Connect multiple 12v wires to battery post

[Pierre-Luc]

Hello! I just bought a 2002 Palomino Filly and I was wondering if there was a cleaner way of hooking up the wires to the battery posts ? The previous owner labeled them and used ring terminals but I was wondering if there was a cleaner way so I could hook all the positive together and then only have 1 wire to connect (and do the same for the negative...) ?

 

[bupkis]

one clean way is to use a fuse block. One wire from battery to fuse block, each circuit then attaches to the fuse block with a separate fuse for each circuit.

 

[Michael Guldan]

You have a few options available to you.

1. You could run to a terminal block ( bus bar ) and make multiple connections there

2. There are some fancy battery terminals on the market now, perhaps something like this would work
Search on Amazon, the options are endless

3. Stick with the ring connectors, as long as they are clean, they work fine

 

[Raycfe]

You should have a circuit breaker near the battery terminal ...... it should have one cable from the battery to circuit breaker. You could use the feed end of circuit breaker to also connect your breakaway switch wire to. And if you have an electric lift it could go there also (it should have its own protection breaker/fuse. Any other battery connections could go to the output side of the breaker. Just saying you could mount the breaker any where but use a 10/12 gauge wire.

 

[Greg H]

Lol looks like someone rigged that pic using a quick release bike seat clamp

You have a few options available to you.

1. You could run to a terminal block ( bus bar ) and make multiple connections there

2. There are some fancy battery terminals on the market now, perhaps something like this would work
Search on Amazon, the options are endless

3. Stick with the ring connectors, as long as they are clean, they work fine

 

[TSQ]

Hello! I just bought a 2002 Palomino Filly and I was wondering if there was a cleaner way of hooking up the wires to the battery posts ? The previous owner labeled them and used ring terminals but I was wondering if there was a cleaner way so I could hook all the positive together and then only have 1 wire to connect (and do the same for the negative...)

Welcome to the forum!

I can't see your picture but I think you are looking for something like Blue Sea Systems #5024: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00SE6Z2WI

 

[Pierre-Luc]

Welcome to the forum!

I can't see your picture but I think you are looking for something like Blue Sea Systems #5024: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00SE6Z2WI

Oh great, that's exactly what I'm looking for!

 

[TSQ]

If you are mounting it inside the battery box I would recommend using ATC (closed) fuses over ATO (open) fuses for safety - when a lead acid battery is charging it may vent oxygen and hydrogen gases which are highly flammable. An open type fuse will create a source of ignition when it "blows", a closed type fuse should not.

 

[MNTCamper]

The converter on your camper has a 12V load distribution system build in to it - along with 120V and battery charging. Use it, or if you don't have one, they can be purchased for relatively low cost. My 2001 Jayco had a converter, I did replace it with an upgraded model last year.

 

[Pierre-Luc]

Hi! Me again, I finally decided to buy this :
Extractme Bloc de fusibles à lame 12 V 6 voies avec bus négatif, support de boîte de fusibles à 6 circuits avec indicateur LED étanche et étiquette autocollante pour voiture, camion, remorque, bateau et yacht : Amazon.ca: Auto

I have one question though about the size of the wire I should use between the battery and the distribution block ? I only have like 1 feet, is using 10AWG OK because I sometimes see battery cable from auto parts that are 4 or 6AWG and wonder if this is overkill or I should have that size ? I just wanted to confirm that a 10AWG would be fine ?

 

[TSQ]

Impossible to say without knowing what kind of loads are on your various wires.

#10 is good for ~30 amps, #6 is good for ~60 amps, and #4 is good for ~80 amps.

Consider a master battery switch while you are at it.

 

[SteveP]

If your pup has a power lift and your planning on running it through this panel you I'd recommend bigger wire, but otherwise if your pup currently has a 30 amp or smaller fuse/breaker on the charge wire from the converter 10 gauge will be sufficient. If you mount the fuse panel inside the pup you'll want to keep that fuse at the positive post but if you mount it at or near the battery box I wouldn't bother. Your negative wires need to be at least as large as the positive but I'd recommend going with 8 gauge just to let things flow a little easier. 8 gauge is much harder to crimp connectors however.

 

[Pierre-Luc]

If your pup has a power lift and your planning on running it through this panel you I'd recommend bigger wire, but otherwise if your pup currently has a 30 amp or smaller fuse/breaker on the charge wire from the converter 10 gauge will be sufficient. If you mount the fuse panel inside the pup you'll want to keep that fuse at the positive post but if you mount it at or near the battery box I wouldn't bother. Your negative wires need to be at least as large as the positive but I'd recommend going with 8 gauge just to let things flow a little easier. 8 gauge is much harder to crimp connectors however.

OK great, yes I have a power lift. I think I'll take a look at how it's wired currently. I'm the new owner and the battery setup is a bit weird to me, they put the battery inside the popup ... and screwed two big bolts into the front cabinet storage with 10GA wires hooked up to the battery so I can plug the remote control from the outside from the power lift to these bolts ... but the power lift is not directly and permanently connected to the battery.

Right now, I have :
Pump (2A)
Propane detector (? But should not be that much)
Electric brakes (from what I read it’s between 3.2 and 4 – let’s say 4A)
Indoor and trailer lights (all switched to LEDs) – about .2A x 15 3A
Furnace (3.4A)
Refrigerator (doesn’t work for now – but from what I read it’s 2A when running and 7-8 when starting…)


and there is indeed a 30 amp fuse on the charge wire from the converter. I guess I should be fine with 10GA since all of this won't ever be running at the same time, but I might use 8GA just to be sure because of the lift (even if it's working fine now on 10...)

Spec of the lift says 280 amp at 4500 and 80 amp at 1000. There probably isn't a fuse for the lift so I guess I'll have to figure out how much amp is drawn when the lift is used so I can have the proper fuse size in the distribution block for the lift.

That would make sense ?

 

[SteveP]

I think power lifts are normally fused with auto reset circuit breakers. I've never had one so take this with a grain of salt. I would wire it directly to the battery, I'm not sure that that little fuse panel can handle the load with it's max 30 amps/circuit.

 

[WrkrBee]

Spec of the lift says 280 amp at 4500 and 80 amp at 1000.
That would make sense ?

Is the current draw rating at xxxx pounds? or another type load?

 

[Pierre-Luc]

Is the current draw rating at xxxx pounds? or another type load?

Here what it says : (I noticed it's not really a rule of 3... 1000 = 80 but 2000 is not 160 but 130... )

 

[Grandpa Don]

I think power lifts are normally fused with auto reset circuit breakers. I've never had one so take this with a grain of salt. I would wire it directly to the battery, I'm not sure that that little fuse panel can handle the load with it's max 30 amps/circuit.

You are correct about the reset circuit breakers for the power lift. I ended up removing my power lift because I no longer trusted it. Too much to go wrong. But when it was on the camper and hooked up it did have a reset breaker directly on the positive battery post. It also had a 60 amp inline fuse concealed in the wiring harness that I didn't even know was there until it blew one day. It had a pretty large gauge wire going to it. I think it might have been 8 gauge. Pretty heavy stuff.

As for multiple wires on the positive battery post. I had that also. One wire was for the solar controller, one was for the Electric winch, one was for the camper accessories, and one was for the small Inverter I installed. It was kind of a mess in there. So I installed a battery cut-off switch and connected all wires to that and then ran only one wire to the battery. On the wire going from the switch to the battery I had an inline fuse. I think it was a 30 amp fuse. It is all much neater in there now.