My truck has a short I'm wanting to add a kill switch wanted to go on negative side any I saw that the negative cables were on each side of the motor in the front I was going to pull them and add a switch on the inner bumper ? Any pics or suggestions

 

If you plan to disconnect the batteries from ground through a switch, you are going to be disappointed unless it's a VERY-HIGH-CURRENT "knife-type" switch.

Starter motors and glow plugs combined draw a LOT of current.

Figure on switching at least 250 amps at 12 volts.

Pop

 

Thanks any ideas

 

You might want to look at a marine battery disconnect switch. I gotta ask though, what makes you want to do this?

 

I have a tuner it' hooked to my PCM its always running power If I forget to start my truck in 4 days it will run down the batteries

 

I'd be looking at how to make the tuner stop doing that before I looked at putting a disconnect switch on the batteries...

 

When I spoke with edge they told me it needed to run power at all time to it for memory

 

The edge and similar ScanGuage II, etc. do draw power. However, we're talking about .5 mv. Sounds as though you have a parasitic draw. Have you tried un-plugging the edge for a few days while it sits and then try? Most of these systems also have "sleep" mode when voltage drops. You shouldn't have this problem if it is the edge. Others chime in...

 

I can unplug at the PCM and leave it for days and batteries stay charged, it's not a daily driver and sometimes I forget to start.

 

Agreed.

The parasitic draw from these units is far from being excessive, especially for a vehicle with two batteries. Customers of the company for whom I work (who drive F150s) can commonly leave their trucks parked for 3-4 weeks without starting before the draw leaves the battery severely weakened.

Four days is cause for concern. Check your batteries. Given the memory recollection from my diagnostician days at a dealership level, a 0.060 Amps (sixty milliamps) draw on a good battery can leave it discharged enough to cause starting issues after 20-25 days....on a single battery.

 

Thank. You guys

 

I recently installed two battery mains dial type quick-disconnects with a 15 Amp fused bypass (having a separate quick wing nut release) to keep alive memory power for the PCM computer and radio station and clock presets, and most importantly, the alarm system.

These are NOT the Harbor Freight versions, albeit they look very similar, if not identical.

The bypass allows a thief to believe all is good when they break into the truck and suffer through the alarm sound while they set about to hot wire start it. All the interior lights and dash lights are lit up. But as soon as they engage ignition, the two 15 amp bypass fuses blow, and they now have to monkey around under the hood, taking more time and calling more attention to themselves in the process. That is the hope anyway.

These screw in dial type disconnects are rated for 125 amps each. I was kind of hoping when used in unison across two batteries, the equalized distributed load in parallel would combine the 125+125 ratings and be adequate. The knife type are rated for 250 amps each, which I would have preferred, but they don't fit well (can't close hood) and I didn't care for the form factor.

Has anyone ever had trouble with these dial type disconnects? Vibration? Resistance? Other?

(I haven't had them in long enough to make my own determination.)

 

I also have thought about doing this but instead using a caterpillar disconnect switch with a removable key

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Caterpillar-Master-Disconnect-7N0718-Cat-Switch-w-keys-/110735572457?pt=BI_Heavy_Equipment_Parts&hash=item19c85abde9