55.2-59 Bus Bar -Electrical--Clean and Efficient

[MALIBLOC]

Looking for alternative options that what I currently have.
I would like you opinions or pictures of what your running.
Im not rewiring the truck , I just would like to clean up the wires and maybe have the fuses included in the bus bar.

Is there one over another you have had success with

Thanks in advance

[Johns327]

You might look around at some marine buss bars, you may something there.
The folks at Watson Street works may also have something to meet your requirement.
I used to have a buss like yours, but I retired my entire truck.
John

[mr48chev]

A "bus bar" is a strip of metal that you run one hot or ground lead to and then run several wires to. What you are looking for is a Terminal block.

The marine electrical (small boats) wiring pieces are pretty nifty when you want to do something like you are thinking of either with terminal blocks or with a small and possibly isolated (not under the dash) fuse panel similar to this one. https://www.ebay.com/itm/ATO-ATC-Mar...1/301842583779

Note that in your area you should be able to find that at a marine parts outlet. a little poking around the electrical section of one of those places can produce some nifty solutions. They also have the higher quality marine grade wiring terminals that cost more but don't corrode as easily.

[_Ogre]

blue sea makes nice small fuse panels, but many manufacturers offer them
looks like 8 fuses would do you good, rather than power everything off your ignition switch,
i'd recommend a fusible link feed from the battery and power on through a relay from the switch
just connect the relay to the power stud on this panel and circuits go under the screw clamps

[dsraven]

there are also bus bars that incorporate an auto reset breaker at the same time. the breakers clip on and look tidy. there is a bar that connects all the breakers with power. I suggest to connect the power at the supply end to a fuse of some sort as well.
try this site, same supplier as ogre's pic. lots to choose from.

https://www.bluesea.com/products/cat...16/Fuse_Blocks

[mongocanfly]

i used these covered terminal strips on mine...I like them...got them off ebay..
there are some more fancy ones I considered , but these do the job
there are different amp ratings...mine are higher than these shown...25a I think

[dsraven]

as eluded to by mongocanfly, do a quick load check and ensure you get what you need for ratings before you buy anything. ensure you use the correct gauge wiring when you do the swap over as well. a strip of some sort with built in fuses or breakers makes sense and would tidy things up nicely. ATO fuses are nice because they are available from any parts store or walmart while on a road trip if you happen to need them.

[dsraven]

personally, I Like the auto reset breakers because they will trip and warn you of a problem but you have time to check out the problem and not have to buy fuses to replace while you are testing stuff in a parking lot somewhere away from home. I used to use them on all my dune buggies and off road stuff because there isn't typically a parts store close. the breaker trips and you know you have to deal with something or turn off a circuit switch but the breaker will reset and not need replacing usually.

[MiraclePieCo]

Originally Posted by MALIBLOC

Looking for alternative options that what I currently have.
I would like you opinions or pictures of what your running.
Im not rewiring the truck , I just would like to clean up the wires and maybe have the fuses included in the bus bar.

Is there one over another you have had success with

Thanks in advance

What you have isn't so bad. Someone went to some trouble to shrink-tube all those wires so they're safe and look decent. If you were to simply route them in a tidier manner, that would really clean up that area and maybe wholesale changes wouldn't be necessary.

[57tailgater]

I would agree yours doesn't look too bad but I am a little concerned with all the red wires. I had a truck once where the PO did most of the truck with orange wire. Couldn't tell what went where or what wire was for what!!

I am planning on rewiring my truck and I got a couple of marine fuse panels with LED's. When the fuse blows, the LED lights up. Hopefully easier to see which one blew and replace.

[mr48chev]

Finally figuring out that that setup is under the dash on the firewall rather than on the fender for the lights I'm going to have to say that the first order of business is to figure out what each wire does.

It looks like you may have two main power feeds with all of the circuits powered off them.

How many need to be fused?

How many need to run off the accessory side of the switch?

How many need to be on the hot all the time side?


Do you need relays and how many? Halogen headlights or an electric fan on the radiator or some other high draw item are usually what need relays. Relays save switches including ignition, headlight and dimmer switches.

We are suggesting pieces from the Marine supply houses because normally you can drive to a marine supply house (boat parts) and look though their electrical offerings and make up a rather inexpensive panel. No shipping and good quality. You may want to make up a panel that uses a combination of a fuse panel, barrier strip (s) and a terminal block before all is said and done.

On the other hand Jegs shows some inexpensive fuse panels with different fuse count that would let you run several fused circuits off one main power feed. Not spendy, very neat and orderly and not very big. https://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS+Performa...r%20Categories

The good news is that most of the wires look good and it is mostly figuring out how to organize it, put fuses on the circuits that need fuses on it and make it neater and easier to contend with in the future.

[dsraven]

recently I rewired a burnt motorhome dash where the previous owner did a bit of wiring that caused the fire. there were many circuits taken off an inadequately supplied bus bar and when too many things were turned on the heat caused the insulation on the inadequately gauged, unfused supply wire to melt off, short to ground and start the fire. I used an under dash, insulated, color coded, terminal stud, supplied with battery positive through appropriately sized cable, and connected to a mega fuse under the hood near the battery that would interrupt the supply very close to the source should a problem ever occur.
I have worked on a lot of highway trucks in years past and found that some had the same wire color through out. if the insulating loom were peeled back far enough the wires were actually labelled on each wire as to what the circuits were. sounded good in theory but in actual practice it was a pain to work on. unlike the factory floor there are a lot of things added to the vehicle after the wiring is placed and covered up. I spent lots of time upside down in a cab with my head stuck in the console peeling back old black tape from the loom so I could trace wires back to a problem somewhere.

suggestions: check the max load on any given circuit (like if everything was running at max at the same time). before you build the circuit. leave some room for safety as far a wire gauge goes. fuse the supply wire at the source. fuse the circuit wires at THEIR source (like the fuse box or bus bar). use quality crimping tools and connectors. use double wall shrink tube on connections. double wall shrink tube has the insulating sheath on the outside but also has "hot glue" on the inside that melts when the tubing is shrunk around the connector so the tube doesn't move around on the wire later plus the glue adds a bit more insulating factor to the connection by taking up space between the wire strands and the tube outer surface. label the circuits. run the wire through a loom to protect against mechanical damage. tie the loom up periodically to protect against the harness sagging under it's own weight and pulling against/causing stress on the terminals. use relays for larger draw items like lights, fans, horns, electric fuel pumps etc, which allows a smaller gauge wire and switch to be used to switch the relay on and power the circuit. this allows under dash or in cab wiring to take up less space if the relay center is mounted closer to the need. part of the reason why newer vehicles have an under hood relay box.
here are a few links that may be of interest to someone doing wiring.

https://www.bluesea.com/support/arti...r_a_DC_Circuit

https://www.bluesea.com/support/arti...t_Installation

https://www.bluesea.com/products/cat...16/Fuse_Blocks

https://www.google.ca/search?q=tips+...=1605302186610

https://www.onallcylinders.com/2013/...iring-vehicle/

a good place to look for wiring components can also be the local stereo install shop. their equipment can have large current draws so they may keep cable, fuses, etc etc in stock. here is a quick read that can help determine conductor sizes.

https://www.crutchfield.ca/S-PtKIJHG...uge_chart.html


anyway, hope that helps.

[dsraven]

a quick video from eastwood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxfJwEFjTnA

[1project2many]

I believe you are on the right track removing the existing connections. The wood screw, misaligned steel, and melted appearance of the bar on the LH side of the picture suggest too much current passing through the existing components (see red arrow in photo).

Buses are a great place for bus bars and terminal blocks. There are *lots* of old school buses for sale now. Many folks buying used buses toss out most of the bus body wiring as unnecessary. Bus bodies often include high current solenoids to provide a high amperage source of 12V for the bus circuits, auxiliary fuse panels, bus bars, extended lengths of high temperature larger diameter wire, and plenty of fuses or circuit breakers. I'd definitely be looking at Ebay or some of the bus parts suppliers.