Need a great wiring person to come wire my truck right near Ft.Lauderdale

[Ozzie]

Hi folks.
1988 LR90 HardTop SW
Got a 300tdi/R380/LT1.2
Electric Fans, has Aftermarket AC which will be upgraded soon..
Everything works.
Drives just fine.
Love this thing.
However.
It was re wired with a 12 circuit Kwik Wire system.
Its simple but does the job for how the truck is now..

When it's re wired I'd like to have it done overkill on the safe side, with battery cut off on the seat box, Double batteries is needed.
Relays for the switches that are going on the Dash for
Heated Seats
Front , side and rear Aux Flood lights on the rack.
Power windows
pwr door locks
MOD HVAC which arrives in 2 weeks.
Double din head unit for GPS/Radio.

I have a 10as module
Courtesy switches on all 3 doors
The doors are all Puma and have the 2007+oem door harness for CDL and pwr windows.
I have most all the Carling switches, and the rear wiper/wash switch new.

If there is someone highly recommended with experience to do this right. I'd like to speak with them about coming to South Florida to assess what's needed for the job, I'd order all that's necessary and then plan the time to come and work on this here.
Can anyone say "Florida Work/Vacation?"

 

[Thedudeabides]

Out of curiosity, what is the expected cost of a project like this in a normal independent LR shop?

 

[expanse]

Out of curiosity, what is the expected cost of a project like this in a normal independent LR shop?

not cheap. Wiring is two fold in my mind, a solid plan of attack and a LOT of little details to execute. I see a lot of work in a request like this. Sounds like a lot of fun though.

 

[MountainD]

Hard to say. IMHO, any shop worth its salt won’t take on a re-wiring job without inspecting and fixing wiring that is existing too as these are traditionally rat traps of PO’s mistakes. Some will want to use factory harnesses and not patching (I would) or Autosparks’ harnesses at a minimum (who I’d use). I’d say 2-3 full days labor min , making heated seat harnesses, new relay/fuse block like Cooper-Bussman mini relay-fuse block for all accessories (Again, my preference), I’d say you start at $4k done right, probably more at a shop. I’m about to do my truck when I put in R2.8. My battery box is super clean, I only have one circuit-breaker block in mine running heavy gauge accessory cable off the battery shut-off over to passenger seat compartment where I use a variation of this https://www.waytekwire.com/item/46346/EATON-s-Bussmann-Series-15303-6-2-4-RTMR-Mini-Fuse/ so I eliminate other relays for seat heaters and auto resetting fuses for trailer brakes and resettable fuses for accessories. Good luck with your work!

 

[chris snell]

Would love to see some pics of the Bussmann installed. I wired my battery box with Blue Sea Systems fuse blocks and mounted standard relays external to that. It works beautifully but space is very tight and I'd love to re-do it if there is a way to do it smaller and cleaner, eliminating external relays.

What I'm particularly interested in is a block that can take an ignition-hot wire and use it to trigger a subset of the relays so that I can have some outputs that are only hot when the truck is turned on. I do this currently by daisy-chaining a second, smaller Blue Sea panel off the main panel and have a larger relay to control it. I use this for my APRS beacon and to turn the stereo amp on and off.

As for @Ozzie 's request, if I were in his shoes, I would learn the techniques to do good wiring and do it myself. It's really not that hard. The key things, IMHO, are:

- Have the factory electrical diagrams handy
- Make notes and drawings as you go
- Buy quality connectors. I recommend marine-grade ones from Ancor. You want the ones that are heat-shrink and adhesive-lined.
- Buy a big assortment of heatshrink tubing
- Buy an assortment of expandable braided sleeving.
- If you're going for factory-proper and building your own harnesses, get the proper-colored wire from British Wiring
- If you're building something to use on extended trips where reliability is king, use marine-grade Ancor wiring (variety of colors) instead
- If you're not worried about factory correctness, buy a big assortment of Delphi Weatherpack connectors online, along with the tools to work with them and do everything with that. WP connectors are easy to connect/disconnect and they will be more reliable than the old bullet style.
- Run all wiring within expandable braided sleeving, which helps eliminate abrasion and thus, shorting
- Use heatshrink to neatly seal the ends of the sleeving near your terminal ends
- Get a label maker and label everything if you're not sticking to factory colors and/or have extra accessories
- For things like your chassis harness that runs through the frame to your rear lights, buy a length of heavy duty, thick-walled heat shrink, the kind that's chemical resistant, and run the harness in this. You may have to remove the connector ends to get the wires through the heatshrink; it helps to have the right tool to remove conductors from the plugs and be sure to draw a diagram so you can put them back in correctly. Run the harness through heatshrink and then run it to the back of the truck on top of the frame rather than through the frame. This is what I've done on my truck and it's absolutely bomber. Nothing is going to abrade and my lights or fuel gauge aren't going to short out somewhere deep in the frame.

 

[WreckITFrank]

@Ozzie id be in for the job if I were closer to you.

This is my favorite topic..wiring. I have been on the epic quest to find the best solution for Defenders (or any similar vehicle) in that its an all in one. There are dozen ways to go about it, but I like overkill, overengineered, and weather tight. Waytek is a great resource, and the bussman setup is a great choice, but i really like the stuff Egis is putting out as well. This Littelfuse is so close to having it perfect if only there was an unswitched high amperage out. So I would go battery to something like below, then take your distribution choice on egis, bussman, blue sea, etc. You could have 100amp (switched) under hood, in batt box, and in rear if you want with the below setup.

switchable high amperage 3 x output. 4 low amp unswitched output, all fused. they also have some cool switches to use as your trigger or you can go direct to ign if you want.

SL Series Power Distribution Module - Littelfuse

www.littelfuse.com

 

[Ozzie]

These are all fantastic suggestions and I've also gotten some great help from Martin in the UK with some diagrams for some of the things that I'm doing I'll be updating everything next week when I start some of this myself.
I do have quite a bit of experience doing complete wiring systems on hot rods and I removed all of the air suspension system and electronics on my 93 LWB Range Rover many years ago, Also shortened all of the wiring that went to the ECU under the passenger seat so that I could re mount it underneath the passenger side dash Making it easier to go really deep water fording.... But those days are over now.... I'll tackle this project and report back in a couple of weeks. Thanks again for all the help it really does help guide me.

 

[MountainD]

Would love to see some pics of the Bussmann installed. I wired my battery box with Blue Sea Systems fuse blocks and mounted standard relays external to that. It works beautifully but space is very tight and I'd love to re-do it if there is a way to do it smaller and cleaner, eliminating external relays.

What I'm particularly interested in is a block that can take an ignition-hot wire and use it to trigger a subset of the relays so that I can have some outputs that are only hot when the truck is turned on. I do this currently by daisy-chaining a second, smaller Blue Sea panel off the main panel and have a larger relay to control it. I use this for my APRS beacon and to turn the stereo amp on and off.

As for @Ozzie 's request, if I were in his shoes, I would learn the techniques to do good wiring and do it myself. It's really not that hard. The key things, IMHO, are:

- Have the factory electrical diagrams handy
- Make notes and drawings as you go
- Buy quality connectors. I recommend marine-grade ones from Ancor. You want the ones that are heat-shrink and adhesive-lined.
- Buy a big assortment of heatshrink tubing
- Buy an assortment of expandable braided sleeving.
- If you're going for factory-proper and building your own harnesses, get the proper-colored wire from British Wiring
- If you're building something to use on extended trips where reliability is king, use marine-grade Ancor wiring (variety of colors) instead
- If you're not worried about factory correctness, buy a big assortment of Delphi Weatherpack connectors online, along with the tools to work with them and do everything with that. WP connectors are easy to connect/disconnect and they will be more reliable than the old bullet style.
- Run all wiring within expandable braided sleeving, which helps eliminate abrasion and thus, shorting
- Use heatshrink to neatly seal the ends of the sleeving near your terminal ends
- Get a label maker and label everything if you're not sticking to factory colors and/or have extra accessories
- For things like your chassis harness that runs through the frame to your rear lights, buy a length of heavy duty, thick-walled heat shrink, the kind that's chemical resistant, and run the harness in this. You may have to remove the connector ends to get the wires through the heatshrink; it helps to have the right tool to remove conductors from the plugs and be sure to draw a diagram so you can put them back in correctly. Run the harness through heatshrink and then run it to the back of the truck on top of the frame rather than through the frame. This is what I've done on my truck and it's absolutely bomber. Nothing is going to abrade and my lights or fuel gauge aren't going to short out somewhere deep in the frame.

I did the smaller one under the hood of the 90 but it filled up too quickly. This is the 110. I’m still in progress and about to install the heated seat harnesses and everything for the AC and Cummins accessories, like the Webasto. Put an Anderson plug for, solar plug in or 30A accessories such as On Board Air (using Puma compressor).

Pic 1&2. Battery box and disconnect.
pic 3,4 & 5. 30A disconnect and Eaton fuse/relay cab.

the janky neutral buss will be upgraded to something proper and better protected. Just haven’t fount an ideal option yet. Open to suggestions.

 

[theShaytoon]

I am in the middle of removing/planning the rewiring of OrangeCrush...I am going with the Bussman like the one @MountainD is using, but I really like the idea of having an auxiliary fuse box in the engine. The mini Bussman boxes are IMPOSSIBLE to find except on ebay, and they are going for three times the price.

@MountainD I really like the idea of the cutting board, I mean the custom HDPE board....I will have to steal that idea.

 

[MountainD]

Couple folks have asked. Iv got this one, dual buss bars. Best price, great company to deal with. Waytek.

Eaton's Bussmann Series 15401-2-0-1-0A RFRM Fuse Block | Waytek

Eaton's Bussmann Series 15401-2-0-1-0A RFRM Fuse Block for 2.8mm fuses and relays. Available at Waytek today. Shop now!

www.waytekwire.com

 

[WreckITFrank]

If you want a play by play on a bussman setup, this guy has a nice multi part series here..I would do some things different with some connector choices, but it's pretty spot on.

DIY Bussmann RTMR Fuse Block, Part 1 – Introduction | Bodenzord

This is Part 1 in a series of tutorials that will show you how to build a Bussmann RTMR fuse/relay block. If you're not familiar with this product, it's a simple waterproof enclosure that allows you to connect accessories on your vehicle through relays and/or fuses.

www.bodenzord.com

+1 for Waytek, I just hate the shipping prices from them. Its probably my Bezos ship for free mindset.

 

[MountainD]

I love the high amperage little fuse for switching big loads. Hmmmm..... not sure I have a use for that yet....yet...