Check this out!- All my relays in 1 place! | Ford Explorer Forums

  • Register Today It's free!

Check this out!- All my relays in 1 place!

Brian1

Elite Explorer
Joined
February 2, 2000
Messages
5,129
Reaction score
688
City, State
Albuquerque, NM
Year, Model & Trim Level
1991 XLT
Callsign
KG5BAQ
View

Well this project took me a week of off and on working. What I did was I took a 3x5 index card box and mounted 4 relays and 2 30A circuit breakers in this box. I ran a 10ga. wire to the battery and other wires through rubber grommets out of the box. Now all my wiring is simplified and in one place. I run 4 sets of lights so I barley fit all the relays. More pictures at My light Box
Next project: Brian Lamp Locks!

Any questions let me know.

Oh yea, Matt, you would need a much bigger box. LOL.
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year or try it out for $5 a month.

Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





Are those little breather elements behind the box for your axles?
 






damn man, I hate to say it but that is more creative then I think I could be, I like it a lot! One question though, on my relays I have grounded the relay to the relay itself (meaning I mount the relays only on groundable metal and bring a 3" wire from the relay to where I'm drilling in to the body, and ground them there. Where are these relays grounded at? I didn't notice it in any of the pics... perhaps those relays don't require being grounded so close to the relay, just a thought. Looks good! May want to run a quick pass of silicone over some of those grommets and the lid though, wouldn't want all weather going in, then not being able to get out, that could lead to a lot of condensation inside the box which wouldn't have a good impact on those relays.
Once again, excellent creative use of an index card box!
 






MikeFox, yes those are breathers for my 2 axles and t-fer case. Check out my website under the tech part for more info.

Matt, the relays are grounded to the 2 sheet metal screws that hold the box to the bracket. That was the easiest way to do it. I just ran a wire from each relay to a screw, 2 wires to a screw. Yea, I probably need to do more water proofing of the box.
 






Brian, That looks really great. Now that there all in one place you probably wont have any problems. It is when they are run in a hurry and scotch taped together you have shorts
and blown fuses. Good work.
 






Before my project all my wires were a total mess. I didn't have any relays in use just a fused line to the switch then to the light. Okay Matt, don't laugh at this one. I installed my brand new Hella 500's and I went to align them at night and they blew a fuse after being on for about 30sec. Now with my clever little box, I should not have any more problems. I also ran extra wires for future expansions!
 






Brian, that's something I did too, it's an excellent idea... it's a pain in the butt to run the wires ONCE, so why not run more then you need to once, and not have to worry about it again! By the way, I wouldn't joke about the blown fuse... I blew the same dang fuse about 5 times in mine when switching switches... on my 520 fog lights under my winch it had an abnormal switch, well, I wanted to use the extra switch that comes with the 80 Rally's for my 520's, no problem right? Well, the old switch had a light to it, so it was a three-wire switch (power, wire to relay, and ground), but the new switch was not lit, but had three prongs, as it was designed to be used in conjuction with the other switch (long story). Anyways, took me about 5 or 6 tries with 10-amp fuses to figure out the proper way to convert from a 3-wire switch to a 2-wire switch :).
 






Featured Content

Back
Top