Mounting fuse block and battery disconnect

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cody0707

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Mar 11, 2021
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Location
Tallahassee, FL
I plan on putting a fuse block and a battery disconnect on my bot but I do not want to drill into the aluminum to mount them. In the past, I purchased a plastic trim board and mounted it to a fiberglass console using Bondo fiberglass resin. That way I could drill into the trim board without worrying about putting holes into the fiberglass. For those of you that mounted a fuse block how did you do it without drilling holes into the aluminum?
 
Double sided tape would probably stick the fuse block just fine. Make sure to use the outdoor variety.

The shut-off is a different matter, they have a pretty heavy detent and are hard to turn, perhaps gluing a chunk of plastic cutting board to the aluminum and screwing to that would be the best option. The plastic has a pretty large surface area for the glue to adhere to.
 
On my smaller tin boat, I made a switch box out of Blue Sea Systems switches installed in the cover of a 4x4 weatherproof pvc junction box. I installed a Blue Seas 50A re-settable switch on the side. 50A switch has one input from the battery and then splits and goes to trolling motor and into the switch box so it essentially acts as a main cutoff for everything. Within the box, I have inline fuses for the 3 switches I have installed (3way anchor/nav combo, bilge, and transom light) - so I do have to remove the cover to install new blade fuses but its not too big of a deal. The beauty of this is that it simplifies everything and then I just drill 2 holes (just do opposite corners vs all 4 holes) into the boat to mount....plus the mounting holes are standard for those boxes so if you get a new box to reconfigure it should attach where the old one was. I also have another box feeding off this one which has a 12v outlet, and dual usb outlets in it. Those have their own fuses in the box too. I use the 12V outlet to run my livewell pump so I'm thinking about installing a timer for the 12V outlet which will be installed in the cover as well.
 
Might I suggest a solid copper bus bar, that will act as both a lead, and mounting point. One end of the bar is bolted to the battery terminal, and the master switch gets mounted to the other end of the bar. It could easily be short and stout enough to hold the switch in place, or if needed, could be long enough to bend, and mount the switch close in against the side of the battery.

I have that arrangement on my T-bucket hot rod, using an AGM battery, and two-circuit master switch like what might be found on a dedicated drag race car.

Roger
 

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