Accessory Wiring - Need Inspiration

[fuse]

I'm working on mounting and wiring some amber rear lights that I got for Xmas. Nothing fancy, but they should do a good job of cutting through the dust clouds so I don't get rear-ended by the Jeep behind me.

I'd like to do a decent job with the wiring harness, but that's not my strong point. If I can get it right, I hope to have room for some extra circuits for future accessories too.

So I'm looking for inspiration! Who has some nice clean accessory wiring that they can show off?

 

[112dB]

 

[fuse]

View attachment 139362

That's a nice setup at the battery! How about the relays and wiring to the switches?

 

[C.J. Roberts]

Here's what I have: This is mounted on the tray below the master cylinder. Power runs through the firewall, to the switch panel, through individual fuses, and back to the relays and to the lights

A 10ga. wire runs from the battery to a Circuit breaker to here.

Through the firewall to a switch panel

Each switch has it's own fuse too

The relay here is for the back up lights.
I hope this helps. Any questions please just ask.

 

[112dB]

That's a nice setup at the battery! How about the relays and wiring to the switches?

Oh I haven’t gotten to that point... this is mostly for the stereo, but 3/4 of the smaller wires are for ‘future use’ - not sure what I’ll be using them for, yet. Probably rock lights or something like that.

 

[fuse]

Here's what I have: This is mounted on the tray below the master cylinder. Power runs through the firewall, to the switch panel, through individual fuses, and back to the relays and to the lights


View attachment 139374

A 10ga. wire runs from the battery to a Circuit breaker to here.View attachment 139375

Through the firewall to a switch panel View attachment 139376

Each switch has it's own fuse too
View attachment 139378

The relay here is for the back up lights.
I hope this helps. Any questions please just ask.

Nice work! I like that the switch circuits have fuses too. I've been thinking of doing that.

I've also been eyeing up the space under the master cylinder where the ABS unit would be. That's some nice real estate conveniently located to run wires through the firewall.

What did you use to mount the relays? Are they just bolted on to a bracket of some sort? With a separate harness for each relay?

 

[Goatman]

While in the planning stage it would be sweet if you had a 'flashing' or 'strobe' function along with just 'on'. The desert racers flash to make themselves more visible to the guys behind them. Perhaps using a 4way flasher or something. Just a thought.

 

[Irving]

Nice work! I like that the switch circuits have fuses too. I've been thinking of doing that.

I've also been eyeing up the space under the master cylinder where the ABS unit would be. That's some nice real estate conveniently located to run wires through the firewall.

What did you use to mount the relays? Are they just bolted on to a bracket of some sort? With a separate harness for each relay?

Hi, in my opinion independent fuses for the switches is a bit of an overkill (not recommending you to not do it but I wouldn't), you can supply 12v to all your relays with 1 fused line and activate the relays using GND instead of 12v (which is the correct and safer way to do because all of your individual switch signals in case of a damaged wire are GND signals and will cause no sparks when touching a metallic ground source), and use independent fuses for all of your accessories connected to the switching side of the relay (led bars, flood lights, audio equipment, etc); this will allow you to have different amperage fuse according to the accessory needs.

The only disadvantage will be if your relay fuse is blown you wont have control over any of the relays until you replace it (relays don't use that much current so if your connections are correctly made and protected you shouldn't have any issue).

This is only a recommendation but what do I know... i'm only an engineer

 

[fuse]

Hi, in my opinion independent fuses for the switches is a bit of an overkill (not recommending you to not do it but I wouldn't), you can supply 12v to all your relays with 1 fused line and activate the relays using GND instead of 12v (which is the correct and safer way to do because all of your individual switch signals in case of a damaged wire are GND signals and will cause no sparks when touching a metallic ground source), and use independent fuses for all of your accessories connected to the switching side of the relay (led bars, flood lights, audio equipment, etc); this will allow you to have different amperage fuse according to the accessory needs.

The only disadvantage will be if your relay fuse is blown you wont have control over any of the relays until you replace it (relays don't use that much current so if your connections are correctly made and protected you shouldn't have any issue).

This is only a recommendation but what do I know... i'm only an engineer

That sounds good. Did I mention I'm crap at wiring? Let me see if I understand what you're saying.

The control circuit would go from the positive lead through a fuse to all the relays. Then the ground side of each relay would go through a switch then back to ground. Is that right?

If I do that right, I think the LED in the switch should still light up.

 

[Irving]

That sounds good. Did I mention I'm crap at wiring? Let me see if I understand what you're saying.

The control circuit would go from the positive lead through a fuse to all the relays. Then the ground side of each relay would go through a switch then back to ground. Is that right?

If I do that right, I think the LED in the switch should still light up.

Yes, you got it right!, just remember to add the individual fuse to all your outputs (accessories); the led on the switch should still light up, keep in mind that LED's are polarized so if the switch works but the LED does not light up try and changing the polarity of the switch connection / switch LED.

 

[fuse]

Yes, you got it right!, just remember to add the individual fuse to all your outputs (accessories); the led on the switch should still light up, keep in mind that LED's are polarized so if the switch works but the LED does not light up try and changing the polarity of the switch connection / switch LED.

Thanks! This is going to make the wiring much cleaner and easier because I'll just have one fuse for all the switches instead of individual fuses for each one.

And, yes, I do plan to have separate fuses for each of the accessory circuits.

 

[C.J. Roberts]

Nice work! I like that the switch circuits have fuses too. I've been thinking of doing that.

I've also been eyeing up the space under the master cylinder where the ABS unit would be. That's some nice real estate conveniently located to run wires through the firewall.

What did you use to mount the relays? Are they just bolted on to a bracket of some sort? With a separate harness for each relay?

Here's what I mounted the relays and fuse holder to:

These are lumber tie ins from Home Depot. The holes on the top piece line up with two of the holes on the tray. The bottom piece sits down over the top piece, and a fuse block mounts to the top of it while the relays mount to the side.
While I agree that fuses for the switches might be overkill, it certainly doesn't hurt. And while not an engineer, in a former life I was a U.S. Marine working on combat aircraft, and they were always wired hot.

 

[fuse]

Here's what I mounted the relays and fuse holder to:






View attachment 139520

View attachment 139521
These are lumber tie ins from Home Depot. The holes on the top piece line up with two of the holes on the tray. The bottom piece sits down over the top piece, and a fuse block mounts to the top of it while the relays mount to the side.
While I agree that fuses for the switches might be overkill, it certainly doesn't hurt. And while not an engineer, in a former life I was a U.S. Marine working on combat aircraft, and they were always wired hot.

Nice work fitting off-the-shelf hardware to the existing tray! I really like how clean the finished setup is!

 

[rdu-jeep]

View attachment 139362

For a newbie could you describe what I'm looking at?
Is the black/red wire loom and the red zip ties your custom doing?
Learning about how to wire in any accessories.. love the look of this

 

[joelachr]

View attachment 139362

Would you tell me more about your battery hold-down? I recently installed the same battery and the OEM hold down works but I don't like the awkward fit of it.

 

[112dB]

For a newbie could you describe what I'm looking at?
Is the black/red wire loom and the red zip ties your custom doing?
Learning about how to wire in any accessories.. love the look of this

Yes, all the black/red work is custom. I replaced the existing battery terminals and added my own aftermarket wiring to the stock wires. I added 4 guage cables to the existing stock runs for a Big 3 upgrade and also for the aftermarket stereo. The sheathing is a knock off of Techflex from wirecare.com that I got off of Amazon.

The fuse block on the left is a blue sea systems unit. It's what I use for powering accessories. Currently it's only powering the stereo DSP, but I will likely use it for rock lights and dash cams in the near future. Rather than place a fuse block in the interior of the Jeep, I figured it was easier to just place it under the hood.

The fuse block on the right is from KnuKonceptz. The one fuse is on the 4 guage that runs to the Amplifier, the second fuse protects the positive lead to the alternator that I added as part of the big 3 upgrade.

 

[112dB]

Would you tell me more about your battery hold-down? I recently installed the same battery and the OEM hold down works but I don't like the awkward fit of it.

You actually can't see the battery hold down in that picture. I used one of these battery hold downs in conjunction with this set of battery hold down bolts. What you see is the fuse holder mount that I made from abs plastic and mounted on top of the battery hold down and using the bolts from the hold downs to secure it.

More pictures are here: