery 2 as a house battery for all the low amp, truck-off services. My WARN Zeon 10S Platinum pulls a max 465A at 10,000lb. Your Tundra winch must be at least 10,000lb and the Blue Sea 250A buss bar on battery 2 will be too small. Winches should always be direct connected to the battery terminals; if your battery 2 negative terminal came a little loose or got compromised in any way, when you operate your winch, it's ground will use whatever path it can find, possibly toasting anything you have connected to the negative buss bar. Another reason to connect the winch directly to battery 1. This is the reason that extra, low amp equipment should not be connected to the main battery negative post; big amps only!

I would connect the Blue Sea ML ACT directly to battery 2 and run your smaller amp fuse boxes discreetly from battery 2's positive. The ML ACT has a switch to allow you to manually feed battery 1 from battery 2 for emergency starting. If you use battery 2 to recharge battery one and then start your truck, you will be OK but otherwise your 250A buss bar may be too small to handle the starting amps.

What's the middle fuse box going to power? Is it in the cab or the front of the bed? I don't put high amp stuff in the cab including cabling. It's better to route any high amp cabling under the cab to the bed along the frame rails.

As for your fridge in the back, just remember that the fridge isn't on all the time as it cycles; I recall mine pulling a max 7.4A according to the manual (a Dometic CFX 75DWZ probably in freezer/freezer mode) so 2AWG will work fine for 15' of live wire length; only a 0.31% voltage drop (assuming your fridge is similar or smaller). The main reason for big gauges feeding a fridge at the back is voltage drop due to the distance from the battery; your fridge probably has a battery protection setting(s) and if the voltage drop is too great, the fridge will keep tripping. As DiploStrat noted, a lot of modern trucks don't put out 14V all the time; they have smart alternators, great for energy efficiency of the truck but not always good for charging secondary systems.

Lower amp equipment does not need ground to direct connect to the battery (no matter what the manuals suggest); it's expensive and unnecessary and can even be unsafe as described above; take a good look under your Tundra and I am sure you will find a number of factory grounds connected to the chassis at the rear of your truck (my Colorado has a very convenient one on the chassis about 1' behind the junction of the bed and cab on the driver's side. If your only intent at the back is to run a fridge, use a much smaller gauge ground from the fridge to the factory ground at the back; 10AWG would work fine for 4' of ground cable from the fridge.

In my case, my ArkPak, loaded with a 105AHr deep cycle battery, is located at the driver's side front of my cab; in order to use it as an emergency starter battery, I am considering running a 2AWG ground in parallel with the live between the two batteries, with an isolator on the live, a 150A fuse at the main battery and a 150A breaker in the bed, feeding the ArkPak. Maybe overkill.

Good luck Jake. I'll be wiring my system in a few weeks; we can compare notes.
 

SportsmanJake

Adventurer
Thanks for the feedback rick. I appreciate it and am processing it all. After doing some more digging, I discovered that I cannot run wire through the firewall on the passengers side. There is just too much stuff in the way. I am trying to figure out the most efficient way to run these large wires.

Both batteries are AGM. Thanks for the winch tip. It makes sense it is on the battery being powered by the alt.

I am adding one fuse box in the cab and one in the bed. I plan on running them both off the same power wire. Hence the large wire gauge.

Cabin fuse box will power: dash cam, 12v outlets, cb, ham, and possible an inverter in the future.
Bed fuse box will power: fridge, water pump, 12v outlets, and a bunch of led lighting.

Here is another possibility i mocked up yesterday.
I am not sure if the ML-ACR can be wired like this or not. The limitations of the Bus Bar are concerning in a "jump start" scenario. Maybe there is another option like this? Cable Post Connector.
I am trying to minimize the number of large gauge wires I have running across the rear of the engine bay.

full


full
 
Last edited:

rickc

Adventurer
Hi Jake: I'm sure you know this but just in case there are AGM starter and AGM deep cycle batteries; you should have a starter battery in position 1 and a deep cell in position 2; the purpose of the ML ACR (gross overkill for an automobile!) is to protect the starter battery from deep discharge and charge your house battery only when the truck is running and the main battery is happy. If you do not have a deep cycle in position 2 then you have a problem if you intend to use power when the truck is not running.

Your mock-up still has the winch drawing from the number 2!? Also remember my comments regarding attaching things to the main battery negative post; in your scenario you still have a negative buss connecting goodies directly to the negative post of the main battery but via a wire to the buss bar. This will work but if you do it this way, ensure you have really good, clean battery terminal contacts.

I would recommend adding a fuse or breaker on the live aux line before it goes through the firewall; better to have a fuse blow as close to the source of power as possible rather than risk the wire heating up in the cab or bed. My equipment will include a fuse block with a 150A fuse at the main battery feeding my isolator and a 150A circuit breaker back in the bed feeding my ArkPak and a second 100A amp breaker feeding a small Blue Sea fuse panel. Having circuit breakers in the back allows me to switch these services completely off at the press of a button.

My fridge will either connect directly to the ArkPak or to the fuse box in the back.

There may be a cable routing option on both sides if there are suitable holes in the body close to the front bottom of the front doors, behind the plastic and then running underneath the plastic "step" just inside the doors. Lots of others have uses this route; carefully pull plastic bits off and see what you have. Instead of going through the firewall, the wires drop down the back of the firewall then tuck in behind the fender. Use corrugated loom or something similar to shield the cable(s) along its length. I'd strongly advise going to a Tundra owners' forum and asking about routing cables from front to back; learn from those that have done it (and made mistakes!).

good luck,

fuse block.JPGcircuit breaker.JPGfuse panel.JPG
 

rickc

Adventurer
Another thought: have you checked the output of your alternator? Just test the voltage to your main battery when the engine is running and see what you get; there will be some drop across the ML ACR and a small amount across the wiring to the house battery. Deep cycle batteries will not properly charge without enough feed voltage; 14V or more so this is what you want getting to your house battery.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=ho+w...7.7858j1j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#kpvalbx=1
 
Last edited:

Forum statistics

Threads
186,078
Messages
2,881,744
Members
225,874
Latest member
Mitch Bears
Top