FWIW I prefer the solenoid post over the battery clamp assuming a not running draw of less then 200A. It's minor but there are a few advantages.

It's a taller but smaller diameter post, allowing more things to be piled on and smaller lugs can be used.

Adding things at the battery clamp adds a little risk and hassle. Everything get's messed with more with disconnecting to do work, jumper cables, etc. This leads to the wires attacked there being messed with more, damaged by jumper clamps, etc. It also increases the risk of the clamp breaking. With most cable setups that's easily dealt with, with these fantastic stock dual battery cables it's a $100 replacement.

If you are going to add a bunch of stuff to the battery clamp do it on the drivers side. The single termination is easy to replace and the clamp smaller. In fact that's a decent option for the OP closer to his original thoughts. Just replace the drivers side clamp with a military/marine terminal and add all the stuff you want.

 

My solenoid power point is "tapped out". There is no room for anything else but thin terminals.

Using military terminals, I'm also custom making jump cables like this:




Using this type, I'll never have to put clamps on the batt. and using the military type lugs, I won't be stuck to using just one battery. I'm going to use 6 ga. wire for body/chassis ground to alternator then to battery. And 6 ga wire from alternator to solenoid to battery. And on this truck, There is a ground on the wiper motor (from block), fuel/water separator, under dash right of fuse block, and one on each inner fender,and hood, and virtually no chassis ground. So what I did to ELIMINATE any doubt, I ran all the grounds from back of block,and water separator to one point (A). I also ran two new 10 ga. chassis grounds from each rail to ground A. Then, I ran a 10 ga. wire from inner fender grounds, hood(B), solenoid, and random quick disconnect ground to point A also using linear wire. Then, ran a 10 ga. wire from dash ground in cab right of fuse block to point A also. I plan on installing a 6 ga. ground from the hood tie in point(B) to alternator case then to battery. There was another hole already drilled in the firewall so I ran ANOTHER 10 ga. wire into the cab "Just in case". I have not got new bat. cables yet. All wire is stranded copper with 1/4" soldered eyelet terminals using star washers and bolt connections. I THINK I got all of it. I'll do a video later to fully cover it. All I did was run hardlines for grounds and not rely on the body to do it. This is still a work in progress and far from done. Once I get the batt. cables I'll have under hood done. Still have exhaust, bed, tailgate, and doors to do. After looking further, Is there a correct way to replace all the fusible links with real fuses in a fuse block? There was 3 holes drilled in the firewall and I made use of two of them. The third I "filled" with JB weld for now. But somewhere, There is still a mystery body to chassis ground I can't find and feeling behind the dash I think I felt another ground point. Where are they located in the cab? And how can I use the trailer harness connection under the master cylinder?

 

Ohh snap, there wasn't anything to leave between the snips where you mentioned a connection large enough to attach those cables.


OK well do what you like then, I'll watch out for your next thread titled "Cranking slow, won't start, HELP!"

Using a military terminal on the drivers side battery is just fine, and connecting that big cable there is all good as well. But too much juice flows through the passenger side terminal and the stock cable works great. Why fix what ain't broke, so you can spend a bunch of money on extra cable?


Also there's a reason the military and commercial trucks can get away with so many stud terminals on batteries. Cause they are standardized on 24V, twice the voltage = half the amperage.

 

I know how military equipment is. I spent part of my life servicing it. No need to get "defensive" because I don't jump on your suggestion because I simply cannot due to equipment limitations. Stock is that. Stock. Stock is not always the best way. I thank you for your help/suggestion though.

 

You can do the grounds in a logical way, and you may not need as many and have less to keep up with. To be truthful I do not know all the factory ground locations, just some here and there I have run across. But here is how I usually attack and troubleshoot grounding;

The spot that needs the best/largest ground is the starter motor. It's the largest power hog. 2nd on a diesel truck is the glowplug system. But lucky for us, both of these power hogs are mounted on the engine block. So priority for the largest grounds are the engine block. The factory handled this by a large dedicated ground from each battery to the engine block. And it just so happens the alternator is bolted to the engine block via brackets and mounting bolts, so it should not need a extra ground wire.

There is a problem though, the engine, transmission/transfer case/rearend springs are all mounted in rubber mounts and bushings. So there is basically no ground for the frame or the body. On most trucks they run a ground from the top rear of the engine to the firewall sheetmetal. Not sure if it's the wiper motor like you describe, it's usually directly to the firewall. The wiper motors are usually mounted in rubber also for noise, so they have their own little short ground wire going from the motor to the firewall. The block to the firewall usually takes care of grounding to the devices inside the cab.

I am not sure how they grounded the frame on a diesel truck. On the gas trucks with one battery and one large ground going to the block, they usually stripped some insulation back on the ground wire, and put a metal clamp around it and bolted it to the frame. However you do it, the frame does need attention and needs to be grounded, it's usually easier to run a ground from the block to the frame to prevent getting too many wires up around the battery area.

Of course all this high amp stuff you are adding needs grounding consideration. When I mounted my snowplow I went ahead and ran a heavy ground wire from the plow pump to the battery negative, just to make sure it had enough grounding and not rely on any of the factory grounds.

 

I'll add pics when I get back to the truck to help explain. The block is getting both two 0 ga. hot and two 0 ga. grounds totaling four 0 ga. wires. I was always under the impression the trans grounded through the block when married. I'm adding a ground directly to the alternator because honestly, I don't trust the brackets and block without tearing it all apart. And, there's alot of potential points of failure. This way, If I have a ground fault, There's much less points. There was a ground from block to firewall but it was mounted to the wiper motor. It has been relocated to a common ground. On my truck, The chassis ground was a really badly crimped 10 ga. wire bolted to the right frame rail then to block battery ground. I'm surprised it even worked it was so bad. I'll upload a pic with the others later. The new frame ground is two 10 ga. wires ran to each rail grounded to point A. After doing this, The factory grounds are very weak. Just like Fords fusible links. Weak and bad idea. Would like to replace with a fuse block instead but that can wait I suppose.

 

I personally like and am a proponent of fusible links. They are small and compact, and are there only to protect the wiring if something very unusual happens. You can certainly replace fusible links with fuses, but they are the very large mega fuses and take up a lot of room with the holder or fuse block. The later trucks do use more mega fuses and have a underhood fuse box, but they still have a few fusible links they use.

 

Fuse links are OK for certain applications but when its 345 am and you're 600 miles from home and one decides to give up and leaves you with a dead truck....ask me how I know. Fuses are easier to diagnose and replace. Mega fuse blocks are OK with me. Its only for the "main" power sources anyway. I know the 04 f350 has if I remember right, 3 fuse links straight off the right battery.