Careful where you run wires

[TexasNomad]

strobes. and lots of them....

, but what ever is your style man I don't know if I would like my truck looking like a Rice burner....

 

[Truckin4life]

nah not that many really... Just in the turn signals front and rear then a set in the front grill...

 

[TexasNomad]

Strobes in the turns.........
Hmm! that could pretty cool....

 

[Truckin4life]

Yea stobe bulbs in the turn signals... Wig wags front and rear then strobes for the front grill...

Of course its all for shats and gaggles...

 

[TexasNomad]

True! but it would look cool.

 

[Truckin4life]

Yea, would be scary if i pull you over with it too...

Not that i would ever do such a thing...

 

[TexasNomad]

Yea, would be scary if i pull you over with it too...

Not that i would ever do such a thing...

Hey man if I see some weird guy in a trucking trying to pull me over on some dark road he's liable to get shot at.

 

[Truckin4life]

If some weird gun in a truck cant take a joke and shoots at me, there is likely goin to be shots returned...

 

[Brian_B]

Can you belive what I am about to say?

Chris is right. If you are adding auxillary things to a vehicle...get a fuse block. They are cheap and work well. I actually have one sitting on a shelf (along with switches and relays), but I have never added anything to the truck that needs them yet.

I do want some driving lights eventually, but they are way down the list of importance right now.

 

[Truckin4life]

Yea i have only like 2 or 3 things right now, nope only 2 a set of lights, which has an inline fuse, and my amp, which would be to big for a fuse block anyway, also has inline fuse..

 

[Skandocious]

Tex-- got my distribution block at NAPA. The 6-output was only $10 or $15.

Just make sure it is rated to handle whatever you are trying to run off of it-- it should give you ratings somewhere on the block or on the packaging. Obviously you're not going to want to run 6 sets of high-output/high-current lights on 1 block.

Also be sure that the supply wire is large enough to handle all the load you'll be sending through the block. That supply wire is the bottleneck of the whole system-- all current being drawn by the accessories has to go through that supply wire, so keep that in mind

 

[TexasNomad]

Wel lI just want to run my Stereo and and fuel pump off it.

 

[Skandocious]

What part of your stereo? Not auxiliary amplifiers I hope... That kind of stuff requires 0/1 gauge power cables (ie, THICK AS HELL!)

 

[Brian_B]

Chris...you ever been around any of the "crank up competitions"?

I have seen a few of them with the main power wires being arc welding grounds. HUGE!!!!!

 

[Skandocious]

LOL! Nah I've never been to something like that. Sounds like fun though

 

[Brian_B]

They were a lot of fun back when I could hear. Made my little system in the ranger look like a toy. I only had 400 watts in the cab.

I did have a lot more in the bed for a while, but still was not in the league with those guys.

 

[Truckin4life]

actually the big boys run with SEVERAL runs of 4/0 or larger...

I was goin to run 500mcm for my main power wire...
But decided i wanted a different project...

 

[TexasNomad]

I'm just going to buy a custom wiring harness

 

[bobj49f2]

I wire industrial machinery for a living, I run my own company. I've been doing it for about 20 years, I'm always amazed at how some "professionals" route wire. I've worked on machines where wires go through small holes in metal without a rubber bushing or grommet, and no extra slack. I always use a grommet, or some kind of insulator when running through our over metal.

An electrical engineer let me in on a little electric secret, all of the stuff in an electrical circuit is filled with smoke. The trick is not to let the smoke escape. Makes sense to me.

 

[mtflat]

LOL, I definitely let the smoke out, but only some of it cause everything worked when I wired it back up. Lucky, I know.