Wtd: Advice on relay / fuse panel placement

[Lofty]

I'm currently putting a set of aux lights on my 04 1200GS and have opted to get a aux fuse panel from Nippys as I will be adding further extras. Where do people generally place them and do they feed them directly from the battery? Is there a case for using a supply for the fuse panel that only becomes live when the ignition is turned on?

Also the lights came with a relay and wiring (from a member on this forum) although I'm not convinced it looks waterproof. Is there a generally accepted place to put the relay (it will be triggered by a AS6B Autoswitch).

Thanks in advance for any advice given.

 

[Geordie Steve]

Hi Lofty,

I'm busy doing the same to my bike at the moment. The best place I can see is in the tool tray under the seat. In fact, I ditched the tool tray altogether and I've made up an alloy tray that the Centech panel and relay will sit on. Sits quite neatly just beside the yellow starter motor relay.

My main concern at the moment is where to take the 12v supply to switch the relay. Most people seem to recommend soldering a connection onto the back of the accessory socket or onto the live feed to the diagnostic socket at the rear of the tool tray, but I'm not keen on either of those solutions. I've set myself the task of making the entire installation quickly removeable, and leaving the bike absolutely standard in case I decide to sell it... I like a challenge and I enjoy the tinkering..

I did a bit of poking around tonight, and there are a couple of nice simple spade connectors to the rear light. If I can figure out which is the tail light, I should be able to connect it to the relay with a piggyback spade terminal.

There are probably several good reasons why it's better to have a switched power supply, but I've had my GPS socket and heated jacket controller wired straight to the battery for the last couple of years with no problems. I just don't like the idea of stuff being permanently live though, and it seems like a neater arrangement to have everything switch off automatically...

When (IF? ) I get the set-up finished, I'll post a quick report and a few piccies so everyone can have a laugh

 

[Doofus]

Hi

If you have the relay and/or fuse panel any significant distance from the battery, I recommend a fuse as near to the +ve battery terminal as you can (e.g. 70 amp if that's what current you intend to draw). You don't want any chaffing of an unfused wire connected directly to your battery. I got away with about 2 inches of wire to the relay, and then four inches to the fuse panel.

I put my fuse panel under the right hand black plastic triangle trim cover. It sits on the frame member and wedges nicely behind a bent lug that, as I recall, didn't seem to have any real purpose. It pokes out a bit from the triangle cover, but this is covered when the seat is on (my seat is low setting - you'd probably annoyingly see the fuse panel in the gap on the high seat setting). I was worried about water running down the tank onto the fuse box so I used a plastic cover with cut outs for the wires. I have hosed it down and it all stayed dry. The panel plus plastic cover is a nice tight fit behind the frame lug and no other fixings were required (the thick feed wires do a good of helping hold it in place too).

For the realy, I pushed the battery to the left, and just managed to wedge the relay in the gap between the battery and the frame on the right.

I took my 12v switched feed from the accessory socket - I too might have tried to avoid modifying the stock wiring, but the previous owner had already had an auxiliary feed from the socket for an autocom so I just used that.

regards
Darren

 

[Andy Davies]

Here's my installation of the Centech panel (non relayed). The toolkit goes elsewhere (for all it's worth).

The panel and the two relays for my aux lights, are mounted on aluminium plate cut to fit snugly on the plastic tray. All fits nicely with a standard seat on low setting.

Hope this helps.

Andy

 

[shugie]

That's a very neat installation alright, but if you add some tools to the laughable standard toolkit that space is not useable for leccy bits.

 

[BTBR]

Under the tank out of harms way.

 

[Peter]

Andy I like your setup well done, but where do you take your power from?

 

[Lofty]

Fuse Panel Replacement

Thanks for the suggestions; I now have a way ahead. All I need is the time and some peace and quiet !!

 

[Geordie Steve]

Andy, that's a neat job. I was going to do exactly the same until I found that it wouldn't fit under my Sargeant seat. Had to go for something a bit more complicated...

Peter, why not take the power from the tail light. Worked well for me.