Fuses and Electrical Fixtures
Mounting Electrical Fixtures
I needed some mounting locations for bus-bars, fuses, and the battery-monitor shunt, so I cut a couple of pieces of scrap plywood to fit the inside front of the seat base as well as the door-side just below the opening. These were screwed in place from the outside of the base. Here the mounting panels are in place after I started to pull the circuit wires.
Here you can see the front mounting panel with the battery breaker, the positive bus bar, the negative bus bar, and the battery-monitor shunt.
Mounting the Fuse Block
I was really keen on having the fuse/bus block accessible yet out of the way and it turned out that the access panel on the passenger seat base was perfect. There was just enough space inside the base beside the battery bank for a 12 circuit fuse block.
To mount the fuse block, I built a simple bracket out of sections of 1″ aluminum angle and a scrap of plywood. I attached the angle sections to each other to form a “Z” bracket using pop-rivets and screwed the bracket onto the plywood backing. I then mounted the fuse block onto the plywood.
The space was pretty tight to access the connections, so to make the wiring of the fuse block easier, the bracket mounts from inside. This allowed me to connect all of the wire terminals before I mounted the bracket. Here all the circuits are wired and I just need to attach the positive and negative leads from the battery.
The factory cover for the access panel still fits over the fuse block assembly. The hole to left (rear) is for the master disconnect switch.
This is the final installation of the fuse block in the passenger seat access with the cover on. Easily accessible, but otherwise hidden. I wanted the master battery shutoff to be accessible and obvious for emergency purposes. In this location it can be reached by just opening either the slider or the passenger door.
Using a Satellite Bus
I had a few light systems on the drivers side and since they are relatively small consumers, I decided to run a larger circuit to the upper galley cabinet area and install distribution buses where smaller gauge wires could run to the lights. This greatly reduced the number of wires I had to run across the van and up the driver’s side “B” pillar.
