I am wanting to install several different aftermarket modifications to my truck. The modifications being led lights, backup camera, etc. I would like to use a rocker switch panel instead of wiring each individually. My question is do I need to set up an independent fuse box for this, set up a fuse for each, or only a relay? What is the easiest way to go about this? I hope this makes sense. I am definitely very new when it comes to wiring, but definitely trying to learn. Thanks for any and all help given!

 

Fuse each piece whether it's an individual inline fuse or a block with multiple slots.

 

What do you mean a panel instead of each individually?

Are you trying to have a single switch that operates multiple accessories? Or are you trying to have a switch for each accessory that are all on a panel together?

 

You need a fuse between the battery and any load pretty much. So if you have 6 relays, each needs to be fused from the battery.

Depending on what switches you are using, you may choose to "daisy chain" the hot wires together for LED's or lamps on the switches themselves. That would be acceptable if the switches are near to each other, and usually you can get them all together from a single hot wire and a small fuse.

It's way nicer to build a relay box if you know for sure you will have several accessories. You can find 5/6 slot relay boxes commonly on amazon/ebay for pretty cheap that come with terminals. The cheap ones aren't the best but they can work alright.

I went pretty upper end on my switch/relay build and used OEM type parts so there will be no problems. It was expensive though.








If you want to learn more about this stuff, just buy these 2 books.
Automotive Wiring and Electrical Systems (Workbench Series)
by Tony Candela

Automotive Wiring and Electrical Systems Vol. 2: Projects
by Tony Candela

Another good automotive electrical resource is
Basic Car Audio Electronics

 

I'm actually trying to do a 6 gang rocker panel. I want to be able to connect things to it in a safe way and didn't know if I needed a fuse to each item plus a relay or just relays and a single fuse for all. I hope this helps.

 

From a protection standpoint, a single properly sized fuse off the source will work to feed and protect the entire circuit but if there is a short or overload on any of the relays, the fuse blows and the entire circuit is de-energized.
To add reliability and sectionalization to the circuit, a properly sized fuse is needed at the source (to protect the source wire) feeding individual coordinated fuses sourcing each relay.

I would recommend doing it similar to the way silentbravo did it above but with an inclusive fused relay block and a fuse on the feed wire as close to the source a possible.
*Not discounting sb's installation, just not aware of op's fab skills for as clean an install of individual components.

To add additional confusion, some of your accessory loads may not require a relay and can be sourced directly thru the switch. For instance, the back up camera trigger would not require a fuse or a relay as it should just be providing a ground reference to the HU. I would wager the load to energize the relay would be more than the HU consumes to switch the camera circuit. So, check loads and switch ratings to determine if relays are needed or not. Majority of the time they are.

 

I think my backup camera, the camera itself used some ridiculous low amount of power like 2 watts or something similar. A lot of people tie into the reverse light power at the the tail lights themselves to power the cameras, which seems to work fine for them.

Also a good recommendation by BigKID, to fuse your relay block or even fuse block as close to the battery as possible. The best practice is to fuse within 12-18" of battery, the closer the better. The 12 circuit fuse panel I showed a picture of, is itself fused to the capacity of that panel. You have to realize that any section of wire that isn't fused, so anything from the battery connection, up until the first fuse, has potential to burn up, and also catch things nearby it on fire in worst case short circuit scenario. Fusing close to battery is just minimizing the potential damage.

Another basic thing to understand, fuses are not sized to protect the accessory/load, they are to sized to protect the wire, so that the fuse will always pop before the wire is damaged. So you size your wire according to what your accessory needs, and then you size your fuse according to your wire size to protect the wire.

 

I really appreciate all of the help, I "think" I might be understanding this a bit more. They do have a switch panel on Amazon that comes with a relay box and fuse holder for around $100. This looks like it could simplify things a lot for me. Any thoughts on going this route?

 

If you want something like that I would recommend a switch pros panel.

 

Is there any possibility that you could give me an idea of what I need to buy for this project? I'm trying to be frugal, but not "cheap". I don't really like the all-in-one panels because they are so expensive at this time. I really do appreciate any help given. I really want to do this and do it right. There are so many variations on how to do it, it's hard to know what the "safe" way is.