Electrical ground and bus bar

[RitaRunner]

Accessory wiring is getting crowded by the battery, so I want to consolidate it to the other side of the engine bay from the battery in my JL. So i thought i would put in two bus bars. one just a straight bus bar, going to ground, and one with fuses in it. (see attached pic). but what i am confused with is the picture (from BlueSea Systems) show the ground bar also attached to the negative terminal. Is that right? I would have thought it would just be attached to a grounding bolt in the engine bay. Second question is it shows a fuse between battery positive and the "fuse" panel bar. What size fuse should this be? The fuses will run anywhere from 10A to 30A (radio).

 

[bobfriesenhahn]

Accessory wiring is getting crowded by the battery, so I want to consolidate it to the other side of the engine bay from the battery in my JL. So i thought i would put in two bus bars. one just a straight bus bar, going to ground, and one with fuses in it. (see attached pic). but what i am confused with is the picture (from BlueSea Systems) show the ground bar also attached to the negative terminal. Is that right? I would have thought it would just be attached to a grounding bolt in the engine bay. Second question is it shows a fuse between battery positive and the "fuse" panel bar. What size fuse should this be? The fuses will run anywhere from 10A to 30A (radio).


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Depending on a chassis ground may not provide the level of reliable low resistance as a direct connection to the battery. There could be induced voltage or current due to things like engine starter or a winch which could cause harm.

An upper limit on the fuse size is the surge current rating of the wires coming to the battery so the wire, or insulation is not damaged. But you could choose a smaller fuse to offer more protection to/from attached devices, at the increased risk of possibly blowing the fuse mor often.