Blue Sea / IBS Dual Battery Project

[AutoRotate]

Good afternoon,

I just thought I'd post some shots from the start of my electrical project. I'm still acquiring parts and getting things together. I made the template for my under hood mounting bracket this afternoon. I intend to get it fabricated this week. ABR dual battery tray has also been installed.

 

[kowski49]

Looks good man!

 

[AutoRotate]

Looks good man!

Thanks, bud. We shall see once finished. I've never done this type of electrical work so I'm learning as I go. Trying to take my time, plan, and buy the right stuff.

 

[Alex T4R]

Good afternoon,

I just thought I'd post some shots from the start of my electrical project. I'm still acquiring parts and getting things together. I made the template for my under hood mounting bracket this afternoon. I intend to get it fabricated this week. ABR dual battery tray has also been installed.

Subscribed. Can you please post links where you purchase all the necessary parts. I'm planning on doing dual battery setup, the only thing i would have to put the secondary battery behind the intake on passenger side, because i got 2013 4runner and where everyone is placing theirs, i have some Air Induction System.

 

[eddiebx]

Looks great! I do not mean to intrude, but have you considered rotating the breaker 90 deg (so that the terminals are facing the IBS relay & RBM)? It might just be the angle of the picture, but the spacing between the fuse box and the breaker seems a bit too tight to run the thick power feed wire in to the fuse box...and also you won't have the breaker's live power wires butted up right against the firewall

 

[AutoRotate]

Looks great! I do not mean to intrude, but have you considered rotating the breaker 90 deg (so that the terminals are facing the IBS relay & RBM)? It might just be the angle of the picture, but the spacing between the fuse box and the breaker seems a bit too tight to run the thick power feed wire in to the fuse box...and also you won't have the breaker's live power wires butted up right against the firewall

That's great advice. I didn't think about that at the time and your points are all 100% valid. I will make the move now. Thanks again for the input.

Clay

 

[TexasAg]

Update?

:snacker:
Where are you at now with this? Thinking of the same system IBS, but also strongly leaning towards Battery Isolators | Solid State Relays | ORing Diodes

 

[AutoRotate]

:snacker:
Where are you at now with this? Thinking of the same system IBS, but also strongly leaning towards Battery Isolators | Solid State Relays | ORing Diodes

I've got all the components, wiring, and connectors purchased. I pick up the bracket from the metal fabricator on Monday and hope to start the project next weekend. My goal is to be finished by the FJ Summit.

I'm not familiar with the perfect switch option.

 

[TexasAg]

I just bought the leftover ABR battery tray from [MENTION=49690]shawn719[/MENTION] ready to start my dual battery project. PerfectSwitch had some activity on Pirate 4x4 & ih8mud, basically it'll do the same as the IBS without the incab metering. Might look at the LCD display a-la [MENTION=8206]harper7[/MENTION]

 

[AutoRotate]

Progress

Made some more progress today. Picked up the bracket from the metal fabricator, test fit, brought it home, applied several coats of paint. Purchased stainless hardware to mount gear to bracket. All gear and electrical equipment has been purchased. Plan to start install this weekend.

Test fitting bracket

Test fitting bracket

Support leg for bracket

Painting at the house

Painting at the house

Gear laid out

 

[sandcrawler]

nice bracket. really looks great... not at all like your typical "learning as you go" project. (well, mine, at least!) :bravo:

 

[AutoRotate]

nice bracket. really looks great... not at all like your typical "learning as you go" project. (well, mine, at least!) :bravo:

It is a curse of mine - "the proverbial mountain out of a mole hill." Thanks for the kind words!!

 

[sandcrawler]

It is a curse of mine - "the proverbial mountain out of a mole hill." Thanks for the kind words!!

well, i share the same curse—but don't always enjoy the same caliber of results. trust me!

 

[TexasAg]

I think the bracket looks great-nice layout.

 

[AutoRotate]

Progress

Made some progress today and encountered dissappointment, as with all projects. I had settled on the X2 Battery displayed below from Batteries Plus. It is essentially a rebranded Northstar Battery with the same specs as the Odyssey PC 1500DT, but is $30 cheaper and has two years more fully replacement warranty (5 years total replacement, no pro rata).

Anyway, I got home an did everything I could to make it fit, with no luck. It was essentially in there, but things were too tight for my taste and I couldn't get the "hook" portion of the ABR Battery Tray tie downs to penetrate the hole fully because they kept hitting the battery.

Contact Point

Pad created to protect positive terminal to body contact


I went back and purchased a simply Optima Yellow Top. I'm going to try it and see what happens. I still raised it with some wood to get what I thought was an appropriate fit.

Optima installed after two rounds of impromptu welding across the bracket. As mentioned, I'm new at this...

Aux Battery Ground

Aux Battery Ground


I also got my CB gear in the mail and did some preliminary wiring on the electrical bracket, getting the IBS RBM set up for connections.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

How much you pay for the fuse box, circuit breaker, and relays? Looks awesome.

 

[AutoRotate]

How much you pay for the fuse box, circuit breaker, and relays? Looks awesome.

I don't recall off-hand but everything is commercially available. The relays are part of the IBS Dual Battery system.

The Blue Sea 5026 was about $50 and the Blue Sea Circuit Breaker was about $60. The IBS Dual Battery kit runs around $400.

 

[mikey's2010SR5]

I definitely want to follow this. I know I will eventually do a dual battery set up and I DEFINITELY need to clean up my wiring.

 

[AutoRotate]

Progress

Good morning,

I made a bit more progress yesterday. Thanks to Reatta who stopped by for a few minutes to show me the main parts of removing the dash.

As with any project, I made a few errors - one significant that I will show later. All in all, I'm happy though - especially for my first one.

I intend to get the Diamond Antenna mount and antenna installed today.

Blue Sea Ground Circuit built and installed in center console for good ground points, now and later. (Sorry about the bad picture). Unit is velcroed to passenger side center console, aft of installed outlets.

Two outlets and PL-259 bulkhead connector for handheld Midland CB Unit.

Outlets in back of Center Console

 

[AutoRotate]

Continued...

Best Accessory

...Not picutured - ran CB Coax down driver's side door channels to rear for lift gate install with Diamond Antenna. Ran extra run of 4Gauge to the rear down the passenger's side door channels for future electrical projects at the rear.s