I am looking to get rid of my OE battery terminal and am looking for something that will clean up the battery post. I already have a 4 ga wire for the sound system. I will be adding an addtional 0-4 ga wire to run my continous duty solenoids for my portable winch, and lights for my custom bumper.

I seen them on one of the pictures from DP's build. Has anyone used these? do they get tight enough and not loosen up after disconnecting a few times?

thanks,
Josh

Monster Performance Car - Monster 300 SlimLine™ Battery Terminals

 

Those things look pretty fancy-pants and would work great for a Honda.
But there is no provision for the VERY heavy duty connection that is required for supplying the amp load for the starter on the 7.3.
Just some little screw connections.

 

I agree with Kwikkordead,
If you look closely to the picture, the actual contact area is less than half of a regular battery connector.
Nick

 

It would be done on the driver side battery.

Are there any other ways I can do this?

0 ga wire for sound
0 ga wire for winch
10 ga wire for lights
12 ga wire for gauges

 

I have a wench mounted on my GN trailer.
I used welding lead cable to go from the starter connection to the back of the truck and reach the wench with cable to spare. I connected a another cable (ground) to the drivers side frame. The two cables extend beyond the truck in equal length. I also have welding quick connects on wench and cable ends.

 

Put this terminal on the driver's side positive post with a cable coming out the other end and going to a power block mounted somewhere convenient for getting power for all your accessories.

In-Line Battery Terminal ~ All Battery Sales and Service

This is only rated for 30 amps, but it gives a good idea on what to look for as a power bus to supply all your power needs.

TERMINAL BLOCK 4 GANG

Now the other thing that you need to consider is the truck's wiring.
You'll have to run a jumper wire from the alternator post to the driver's side battery as well.
A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link and if you are supplying power to your winch, sound system, etc with 0 guage wire, but the charge wire for the alternator is only 4 gauge, then you are in effect only supplying everything with 4 guage wire.
Do you plan on putting a 200 amp alternator in to power all this too?

 

The wire for the winch will be run to a contious duty solenoid. This is going to be a portable winch for the custom bumper i am building(with built in quick connects) The reason for running the solenoids is because I will rarely be using the winch so I see no reason for running juice to the bumpers all the time.

If you havent realized, I am no wiring guru so bare with me.

I am thinking of running a distribution box for the winches. When I has Clay make my f650 dash, I had him make a switch for "front winch" and "rear winch" as I plan on running a solenoid for each bumper. This distribution box will run a single wire from the battery, then two others to each solenoid. Similar to this

http://www.monstercable.com/mpc/prod...3&section=four

So in other words there will be power comming from the battery, but wont be used all the time.

I will have to consider the 200 amp alternator(the one in the truck is newer)

How did you go about jumping the alternator to the battery? did you make the charge wire, and do they come in 0 ga?

thanks for all the input so far, this will be a lot better setup than I had originally planned!

-Josh

 

Large trucks, with much higher current draw for starting, do quite well with stud terminal batteries. You should visit the local heavy truck repair shop and ask them what is available for terminals and adapters. The nuts used on the heavy truck battery terminals are special, and the terminals are not just big loop terminals.

The real secret for current carrying is contact area. Any terminal, be it a tapered post (clamp-type) or stud needs enough surface area in contact to carry the amperage demanded. Your starter relay doesn't have all that much contact area, and it is subject to arcing when engaging and releasing. Even then, a good relay will last a long time. Copper terminals clamped tightly together can carry a lot of amps for their size, but bigger is better. Just because the stud isn't huge it can still carry a lot of current if it is clamping large copper or lead contact surfaces together. The terminals must be clamped tight, and should have a current-carrying anti-corrosive grease applied between the contact surfaces to ensure that they keep carrying the full current until they are disassembled the next time.

 

heres what I have so far..

I am not finding any terminal blocks that will hold 0-4 ga wire. I did find some distribution blocks(0ga in, 2-0ga out) but nothing bigger.

So for the battery terminal I am thinking something like this

Positive Battery Terminal

or

Positive Battery Terminal

These will give me 1 inlet(bridge cable) and two 0 ga out. One wire will go to a fused distribution box similar to this

2 Way Distribution System

then run 2-0 gauge wires to each solenoid for the winch.

The other wire from the battery terminal will be 0ga to another fused distribtion block which will distribute my amp wire, bumper light wires, gauge wire and anything else.

Am I getting hotter?

Another option could be running with winch off the passanger side battery as the winch will rarely get used. My only issue is the size of the aftermarket battery terminal. The OE one is quite large. Any options on that?

thanks,
Josh

 

You might check these out.

http://www.quickcable.com/details.php?partno=200106