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Question about best location to grab positive power from battery
To start, I have a 2022 F250 7.3L with single battery. I am looking to feed a relay with power from the battery and wondering where the best location to grab this power is from. I noticed that there is a heavy gauge cable that runs from battery +ve to what looks like a power distribution box right next to the battery (indicated in picture below). There are a couple of terminals in this box that are unused. Is it safe for me to connect a properly sized cable to one of these terminals or should I go directly to the battery?
What I am trying to accomplish is running a cable to the back of the truck to an Anderson Connector to power a 2000lb winch on my trailer. I will be using a relay connected to an upfitter so as to be able to cut power to this circuit when not in use. I have done all my homework on the size of relay / cables / fuses etc. Just looking for best place to grab +ve power from.
The battery terminal or the starter terminal. I don't know if the cable size running to the fuse box is big enough to carry the load of a winch in its duty cycle rating. I doubt it, but, again, I don't know that for fact. The battery or starter terminal will.
Battery terminal is the right answer. That is the most direct connection to the power source. My snowplow motor is direct to the battery, same truck, 7.3 single battery.
I always like to go to the first connection point after the battery post. I've had issues with the ring connectors being quickly destroyed by a small amount of acid found around the positive post, combined with dissimilar metal reactions. In one case the ring connector turned to mostly green goo in 2 months.
i used the battery terminal to power a 3000lb atv winch mounted on a sled deck. ran 2 gauge cable from the engine bay to the bed with an anderson conenctor. pretty easy. you can also buy those wiring kits premade.
are you just planning to use a 4pin hd relay in addition to the winch contactor for safety? fwiw i only used the winch solenoid for +8 years without issue. consider using a wireless remote too...
Go to the battery post. You can add a connection very easily. I added a stainless steel bolt for that exact purpose. The existing wiring is not as stout as it needs to be for a very large draw like a winch might demand. Going to the starter means you will be pulling all of that amperage through the 4 gauge wire that goes from the battery to the starter - not a good idea. Also - you should add a larger ground wire from the battery post to the frame as well.
I added a 1/0 ground from the negative post to the same grounding point on the frame. Much greater current capacity. On my 2019 that frame ground is directly under the passenger side battery. You can see it from the wheel well.
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