Cleaning up the mess of battery cables.

[Muddydogs]

My trailer battery's are a mess of wires, the posts were full from the factory then I added wires for the solar, inverter and others. I was thinking about mounting two of these power posts https://www.bluesea.com/products/category/PowerPost_Connectors/PowerPost to my trailer frame behind the battery's so I could attach all the cables to them then just run one + and - to the battery's. Would sure make checking water levels and getting the box lids on easier.

Good idea? Any other suggestions?

[Gjac]

To organize my battery cables and wires I made a 1 in by 3 in by 1/8 in thk plate steel and drilled two holes at either end. In one end I put a 2 in long 1/4 in SS bolt and nut the other end attached to the battery post. This provided 3 terminations for battery, inverter, generator,shut wires and other cables to attach to.

[westend]

mrgreetis wrote:
Westend, do you recall where you got the 1/4 x 1 inch copper bar for your bus? I really like the way you did it.

Mike

I buy lots of non-ferrous metals from Discount Steel. They have a yard close to me so shopping there is easy. They also ship.

Most larger electrical distributors will also handle bus bars but usually in larger sizes.

[Muddydogs]

What are you guys using to crimp battery cable lugs? Keep in mind I will be laying on my back under the trailer. I'm thinking I will be shortening up a few wires as the bus bar will be at least 2 feet closer then the battery's are. For past lug crimping I have used a pair of long handled channel locks (water pump pliers for you farmers that run irrigation).

I was under the trailer today installing an electric tounge jack and replacing the temp wire off the solar controller and I have to say the wires could use some rerouting and tucking up. If I ever hook a stob or bush I will have a problem.

[BFL13]

Muddydogs wrote:
Would you guys hook your solar wires and inverter wires to the bus bar or still take them to the battery's?

They go to the bus bars. The Trimetric shunt (or/plus an extension from its outer end to another bus bar) is the neg bus.

The only wires to the battery should be the fat neg from the inner end of the shunt and the fat pos from the pos bus bar plus the pos wire from the breakaway switch (with a battery disconnect switch interrupting that fat wire between bus and battery.)

The pos wire from the Trimetric also goes to the bus. It works as long as it is the same battery bank the neg from the shunt is on.

[Muddydogs]

Would you guys hook your solar wires and inverter wires to the bus bar or still take them to the battery's?

[BFL13]

BruceMc wrote:

BFL13 wrote:

To get a complete disconnect, have the switch going straight to the battery and all the pos wires on the outer side of the switch. (Except leave the breakaway switch wire right on the battery positive post, and don't fuse that wire either)

When I was setting up my pickup to tow a tandem flatbed with brakes, I was discussing breakaway circuits with an old friend - he stated he originally had a fuse in his break-away wire. He said one day he was working his way down a long gravel hill towing a tractor on a flatbed when the fuse blew. It was all he could to to manage the impending train wreak.

He suggested I put a self-resetting circuit breaker inline.

Appears to be some confusion here.

The blue wire on the 7-pin works the trailer brakes from the brake controller in the truck. Not to be confused with the trailer brakes getting power from the trailer battery when the 7-pin has broken away (along with any hitching to the tow vehicle--ie a "breakaway")

The rule is the breakaway switch on the trailer should not be fused to the trailer battery and not go via a disconnect switch either.

Shown here as an example-(Komfort 5er) see where it says no fuse to the trailer brakes from the blue wire, and none on the breakaway either

[mrgreetis]

Westend, do you recall where you got the 1/4 x 1 inch copper bar for your bus? I really like the way you did it.

Mike

[BruceMc]

BFL13 wrote:

To get a complete disconnect, have the switch going straight to the battery and all the pos wires on the outer side of the switch. (Except leave the breakaway switch wire right on the battery positive post, and don't fuse that wire either)

When I was setting up my pickup to tow a tandem flatbed with brakes, I was discussing breakaway circuits with an old friend - he stated he originally had a fuse in his break-away wire. He said one day he was working his way down a long gravel hill towing a tractor on a flatbed when the fuse blew. It was all he could to to manage the impending train wreak.

He suggested I put a self-resetting circuit breaker inline.

[BFL13]

It is usual for the battery disconnect switch to not include the trailer's breakaway switch pos wire, the LP alarm, the stereo, the jacks, and the slide motor.

To get a complete disconnect, have the switch going straight to the battery and all the pos wires on the outer side of the switch. (Except leave the breakaway switch wire right on the battery positive post, and don't fuse that wire either)

The one fat positive wire going to the battery gets a big fuse that can take all the amps, then the other wires (" branches") each get a smaller sized fuse and wire gauge according to the amps on that wire branch where their fuses are located near the bus.

[Muddydogs]

BFL13 wrote:
Over on the positive side, you might have a battery disconnect switch that has the one fat wire to the battery and all pos wires from everywhere stacked up somehow to the outer end of that switch. The switch probably can't hold them all stacked so you need a positive bus to take some of them.

I do have a disconnect switch but 3 or 5? wires still hook to the pos battery cable. Guess I should track them down and see if they could be hooked into the disconnect switch, not sure what they go to but I can't think of anything that would require constant power in the trailer.

I will look into bus bars or a custom job as it would be nice to have something sealed to keep out the dirt. My trailer really needs something as the factory wires hang a little under the trailer and the few that come through a hole in the tongue are ridding on the metal since the hole is to big to keep the plastic grommet in place. One of these days I am going to hook a rock or sagebrush and rip some wires off.

Thanks for the input guys.

[westend]

You can DIY a very good bus for a fraction of the cost of a store-bought bus. The only critical part is a piece of copper flat bar big enough to handle all the loads. I used a 1" x 1/4" bar,IIRC. I chose to tap the holes and use SS fasteners (don't want them coming loose). The bars are mounted in conventional 4" plastic waterproof boxes available at the big box stores. I chose to glue and screw in standoffs for the bus bars inside the boxes (HDPE). You can use your own creativity on how they are secured in the box (or not secure them at all).

A (+) phase bus:

[64thunderbolt]

Muddydogs wrote:
My trailer battery's are a mess of wires, the posts were full from the factory then I added wires for the solar, inverter and others. I was thinking about mounting two of these power posts https://www.bluesea.com/products/category/PowerPost_Connectors/PowerPost to my trailer frame behind the battery's so I could attach all the cables to them then just run one + and - to the battery's. Would sure make checking water levels and getting the box lids on easier.

Good idea? Any other suggestions?

I have been thinking the same thing. Just been too lazy to get it done.

[time2roll]

Posts are fine and you probably need a bus.

[BFL13]

The Trimetric shunt on the neg side gets your one fat neg wire to battery while the other end of the shunt has to collect all the incoming negs. So you need another neg bus out from that to help collect all the negs, since the shunt bolt can't take them all stacked up.

Over on the positive side, you might have a battery disconnect switch that has the one fat wire to the battery and all pos wires from everywhere stacked up somehow to the outer end of that switch. The switch probably can't hold them all stacked so you need a positive bus to take some of them.

The electrons don't care how they get there, but you lose some by stacking too many ring lugs. 🙂 A store-bought bus avoids that issue by spreading them out sideways to several terminals instead of stacking them.