Originally Posted by
jc109
Hello all,
I've just finished fitting a second battery in my Defender and I need some help before I can progress.
Firstly, I have a Baintech fuse block and don't know if I should be putting a circuit breaker in line prior, or if the fuses themselves will suffice.
I would put a breaker as close to the battery as possible. Then use the Baintech fuse box to fuse each individual line you run out to each accessory.
Secondly, I'm fitting a wiring kit provided by Traxide to install two sockets in the rear. This kit requires a circuit breaker near the battery, then a fuse near the outlet. I'm assuming that if I was to fit this 30A breaker before the fuse block that would be okay, but how would the breaker go with other accessories running through that block?
Are you going to run your wire to the back from the Baintech fuse block? Or straight from the battery? If you use the breaker near the battery and then a solid wire running to the Baintech fuse block then you run your wire from there to the back then this is fine. The only problem with running the wire to the back via the fuse block is that it increases the overall current passing through the breaker and wire from your battery to the fuse block. If you run a seperate cable straight from the battery to the back put another circuit breaker on this cable at the battery and a fuse at the back.
And how do I calculate what's required?
To calculate what's required you need to think about how many amps your accesories are going to draw. look on the back of each device and it'll tell you it's max current draw. Then you just need to add up all the max draw amps that all your accessories will draw. If all your accessories are being sourced from the one Baintech fuse block and when they're all on the could potentially draw 40 amps, You need a wire and a breaker from the battery that's capacity is higher than 40 amps. Always make sure your cable is by a long way not the weakest link. Put in a juicy cable and a breaker of say 60Amps.
For example if you want to run a fridge and an air compressor and a led light from your back sockets then you add the fridge (3Amps) + Air Comp (possibly15Amps) + Light (.5Amps max) So you need a cable that'll do +50Amps and a fuse 30Amps for this run.
And lastly, for those of you who have one, how have you guys run your wiring into the rear load area of your Defender? I've got a few ideas, but before I go drilling holes I thought I'd check to see if I'm missing a better solution that's staring me in the face.
I didn't have to drill any holes for mine. I ran the cable down inside the Chassis rail and up through the back grommet where the brake lights wires come in (Which as a side point in my puma had fallen off and were letting in stacks of sand and mud). It depends where you put your fuse block but there are enough existing holes in either the driver side seat box or passenger side to get your cable out and then the chassis rails have enough holes in them to poke the cable through. Get a plastic batton that sparkies use to pull cables and poke it through the chassis with the cable taped to the back and then after a bit of gentle persuasion pull it through. I went from the back to front with my batton which seemed to work better for me.
Cheers,
Chris
Thanks in advance guys,
James
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