Quote:
Originally Posted by Festus2
When installing a battery cut-off switch, which is the preferred way to wire it into the circuit ---- on the positive or the negative side of the battery?
There are, I believe, advantages (and disadvantages) to doing it one way versus the other and that either way is acceptable.
Just what are the pros and cons of doing it on the negative side? and the positive side? I would assume that if you used the positive side, then an inline fuse would also be necessary ????
Comments? Recommendations?
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I've worked with a lot of ambulances and similar vehicles that have battery cut-off switches in them. They were all pretty hefty, 300 amp or so capacity, and none of them were installed on the ground side of the battery, probably to prevent any possibility of an alternate ground making the system hot again. None of the manual switches were fused. The switches that were essentially massive relays had fusing on the control side but none on the main power itself.
If I were installing a cut-off in the Cougar, I would probably find myself one of these bad boys made by Cole-Hersee:
It's designed to handle two batteries and does not require any drilling of holes except the mounting screws. It has 4 positions:
- All off
- Battery 1 on
- Battery 2 on
- Both Batteries on
There are several different models of this switch: plain jane, pilot light connections, and a couple with alternator isolation circuitry. I'd probably buy the pilot light version just to have the option to add them later on.
They can be wired up with #00 battery cable and feed an entire car or truck with no problems. For an RV like one of ours, the same size wire as currently used will be fine.
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