Cleaning up the snake fest at the battery

[TNtroller]

I am wanting to clean up the wiring mess in my 04 PT 175 at the batteries. The batts are beside the gas tank, and covered all the time by the comparment lid, but its' just a pain to try and do anything simple like putting water in the batts due to all the wiring. The wiring for the TM batt is not so bad as it only has the main TM +/- wires and on board charger wires on it. The cranking batt has all the +/-'s for everything else, bilge, livewell, DF/FF, acc, on board charger, etc. There are at least 4 of each not counting the main +/- for the big motor.

How can I clean up the snake fest?? I've thought of consolidating all (FF/bilge/acc/charger) the +/-'s into one connection for + and one for neg. If this is safe, what size wire would be good since most of these wires are the oem wiring?

Any other options I can consider.

 

[ScottMD]

Run all the wires to a bus bar (1 for each +/-) and a single wire from the bar to the battery. I think most of my wires are 14 gauge and I ran 12 gauge from the battery to the bar.

 

[moelkhuntr]

I have a fuse block in the back of the boat and one in the front of the boat and that way only 2 wires leaving the battery. Picked up the fuse blocks at Autozone for $7.00 a piece and the plastic cover at Wallysworld for $2.00 a piece.

 

[TNtroller]

do either of you have an onboard charger you had to deal with in your wiring?

 

[Oldgeek]

1000 uses for Tupperware! =D> JK that's a great idea.

 

[bailey86]

:? does that keep a pb and j sandwich good to ? jk

 

[moelkhuntr]

Don't know about the pb&j sandwich but you can keep your extra fuses handy in it also.

 

[Diesel Dan]

those fuse panels are great we use them all the time at work. We normally get them from NAPA. They come in several differant sizes 4,6,10,and 14. I like the 14 because it has its own ground buss built in. We have a lot of european equipment that came with those junky volkswagon fuses in them so we rip those fuse blocks out and replace them with these kind.

 

[KRS62]

That is a great idea. Have you thought about painting it?

KRS

 

[Popeye]

I bought a set of these to reduce the number of wires on the main battery terminals. Other than that, the best thing I can recommend is disconnect all the wires and pull them out of the compartment and start putting them back in one at a time. Route them in the most logical way and use plenty of zip ties.

https://www.basspro.com/Battery-Terminals/product/5203/-268686