Switch panel...haven't seen this before. **New question**

[MNHunter505]

So, I got my switch panel in the mail the other day. Looking at the back of it, it has three inline fuses. Been reading up on how to install switches and guys on here say to have a fuse on both sides of the switch??? So, I will need to buy 5 additional inline fuses....to install on the accessory side of the switch? (I am assuming the factory fused red wires go back to the battery. Although, I planned on using a + bus bar and fuse that from the battery.

This is seeming all a little ridiculous. A fuse in between the battery and + bus bar, then another fuse inbetween the bus bar and switch panel (those would be the factory fused red cables on the back of the switch), and then another fuse in between the switch and the accessory?...good lord!

If anyone can provide some insight, much appreciated.

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

I put one fuse near the battery. then a fuse after each switch.

 

[RivRunR]

I'd put in a fuse panel near the switch panel (if possible), run a single heavy power lead up to the fuse panel, then run leads from the fuse panel to the switches, then to the devices.

So it would be like:
Battery --- breaker ----fuse panel
panel fuse ---- switch --- device
panel fuse ---- switch --- device

and toss all the wiring that came with the switch, especially since they are jumping leads (and fuses) across devices...(like having the bilge (5 amp) and the 12V socket (10 amp) on the same fuse????)

You may want to put the ground buss in the same location as the fuse panel, just to make the wiring easier.

edited for this diagram:

 

[krawler]

Just remember that the fuses are there to protect the wires and not the devices. Now saying that, I have that same panel mounted in a plastic box with about 8 feet of 10 gauge wire running from a Perko switch to the box. I used a 30 amp inline fuse right at the Perko switch to protect the 10 gauge wire.

All three red wires can be attached to one wire going the the battery then use another fuse or a circuit breaker at the battery. I think the fuses that came with the panel are 15 amps?

So here is how it works, if a single wire after the switch panel can carry 15 amps then the fuse that's already there will protect that wire. If the wire is smaller and can't carry 15 amps then another fuse would be needed to protect the smaller wire. Now make sure that the ground wires are the same gauge or larger than the positive wires.

 

[MNHunter505]

Okay, I don't plan to put in a fuse panel. So I will run a large gauge wire and connect the three in-line fuse wires to it. All of the inline fuses are 15a...so I will put a 20-30 amp fuse near the battery. I will use the same gauge wire, 14awg, and run it to all of my accessories. I can replace the fuses with smaller ones to meet the requirement of the accessory.
Ok, I think I get it...thanks guys.

 

[ToadJunky10]

So how are you connecting the 3 wires together?

 

[MNHunter505]

So how are you connecting the 3 wires together?

I will probably use a bus bar.

 

[ToadJunky10]

Thanks for clearing that up!

 

[ToadJunky10]

So you can use a bus bar for both positive and negative wires??

 

[MNHunter505]

Sure. It's a cleaner, more organized way to connect your positive wires to the battery. Instead of having 7 individual wires running to the battery, you just have one from the positive bus bar.

 

[MNHunter505]

Here is a different question...I am putting a 50a breaker on my TM wire to the battery.
The TM has 3 ft of 8ga or something big like that. At the end of that I will install the breaker and then another 3 ft. Do I compute the entire 6 ft of wire or only the 3 ft that will be added? When looking at the wire chart, I only have to use 12ga for 3 feet at 50 amps. But if I compute using 6 ft, it should be 10 ga.
A little help please! Thanks!

 

[krawler]

The total length would be both positive and negitive wires. If it were me, I'd use 8 gauge wire. With a 50 amp breaker, it means that the wires would have to carry 49 amps without melting.