Christine

I keep adding more electronics to my Jeep. Upper lights, bumper lights, winch, etc.
There is quite a mess of wires all over my battery. I've seen those battery terminals that have outputs for 4 gauge and 8 gauge wires. I thought of getting one of those for the positive side. I'm wondering if adding a power distribution box would take away some wire clutter?
Everything so far is running through relays.
Any tips?
thanks.

Alec

I got a fuse block at the parts store that takes one power input, takes 6 small blade fuses, and has 6 power output spades. I now have 4 aux power lines off the battery: stereo amp, air compressor, winch, and aux fuse block. The fuse block feeds my lights, CB, and other accessories.

The aux block really cleaned it up. I mounted it to a spare piece of plastic with the relays on the other side and it sides in the space between the battery and power distribution center. I wish I had pics, but I don't currently.

Vernnz

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...ctrical-Hookup

That is about the cleanest you can ask for. You have to use micro relays and the small fuses that the JK already uses. If you already have switches mounted they can easily be used again. You can also double up on the fuses if you want by using one fuse location for two or more smaller loads. Be careful with that, you don't want to overload a circuit.

As mentioned you can use a Blue Sea (style) fuse block but the issue there is that it doesn't have built in relays. There is a lot of area under the cowl for those components you rarely need to access like relays and distro blocks.

Car audio power distribution components are really good for use in Jeeps. They aren't waterproof but they are gold plated so corrosion isn't really a worry. If you expect your stock battery to go bad sometime soon you can consider a Group 34\78. It also has the side terminals so you can run the auxiliary connections there. I go back and forth between battery connections and changing the battery post to allow large AWG wiring.

A little flex loom goes a long way. It takes time but after the wiring is dressed in the casual observer can't tell the difference from factory.

How many circuits do you expect to need? On a scale of 1 - 10 how are you with electronics and wiring?

Christine

Wow, that's a great visual. Thanks.

So far, I have my winch, front offroad lights, top off road lights, PA, CB and I can't remember what else. My husband hooked everything up and ran alot to the battery. I had a show truck and I used a power distribution block and one of the high performance battery terminals with outputs, but I can't remember how I did it.

I just thought it looks like an octupus under the hood and wanted to clean it up. Everything is run to relays. On a scale of 1-10 I'd say I'm about a 7. I've hooked up quite a bit of electrical items on my show truck. I just think all that running to the battery can't be right.

Davebone42

here is another link that is a little easier to do than what joe002 did with his (alot cheaper and still clean and organized)
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...ainless+wiring

Vernnz

bluesea.com/category/5/21/productline/126
You could use one of these to replace the wiring to the battery. If you have the circuits Ingnition-Switched this won't change that. It will only locate all of your fuses in one location. They also make a 6 circuit version. This obviously does nothing for the winch.

Stinger SPT53102
Plug that into your favorite search engine. You could use the 1/0 for the existing JK feed. The 4 AWG could be your winch. The remaining 8 AWGs could go to the above fuse block, HAM radio, Cooper Bussmann RTMR fuse block, etc. You get the idea. That is just an example. I don't know the AWG of your winch or even the JK for that matter. Whatever the size wiring I am sure there is a usable battery terminal.

Are you wanting to rewire your extra circuits or just clean them up? If you have enough slack the wiring can be very easily dressed and tucked out of sight. Everything can probably be very easily cleaned up. As far as everything running to the battery, as long as none of the wiring is chafing it is probably OK.

There is no such thing as running too many accessories to the battery. Before you (all) light me up...There IS such a thing as running things INCORRECTLY to the battery.

Christine

All this info is so helpful. Thanks so much.
If it's okay to run everything to the battery, then I just want to clean things up. Maybe I'm just used to my show truck where all the wiring was so neatly done.