P500 Need help with electrical plan

[futzin]

The 2020 P5 I bought had several electrical items wired in; almost all of them had home runs to the battery, with fuses (and sometimes fuses and cube relays) wired in individually. Very crowded battery box, which of course won't seal with that much in it. Fairly messy under hood. A small contact strip under the hood powered by the Honda accessory harness for switch power, I guess. Wired accessories: light bar, winch, lighted mirrors, horn, rock lights, rear cube lights, extra taillight, license plate light, dome light, lighted flag mount, sound bar.

The solenoid for the 2500lb winch was mounted inside the plastic shroud behind the gas tank. Will be installing a heavier winch, with solenoid mounted under hood.

I've removed much of this stuff; some will go back, some won't. I don't plan on a second battery.

I'm terrible at electrical work. I just don't have the aptitude for it. I can follow a specific diagram if it matches my components; I've installed 2 winches on P5s that seem to work.

I want to streamline the electrical before I proceed to skid plate install. Seems as though I should run power from the battery to a remote something under hood, and power my accessories to that. Then run wire to a fuse panel for protection. Winch will have its own home run to battery, then to solenoid of course.

Am I on the right track? What components do I need? Why these cube relays?

Planned electrical items: winch, power steering, lighted mirrors, horn, rock lights, 2 cube lights. Whip lights are a maybe.
Ditching the sound bar, lite bar, rear tail light, lighted license plate bracket, lighted flag mount.

Critter: just power steering and winch

 

[Mopower58]

I’m no electrical whiz either but I bought the Auxbeam 8 but have yet to get it wired up. I like the simplicity and the compactness of it. IMO it looks better than all those switches.

 

[futzin]

switches are already installed; basically, under steering wheel out of sight, they could be eliminated I guess.

 

[trigger]

You can make it as simple or complicated as you want. IMO only two additional cables should be running to the factory battery, the winch and either the second battery cable or the cable running to to aux power block. Aux power block can be just a block/busbar or fused and placed for easy access. Relays are basically used to transfer low power (toggle switch) to operate high power (light, stereo...). I didn't install a fuse panel, I used the inline ones that most accessories come with. I did install a circuit breaker for the winch though, they can pull a lot of power, and one between my two batteries, in case something starts to cook it'll break the tie.

 

[futzin]

I said the winch stuff wrong.
Solenoid to battery, winch to solenoid.
Fuse panel to battery.

This is how Critter is...

 

[futzin]

Do I need a block/bus bar and a fuse panel?

I like the idea of all fuses in one place.

 

[pappyo]

Read the post

</> Easy Hot 12V Lead Out of Battery Box </>
With pictures

"Will" clean up " Battery Box"

If I can be of any further Help let me know

Live to learn by asking questions & reading. ( Stop Learning You Will Get Old Quicker )

 

[silvertrd09]

Ok, first of all! I am not an electrician! I did not stay at motel 6 last night and I did not pass go at anytime in the recent past. Block fuses, are used in cars/trucks to keep high amperage circuits in the engine bay of vehicles behind the firewall. Low amperage wires are used to bring power to low amp off/on switches inside the cab to power accessories. 20 to 25 amps is a fire hazard. Block fuses transfer high amps to low amps , this allows you to buy cheap low Amp switches (Don't buy cheap low Amp switches) Like you I have a P500. It's fire wall is plastic. Not sure on other makes and models. The thing in your second pic is a terminal bar. That's what I used to wire up my 4 lights. I did not use relays or fuses as my 4 lights if all on at the same time pulls probably less than 10amps. If I remember correctly I used 12ga wire from battery to my terminal bar (maybe 14ga) but it's overkill. The wire and switches you use must be able to handle the Amps each accessory will pull or your going down in flames! The auxbeam 8 sounds interesting that mopower8 mentioned. Here's a few pics of my set up.

 

[trigger]

Do I need a block/bus bar and a fuse panel?

I like the idea of all fuses in one place.

You don't need both but if that's something you want then absolutely.

 

[The Green Goat]

I tried to start my massive wiring project off with a lot of pre planning in mind with the hopes that it stayed neat and tidy (it didn't). I eventually got rushed for time to make it to my first TO and got in a rush. So, At some point I need to revisit mine again.

I built a plate for mine to hold the winch breaker, main system solenoid, and bus bars. I like that part, but it got kind of messy with all the wiring running to it from every angle. Like @trigger , I ended up using in-line fuses; again, in a rush. I have pics somewhere in my build thread.

Like you, I initially was interested in using some sort of fuse/relay block to consolidate everything. My intention was to use some sort of tray cable for signaling wires and then small gauge wires from the relay to whatever I was powering. This would have me essentially building a wire harness though and I really wasn't that interested in doing that, 😆.

I bought a couple of these but ended up going a different direction. Perhaps they might be something you're looking for.

 

[futzin]

I really don't know what I need, much less what I want. I like what Critter has; it's the devil I know.
Can I expand on that? Solenoid (from battery) for winch, fuse panel (from battery) for everything else? (If something pops I don't want to go digging for fuses.)
Switch power, relays, grounds I'll need help with as I go.

Or if there's a sick, twisted individual who actually enjoys this stuff then I'll drop it off! 🤣

 

[MI-Trailblazer]

Kind of along Trigger's suggestion, as well as trying to keep things neat and organized you could go battery to under-hood buss, then use the in-line fuse pig-tails that you can buy almost anywhere and attached them to the buss with shortening one of the ends of the fuse pig-tail then all your fuses would be in the same spot. Maybe a little less complicated than wiring in an actual fuse block.

Oh and like silvertrd09 stated- the cube relays are for keeping the high amp draw accessories off the switch on your dash to activate them. I used a lot cube relays and specialized relays back in the day before LED's when wiring in off-road lights. I think I had like 5 - 240W lights on my Blazer that drew 25A through the relay and then like 1A to the switch on the dash to turn them on.

 

[silvertrd09]

I really don't know what I need, much less what I want. I like what Critter has; it's the devil I know.
Can I expand on that? Solenoid (from battery) for winch, fuse panel (from battery) for everything else? (If something pops I don't want to go digging for fuses.)
Switch power, relays, grounds I'll need help with as I go.

Or if there's a sick, twisted individual who actually enjoys this stuff then I'll drop it off! 🤣

This is what I would do. Have three (3) wires coming off the positive post of the battery. The Winch, the power steering (these should be hooked up like what the manufacturer directions say. And a hot wire to a terminal bar that's inside some type of electrical/protective box. A wire off the negative post of the battery also needs to go to the terminal bar for ground. Now you have +/- at the terminal bar. From here you can hook up your lighted mirrors, Horn etc.
Now you need to know how many Amps your stuff pulls if turned on.
1. Lighted mirrors on = # of amps
2. Horn on = # of amps
3. Rock Light on = # of amps
4. 2 cube lights on = # of amps
5. Whip lights on = # of amps

Total of amps = ? The +/- wires from the battery to terminal bar has to be rated to handle the total amps. As an example only if all that stuff turned on is 25 amps put an inline 30amp fuse rt before the terminal bar.

Then wire your accessories off terminal bar using same size wire. If say your cube lights draw 5 amps use a 7amp fuse etc. Buy all new accessory switches that are all rated for 30amps.
Just a reminder I still haven't stayed in a motel 6 or pasted go in a while. Cheers!

 

[906UP]

I really don't know what I need, much less what I want. I like what Critter has; it's the devil I know.
Can I expand on that? Solenoid (from battery) for winch, fuse panel (from battery) for everything else? (If something pops I don't want to go digging for fuses.)
Switch power, relays, grounds I'll need help with as I go.

Or if there's a sick, twisted individual who actually enjoys this stuff then I'll drop it off! 🤣

🤔🤫

 

[futzin]

🤔🤫

Stop it! 🤣

 

[futzin]

I did successfully change the diff fluids so, there's that. 🙄

 

[906UP]

I'm on my 3rd Auxbeam 8 install, put one in D2.0, one in Ron.Jr.'s T1KR4 and now I'm doing one in the T1KX. They're super easy & clean looking.

 

[futzin]

I'm on my 3rd Auxbeam 8 install, put one in D2.0, one in Ron.Jr.'s T1KR4 and now I'm doing one in the T1KX. They're super easy & clean looking.

If it makes this easier then I'm interested, 'cause I don't know what I'm doing! Off to look up vids . . .

 

[The Green Goat]

If it makes this easier then I'm interested, 'cause I don't know what I'm doing! Off to look up vids .

The Auxbeam setup is super nice for the money. I run one of those on mine as well and kind of wish I'd have went for the 8 button instead of 6.

 

[futzin]

The Auxbeam setup is super nice for the money. I run one of those on mine as well and kind of wish I'd have went for the 8 button instead of 6.

Yeah, I'll do the 8, just in case.

So, winch aside, connect this product in (power box, switch panel, circuit breaker), then everything runs to it (power box)? No other power runs, no switch runs, no relay runs? Correct? Acc power to Honda harness, or into the factory fuse box?