Made a start today. Ripping out all the old wiring from the previous owner. If an Auto Electrician did the trailer lights, they should be made to re-do their apprenticeship! And the person who did the rear SB50 Anderson just shouldn't be allowed to work on vehicles at all!
Other than that, the rest of the work wasn't bad.
But this is what I had to pull out:
- Single 6mm2 positive from battery, right across firewall into drivers footwell, into a relay switched from IGN/ACC, then 4mm2 twin down to rear cargo area, to provide an ACC switched Cig Socket in the right side of the cargo area.
- 8 core trailer wire cable from right hand side tail light to 7pin flat trailer connector. (Only need 5!)
- Twin 4mm2 going through right hand tail light to 7pin flat trailer connector, that was only connected to the Earth point behind the right hand tail light, but the +ve wasn't connected to anything! (Think it might have been connected to the switched line at some point before the SB50 was installed straight to the battery?)
- 8mm2 RED from rear Anderson SB50 -ve, to Earth under car, secured with a Self Drilling TekScrew!
- 8mm2 Red from battery, all the way underneath the under car, to rear Anderson SB50 +ve.
- 1mm2 Black/White from Number Plate lights to stripped and soldered 'intercept' to tail light wire on 8 Core cable to trailer plug
- 2.5mm2 with inline blade fuse to front light bar relay. (Going to incorporate this into a new 4-Way 'Maxi' Blade Fuse Box with ONE feed from battery, going to: 25w UHF Radio[7.5A], 220w Light bar [20A], Front Anderson SB50[50A], and IDC25 Dual Battery+Solar unit.[50A])
"The Plan"
Probably shoulda washed the engine bay first, eh? Oh well.... I'll do it when the temp gets above 10DegC!
I'll re-wire the trailer socket
properly at a later time. Dual Battery system is today's job.
I think the IDC25 can go here:
How convenient, a 'noice' Earth point right underneath it! I'll bring all the Earths to here.
(AUX Batt, IDC 25, 600w Inverter, Solar Panel, & Rear Anderson SB50 outlet)
And the plan is:
- Yellow Housing on rear Tyre Carrier: RED Anderson SB50 for Solar Panel Input to IDC25 controller
- Black Housing on Towbar adjacent 7Pin Trailer socket: Grey Anderson SB50 for general output power, air compressor, Camp LED Lighting, etc.
- Blue Housing on Front Bullbar: Grey Anderson connected to front Starting Battery, through a 50A fuse, for air compressor, Gneral 12V power, & charging/float/maintenance input for main battery from 10w solar panel with Regulator.
I'm going to earth both the Yellow housing Solar input and Black Housing 12v AUX Batt output Anderson SB50's to the towbar with short 'pigtails', and then earth the whole towbar with a heavy cable or copper braid to the 'chassis'. That way I only have to run a 4mm2 twin (Red[12v+]/White[Solar]) into the car. Less wires, less holes, less chance of water ingress during water crossings.
Now, to find a 4-Way Maxi Fuse box, one for the front, and another for the back, to act as a distribution box too.
to be continued......