This week has been a lot of wiring fun, but I had to connect the new extra battery to the new fridge.
The idea was to use the second battery to power some future accessories, so the first step was to run some 4 gauge wire from the battery to the back of the truck.
At the back I ran it into a 4 way split, and then into a fuse box.
4 gauge was finished off in my traditional way … tin the lead, and round it.
I found a Dorman 4 fuse box for like $5 and figured it would work good. My only issue was that the power inlet side was connected, and my crimpers would not fit, so the wiring had to be soldered only. On the plus side it allowed a very nice look, and you could probably get by with only one or two wires on the source side.
The outlet side were individual terminals, so I was able to do a proper crimp before soldering.
From the fuse block one output wire is heading to the stock “cig lighter” plug, and one is for the fridge. I wasn’t happy about not having easy access to the fuse panel, but I couldn’t figure out an easy way to make that happen. I think in the future an access hole will have to be cut.
I originally wanted to add another power plug to the back of the center console, and had thought about using the 4th output of the fuse block to run back up front. I decided that might not be much better than the factory wiring after making that long of a run. The next thing was to find another splitter and split the wiring up front.
Once I settled on one, I had to make a bracket to hold it in place:
If you look closely you will notice the fuse holder where I tapped power for the front aux power port. I have run this over to the existing power port in the center console for now.
From there I moved under the hood to install a main fuse. The location I wanted to use was occupied by a bracket for some relays. I started by fabricating a bracket for my circuit breaker. Then I scabbed on part of the original bracket for the factory relays.
I added an aftermarket Ford Starter Solenoid with a simple trigger off of the ignition to connect the batteries when the truck was running as a simple solution to charging the secondary battery.
EDIT: The starter solenoid eventually failed and I have changed out to a high amperage relay.
Until next time stay cool!
