Additional Rear Power Completed..well it will be tomorrow...

[prado-admin Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close prado-admin]

Ended up getting the ALZONE fuse box and going with a merit plug to start.


$45 from Northside 4x4 - Caboolture


As you can see I can fit quite a few more things down the back now.

I ran the cable from the aux battery in the bonnet, across the firewall, into the passenger footwell and under the floor/wall trim on the passenger side.

I'm putting the fuse box into the compartment infront of the jack housing. Seemed like a tidy place to have it.

I get the same voltage reading directly from the aux battery as i do from the end of the cable, so I guess thats the result I needed.

Thanks for the advice.

[embi Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close embi]

looks like a great fuse box....

When are we going to see the installed pics???

[Guest Close Guest]

definfatly run 6mm to the fuse box if your going to have more than the fridge on it

[prado-admin Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close prado-admin]

Here are some pics of the install.


Through Firewall


Behind Passenger kick board


Under Trim


Under this trim too


Into compartment


Rear earth


Installed


Installed


Merit Plug to fridge


Double insulated 6mm

I decided to test the rear earth and it was ok so I went with this rather than running dual cables. There is no voltage difference when taking a reading from the merit plug or directly from the aux battery.

[embi Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close embi]

I made a small hole and passed my cable through this grommet

[Drew Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Drew]

Well done on your install, looks like you had fun.

I decided to test the rear earth and it was ok so I went with this rather than running dual cables. There is no voltage difference when taking a reading from the merit plug or directly from the aux battery.

Just bear in mind that without load the resistance of the wiring will not cause any appreciable voltage drop, so if you measure the voltage without any current being drawn you will see about the same voltage as your source, even if you had installed 0.5mm˛ cable.

When your fridge is running is when you will see the voltage drop (it's Ohm's Law), but you've used decent cable so your system will run fine.

Nice work,

Drew.

[prado-admin Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close prado-admin]

Hi Drew,

Tested with load (the fridge) difference of approx .10 V (direct from battery 12.57 - from merit plug 12.47).

Is that acceptable? What's the best you could expect to achieve?

[Drew Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Drew]

Hi Aaron,

0.1v (100mV) with the compressor running is more than acceptable, that's a good set up. Well done. 8)

The voltage drop will increase slightly with hotter weather but will decrease (as a percentage of the total voltage) when your engine is running.

Those fridges are fairly tolerant of a wide range of input voltages, from 14.8v down to less than 12V in some cases.

There will always be some voltage drop, even if you install 6AWG wire, copper still has some resistance, the key though is to keep the voltage drop to an acceptable level depending upon the application. It's not always practical or economical to install huge heavy cable.

I'm about to start an wiring install job in my Prado today, I'm installing my electric brake controller, auxillary feed to the trailer and pulling the cables through for my reversing camera while I'm at it. I better practice what I preach and intall the correct cable! :lol: 8)

Cheers all,

Drew.

[DaveO Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close DaveO]

Here are some pics of the install.


Double insulated 6mm

That looks like its about 2.5mm dia WIRE (making it just under 5mm sq. WIRE). According to AS3000 wire size is the cross-section area of the conductor - not the diameter or circumference of the cable (remember insulators dont conduct!).

I guess if it has sufficiently low voltage drop for the intended purpose, then the wire size is OK.