bugga..

[Phizinza]

Yeah, well my parents house (which is where I live) is completely solar and wind.. Actually, I tell a lie, last year we bought a battery charger to run off my brothers 13hp gen set.. But we are close to only renewable energy. Apart from our cars...

 

Oh, btw, it's 240vac here in australia, but it doesn't make much difference. The amp ratings are still all the same.

 

This setup seems to work good, just need some bigger fuses (25A and 35A.)

Not perfect, but it works. And I shouldn't have a fire again (hopefully.) I'm really only fussed on the whole fire thing when it happens while the engine is stopped and your inside having a coffee or something... If it lights on fire while I'm in the car then thats ok..

 

Oh, and also, to explain what you see in that photo...

Off of the positive side of the battery is the starter cable now rapped in heater hose. A cable also runs to my new shunt (which is a device that an ammeter uses to read the current draw and feed of a electrical system.) The shunt is in a piece of radiator huse and then clamped to the car with some holy sheet steel. Yes, jesus made this him self. (sorry for that bad joke.) This then runs to a 6 spade fuse box. This is the bad part, I've parrelled the fuses so I can get 50amps on the headlight circuit and 70amps for the charge and ignition circuit. The problem here is if one fuse dies from either a bad connection on the other or whatever, so will the other right away.

The negative has a huge wire running to the chassis and another to the engine for the starter..

[daeron]

Yah, thats the biggest reason to spring for a maxi fuse block. They *do* make single inline maxi fuse holders, available with high gage wiring (i think even in a variety) for under ten bucks without the fuse.

 

The way you have run it is just a little old-fashioned; the key part is in making sure you have enough amperage rating in the circuit. The blade style fuses only go so high; BUT if memory serves I found higher rated fuses online than I typically do in my parts store, I think as high as 40 amp. In any case, if a short occurs that would blow one fuse the other would be dying anyhow. You have simply designed a system biased towards caution rather than zero maintenance, no big deal.

 

Anyhow, Just keep extra spare fuses and you should be good.

 

I like the heater hose idea; it is not dissimilar to the stock positive battery cable on my GL10.. (black wire with an extra red insulating sleeve on it) but more functional. I will DEFINITELY file that idea for future reference; it might make the idea of running wires through frame rails a little more palatable to me in "cleaning up" certain crowded engine bays.