Alright after my last post about messy battery cables http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/28283107.cfm and seeing Westend's pic for his DIY wire box I figure I will do the same. Like Westend said finding copper bar stock locally is not easy so I'm thinking about taking a 3/4" piece of copper water pipe and making it flat. Final size should be about 1/4 inch thick by what ever 3/4" round flattens out to be. I'll then use 1/4 x 20 stainless bolts as posts for the battery cables lugs.What do you guys think? Good idea?

You know those L- irons hardware stores have..with all the holes? I used couple layers of them.

I find 1/2 inch pipe banged flat works (wide enough for 3/8 bolt holes) where 3/4 flat is too wide at times. Also some battery clamps can't open enough for the 3/4 round part.

I don't think plumbing pipe is of the same purity as buss-bar or electrical wiring, so it's resistance will be higher.Just how many amps are you trying to carry? What's wrong with the buss bars for sale on Amazon, Lowes, Home Depot, etc?

Hi,I had plenty of 1/2" diameter ACR tubing, that comes on a roll, and is filled with nitrogen at the factory, to keep it clean inside. The soft copper is easy to bend, and will not crack when you try to flatten it. I used my 6" bench vice, it worked well! What I did was flatten out about 3" of tubing, then fold back about 1/2 of that length. Drill a 3/8" hole in the flat section, and the remaining 1/2" or so, (that was not flat) I put the 000 size wire in it, and then clamped that in the vice, so it never failed (well since 1997 - it might fail someday). . .If you are looking for a 'ground' bussbar, then flatten 1/2" tubing, and have the end open to accept the wire going to the battery. This can be any size, say #4 wire, then clamp that in the vice, it will hold forever! You can drill 1/4" holes where needed. Put in a #10 screw about 1" long and a nut right next to the copper. You can then add about 5 wires to that screw, and put on another nut, to hold all the solderless connectors to that bolt. Use multiple bolts, with 3-5 wires per bolt, or bolt a large amperage wire directly to the copper buss. For a 'hot' bussbar, I would recommend a fuse assembly. Your local auto parts store should sell a fuse holder with 6, 10, or 12 fuses of 5 to 30 amps capacity for each fuse. Normally they also have a large terminal for the +12 battery wire. You don't want more than about 12 fuses, as normally they have 20 amp fuses, and you would want only about 100 amps load on each fuse box, due to voltage loss over the wire between the fuse holder and battery.Plumbing water pipe is all copper, but normally fairly stiff. The ACR tubing or tubing sold on a roll, it will have less zinc in it, and more pure copper, so it will be softer. You can buy 50' roll of soft copper at Home Depot, where they probably also sell it by the foot. 2' will make 8 each 3" long battery terminals, or the bussbar (say 6" long) and several battery terminals. Good luck!Fred.

GordonThree wrote:I don't think plumbing pipe is of the same purity as buss-bar or electrical wiring, so it's resistance will be higher.Just how many amps are you trying to carry? What's wrong with the buss bars for sale on Amazon, Lowes, Home Depot, etc?I'm not sure of the amp's but since I have 2 group 24 batterys I would think its around 200 amps? Want to put a couple boxes on the trailer frame to collect all the trailer wires so all I have running to the battery's is one positive and one negative lead. Trying to clean up the wires hanging under the trailer before I hook them on something and tear things up as well as clean up the battery posts since there about full with solar and inverter cables.I can't find anything but electrical breaker box ground bar bus's at the local hardware stores.

DIY copper bus bar | Good Sam Community

bka0721
Explorer II
Apr 08, 2015
CA Traveler wrote:
3/4" copper pipe buss bar and battery monitor shunt. Note: These are AGM batteries and locating a shunt near flooded batteries should be avoided due to the corrosive battery fumes.
CA Traveler makes a really good point in how you decide where and when you place your battery bank. One more important point is to remove points of ignition from close proximity to off gassing batteries. Many place their invertors within close proximity to their FWC battery banks. Often in the storage cabinets under their Motorhomes.

In my case, I have my battery bank completely isolated physically enclosing (all 4 sides) and providing distance. Being a fulltimer I build everything on the road, as shown in the below picture of building my coffin (batter bank enclosure) One thing I learned, the off gassing of the FWC dissolved the wood glue and corroded the finishing nails I used in assembling my cabinet. Coming back and using screws was the solution I should have done at the onset.
CA_Traveler
Explorer III
Apr 08, 2015
bka0721,

I wondered where you had all of those batteries. Nice setup.

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