I realized how insufficient the power take off was on the factory fuse block for my accessories. So, I then knew I would have to do an aux. battery install. Once I reconciled my mind to that, I got excited knowing it would meet my needs with power to spare.
i bought a poly cutting board that made a perfect fit up front under the hood as a non-conductive electrical panel. On it I mounted a Blue Marine 5032 Split Bus Fuse Block that afforded me 6 constant hot fused terminals & 6 switched fused terminals. To make the switched bank I wired in a relay which was very easy to do.
I purchased the ACC Socket Key On Pigtails to give me the switched power to trigger the relay supplying my switched bus on the fuse panel. I wired the LED Accessory lights to the constant hot as they had inline switches & fuses. I wound up with 3 leads on the switched bus & 4 on the constant hot bus of the fuse block.
I made 2 copper flat bar buses with five 1/4”studs each giving me 1 positive, 1 negative bus. There I ran my auxiliary battery positive in & negative in. 1 each front winch power lead & rear winch power lead. This gave me ample power studs to connect my battery tending charger instead of removing the seat to string leads all across it. All of this is mounted on my kitchen cutting board panel.
Installed a battery charging isolator adjacent to the starter relay under the seat & ran a volt meter feed wire to the dash. I also ran a 12 awg wire from the starer battery to the electrical panel on a 1/4” stud bolt as a post to connect the battery tending charger leads. The copper buses provide ample leads for the other bank of my battery tender. This was necessary as the isolator separates the batteries with power off. And, they each need to be maintained separately anyway.
None of this was hard to do. It requires $$ spent to do the job correctly & it requires time with patience. The end result is the satisfaction of a job done correctly.
