As some may know, i built a custom bumper for my truck which has 2-Piaa520's and 2-Piaa 510's. I also plan on running a portable which.

That being said I felt i needed to beef up the batteries not only to hold the draws, but I needed terminal space for all these goodies.

I went to a local industrial supply store and picked up 19ft(end of their spool) of 4/o welding cable, 4 HD cable connectors, solder slugs and shrink tube. $227 welding cable was $9/ft

I've been researching and buying parts for a good month now. It took me 2 full days to do this little project.

I have heard the battery cable harness can go bad, so i decided to replace that. From the starter to batter was 3/0, and bridge cable was 4ga? Both are now 4/o.


size difference



This 4/o is hard to snake thru and move around but managed to get it in a position where it can easily be removed from the starter



I spliced the tube and fit this wire into it for the hanger near the front.
The bridge cable would not fit under the radiator supports so I had to run it ontop and zip tied it to the jack handles.





for the lights, I made a plate for the relays and a spot for my distribution block. I ran 0ga from the top post over to the distribution block, then hooked the lights power cables, gauge power cable, and riffraffs f650 dash power cable to the dist. block. the other 4ga wire running off the top post is for my amp. KNUkonceptz battery terminals. The one thing I dont like about the terminals are the set screws. I tried tightening my negative one and busted thru the counterbore. I will just have to make a wedge so I can really crank on them.



with headlights, 4 lights and subs turned up, its still cranking 14 volts both batteries both at idle and 1200 hi idle. truck turned off, it goes down to 12 volts with everything on. Goes back to 13 when lights and amp turned off.

I guess the real test will be running the winch. I am still going to run a bigger alternator once this one fries.

Question. The lead wire runs from the alternator to solenoid. Then theres an 8 ga wire that goes from the solenoid to the battery. Would beefing this cable help also? I was suprised how small this wire, especially considering the lead wire isnt any bigger.

 

Wow.... those are some seriously beefed up wires! Hows the insulation/heat rating vs. the stock cables?

 

Look for the pictures of Kwikkordead's truck. Instead of beefing up the alternator wire, just add an additional ground and hot wire from the alternator to the battery.

The ground wire can go on one of the mounting bolts for the alternator, and the hot wire should be added to the back of the alternator. They don't have to be beefed up wire, but adding the additional wires direct to the battery will help keep them charged up.

 

iirc it said 107 degree C, so 193F. not sure what the stock ones, but I held a lighter to both the new and old cables and the old ones softened up a lot more than the new

 

I have seen what he does, but i couldnt find any benefits with #'s to prove it so maybe can chime in.

 

Though I applaud what you did here, there's a fair amount of unnecessary over-kill.

I believe I would have spent some of the money to fit a third battery somewhere.

If you are going to use the additional loads a lot, you'll need that additional generation ability to keep up with the demand, so plan for the upgraded alternator sooner rather than later.

Your work looks real professional.

Kwik's additional wiring reduces the I^2R losses that occur through the factory's fusible links and associated wiring. I added the positive wire to mine, and am considering the negative one as well. I am also thinking about installing a 150-amp in-line fuse to the positive side addition for safety in case of multi-diode failure.

Pop

 

I dont consider it to be overkill, although I do agree that just upgrading the wiring wont do much alone. It is important when ever doing big increases in the electrical system to upgrade "The Big 3".

An upgraded alternator (or possibly second, depending on how you wanna go about it), would be a very nice compliment to the system, however I dont think a third battery would be necessary.

 

I did the crossover on mine solely because I pull a 40' toy hauler into the dunes 10 times a year and getting stuck just goes along with the fun so the amperage available to my winch is crucial, other than that reason I could not have justified the cost.

 

The "big three" probably is far more important as applied to ricers rather than diesels.

So, can we agree to disagree?

I will admit I don't stretch my electrical system's limits to the edge. However, if I did, I would add both reserve capacity as well as generation, and not spend my money to upgrade a Ford diesel's primary cabling.

YMMV.

Pop

 

FYI don't use the side terminals on the batt for heavy winching if possible. In our experience we have found the side terminals cannot handel the amperage the top posts can.

 

Thought I would chime in and show the end results

I ended up finding a big enough continous duty solenoid to run my Warn 9000 winch. My winch is on a cradle and is portable, so I use 0ga plow connectors. One on the bumper, and one on the winch. The winch draws 450 amps at 9000 lb pull, so it kept blowing the ones warn reccomends(120 amps) Why a continous duty solenoid? Because I dont use the winch often so comtrolling the power to the bumper by a switch was something I wanted to have

12 Volt DC 500 amp continuous duty relay replaces Delco 1119865CD, 9-865CD

Heres the difference between the two



Installed. You can see 0ga running from battery to solenoid. Then solenoid to bumper.

 

I didn't see a price on the relay.
I've thought about upgrading my batteries and cables and add another battery.
I have a warn rs9000 on a cradle also, I didn't realize it drew that much amps. I have 250a connectors. I think they are called Anderson connectors or something. Similar to what's on forklifts only the next size smaller. I haven't had issues yet, but most I've winched is 6000 rolling and 3500lb with both rear wheels locked up.

How do the two red tops start the truck in the cold.