barlowrs
Explorer
Well, as some of you may know I have recently installed my OBA system ( OBA Install). This has required me to add a 80A breaker to my arsenal. While doing this, I decided to upgrade my 100 Fuse that was wired to my Aux fuse block to a resettable breaker as well. The last thing I want is to be out somewhere and blow the fuse and not have a spare. The resettable breaker allows me to not have to carry spares (those fuses are pretty pricy too). So this led to a re-design of my under hood mount…let’s call this V 2.0.
While my original mount worked well (Aux Fuse Block V-1.0), I did have one complaint after having it for a while. Because my winch solenoid was mounted to the bottom, it made it very difficult to remove to gain access to the firewall grommet, or to remove for other reasons. In my original design, I never thought I would be removing it, but over the past year or so, I have had to do this multiple times, and it proved to be a pain, so my redesign had to have the following requirements:
- Easy to remove the fuse block
- Room for Fuse block and 2 breakers (100A and 80A)
- Still maintain my winch solenoids
- Room for at least 2 light relays
-
After messing around with a few ideas, this is what I came up with…now out with the old and in with the new!
The new design is two parts, the lower shelf is smaller, so it can stay permanently mounted and still five me good access to the firewall, etc. This lower shelf is where my solenoid mounts too. This is hard mounted to the truck.
The upper shelf which holds the relays, fuse block and breakers is no longer bolted to the truck itself, but rather the lower shelf through the use of 2 bolts that get bolted into stanchions that stay on the lower shelf. This allows me to EASILY (2 bolts) remove the upper shelf, and the stanchions stay in place such that I don’t even have to mess with nuts on the back side.
Like my original, this is built with 18 gage stainless steel.
Here you can see the two parts and how they fit together:
Now, time to mount under the hood. The small shelf gets hard mounted to the fender (same as original design) with the winch solenoid mounted below it. Here you can also see the box that contains my winch solenoid mounted.
The upper shelf gets equipped with the fuse block and breakers. (The relays get mounted to the two holes on the vertical side once it is mounted in the engine bay).
Lastly, it is simply bolting the two bolts in place to mount the upper shelf to the lower shelf and there you have it.
I think this should serve my purposes well.
While my original mount worked well (Aux Fuse Block V-1.0), I did have one complaint after having it for a while. Because my winch solenoid was mounted to the bottom, it made it very difficult to remove to gain access to the firewall grommet, or to remove for other reasons. In my original design, I never thought I would be removing it, but over the past year or so, I have had to do this multiple times, and it proved to be a pain, so my redesign had to have the following requirements:
- Easy to remove the fuse block
- Room for Fuse block and 2 breakers (100A and 80A)
- Still maintain my winch solenoids
- Room for at least 2 light relays
-
After messing around with a few ideas, this is what I came up with…now out with the old and in with the new!
The new design is two parts, the lower shelf is smaller, so it can stay permanently mounted and still five me good access to the firewall, etc. This lower shelf is where my solenoid mounts too. This is hard mounted to the truck.
The upper shelf which holds the relays, fuse block and breakers is no longer bolted to the truck itself, but rather the lower shelf through the use of 2 bolts that get bolted into stanchions that stay on the lower shelf. This allows me to EASILY (2 bolts) remove the upper shelf, and the stanchions stay in place such that I don’t even have to mess with nuts on the back side.
Like my original, this is built with 18 gage stainless steel.
Here you can see the two parts and how they fit together:
Now, time to mount under the hood. The small shelf gets hard mounted to the fender (same as original design) with the winch solenoid mounted below it. Here you can also see the box that contains my winch solenoid mounted.
The upper shelf gets equipped with the fuse block and breakers. (The relays get mounted to the two holes on the vertical side once it is mounted in the engine bay).
Lastly, it is simply bolting the two bolts in place to mount the upper shelf to the lower shelf and there you have it.
I think this should serve my purposes well.
