Power Wire Fuse Holder Location

Got a question for the folks who have amp power wire running to the engine bay... What did you attach your fuse holder to?

Dave

 

Driver side fender over fuse box. I never understood why people drill through the plastic fuse panel cover. Lol.

 

Fuse box above battery

 

Yeah, I was thinking about that, but apparently the fuse holder is supposed to be within 12" of the terminal connection. No way I can attach it there and be within 12". I'm not a fan of attaching to the plastic cover either. I saw on a 5 Star Car Stereo video of a Tundra install where they installed some sort of additional riser bracket to the left of the fuse box which provided a flat surface to mount the fuse holder. It was really cool and provided for a clean install, but I've searched and I've haven't seen one for sale. I guess it would probably help if I knew what it was called.

 

I understand your hesitation with the fuse box location, but many, many of us on here use that as it’s the only location within 12” for a fuse, it’s convenient among other things. If you’re worried about small hoes in the lid, use a dab of liquid electrical tape over the screw. You can also patch screw holes with it too.

 

I put mine here:

 

12” isn’t do or die. As long as the fuse is under the hood, you’ll never have any problems.

 

I reran mine this week, replaced 4ga cca with 0ga copper.
I forgot about the 12" rule, maybe I should shorten my battery to fuse wire..

 

The 5 Star guys build all their fuse holder brackets from scratch out of 1/8" or 1/4" ABS. Their installs are super clean.

 

And your system was professionally installed? Ouch...

 

Not saying it's wrong... but they could have done a cleaner job for sure. If that's a 200A fuse it's probably a little big for your system, may want to swap that out for a 100amp when you get your new battery. Assuming you have the 900 watt 5 channel amp at 80% efficiency you'd be pulling around 80 amps...

 

damn those small hoes. they're so hard to keep in line.

 

specially’ with a tundra, gotta beat the hoes off with a stick if I’m out after dark on Friday nights, lol.

 

The top of fuse lid next to the battery. Not really the best way to go about it but it is what it is.

 

Good catch.

That size fuse on a 4ga (judging by how it looks) won't actually prevent a worst case senerio. The wire will have already burned thru the jacket and most likely shorted to the chassis and there is a fire.

100 amp is a good suggestion.

The likely hood of that happening is extremely slim but the potential danger is up there in the scary level.

Edit: hmm, it does look like a 0ga now that I looked at it again.

 

Thats always a good idea. There's not really any down side to adding one there. A barrel type fuse holder would probably be a good type for that also.

 

I ended up attaching the fuse holder to the fender above the fuse box. It's about 15" from terminal to fuse holder, but I doubt that extra 3" is going to matter and it looks pretty clean. Now I just need to add some wire loom...

 

Wire loom is my finishing touch for any wiring I do. It makes everything look oem. Lol. I even added wire loom to the wires for my a/c unit outside and my a/c guy was impressed and started putting loom on all his installs lol.

 

Watts = amps x volts

http://www.bcae1.com/


Suggested Fuse Sizes:

Wire Gauge Recommended
Maximum Fuse Size
00 awg 400 amps
0 awg 325 amps
1 awg 250 amps
2 awg 200 amps
4 awg 125 amps
6 awg 80 amps
8 awg 50 amps
10 awg 30 amps
12 awg 20 amps
14 awg 15 amps
16 awg 7.5 amps

These are based on less than 20 foot runs I believe and are the largest fuse ratings that the above sites author recommends. He's the guru of this stuff so I follow his recommendations.

His website (the link above) is an amazing wealth of knowledge.

 

this is also a super handy chart to have around...

 

Mine...

 

^^I like the fact you used the loom. How is the fuse holder fastened? I was thinking of using the 3m double sided tape that is used for mounting badges.

I got in on the last sub/amp group buy and planning my install.

 

I used the short mounting screws that came with the fuse holder.

 

I'll have a look for those I have that same kit. Which route did you take to run wire into engine bay?

 

I took out both front seats and the center console and ran the power wire across under the carpet to the driver's side then through the firewall on that side. It's more work, but it looks cleaner than having the power wire running across the back of the engine bay in my opinion. Some folks don't care about that... I also got some 14ga StreetWires Ultracable speaker wire (which is round) and drilled a hole in the divider of the subwoofer box just big enough to force that speaker wire through. That enabled me to wire the two 4 ohm, single voice coil JL Audio subs in parallel inside the box and connect them to a single terminal on the passenger side. I didn't hook up the factory subwoofer wires to the JL Audio amp, but instead ran a single length of that Streetwires Ultracable from the amp down the passenger side to the passenger side subwoofer terminal. This accomplished two things: I didn't have to run a jumper from one set of subwoofer terminals to the other externally and I didn't have to use (or more importantly cut) the factory subwoofer connector.

Dave

 

^^Thanks for the detailed response.

 

I'm getting ready to install mine I got from James at Tech 12... he sent me the X2 amp install kit good for up to 1200W... comes with #4 wire and 50A fuse. Gonna be runnin the JL RD900/5. From the sounds of this thread, that fuse that comes with the kit may be undersized? They sized the fuse with the kit off the RMS wattage, which is 600 W.

 

Good catch - I purchased the same amp and install kit and noticed the same. I replaced the 50A fuse with one of these 80A as 50A seems small for that much amp.

LEIGESAUDIO 80Amp ANL Fuses Gold Plated Fuse 2 Pack (80Amp)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07T8HMD71/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

See some people using these, nice and clean. I ordered two for my house battery but haven’t installed yet.

$33 Bay Marine Supply MRBF Terminal Fuse Block Kit (Fuse Included) – Single Stud 5/16" (M8) Compact Marine Rated Battery Fuse 225A

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LC5G7W...pY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU&th=1

 

This is what I used.

$43 Bussmann CB185-90 90 Amp Waterproof High Amp Flush Mount Type III Circuit Breaker

https://www.amazon.com/Bussmann-CB185-90-Switchable-Circuit-Breaker/dp/B004AH6O0Y/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=CB185-90+90&qid=1587066956&sr=8-1

Mounted to the top of the fuse box.