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Old 03-20-2010, 01:13 PM   #1
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Battery separator and Fuses

I recently finished installing a Surepower model 1315 battery separator. It goes from my chassis batter to a 12 volt 300 amp hour house battery.

I have installed a 10amp fuse on the ground wire coming from the separator per the instruction manual. However, the manual does not mention installing fuses between the power cables running from the chassis battery, to the separator, to the house battery. It is my understanding that there should be fuses here for safety reasons.

What kind of fuses are recommended and at what amperage?

Thanks!

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Old 03-23-2010, 06:05 PM   #2
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Re: Battery separator and Fuses

Good question, mine is a 2004 and does not have fuses between the battery and separator. I plan on putting some closest to the battery. I have a bluesea terminal fuse block that I plan on installing on the van battery, I think I purchased the 200 amp fuse .
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Old 03-24-2010, 08:01 AM   #3
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Re: Battery separator and Fuses

My thought would be the max load that the inverter will pull (DC) during usage along with the starter. Don't forget to figure in what the starter pulls if needed to get the rig going. That will be the largest draw I would think. Some microwaves can pull up to 15 amps at AC voltages. Although most folks don't have huge microwaves you'll have to at least figure what your inverter can pull along with what other items at DC voltages can use at the same time.
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Old 03-24-2010, 10:00 AM   #4
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Re: Battery separator and Fuses

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scalf77
I have a bluesea terminal fuse block that I plan on installing on the van battery,
Well what happens if you blow this fuse? You're kind of stuck aren't you, with an inline fuse that you probably can't find at Autozone and looks like it might need tools to replace... I mean obviously you need to find the problem, but then you're looking at replacing the fuse. Point being is there a similar application in a breaker, like the one SMB sometimes puts with the ExtremeAir?
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Old 03-24-2010, 12:43 PM   #5
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Re: Battery separator and Fuses

I've been told by our shop that there isn't 12 v breakers that rate over 200A but they could be wrong. I would like to know. My guess there is something out there but the bus would have to be oversized for the high load or the tall fuse would still cause damage. You could always add a emergency bypass switch for when the fuse blows but you would be back in the same situation. Guess when you smell something burning quickly turn it off???
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Old 03-24-2010, 12:49 PM   #6
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Re: Battery separator and Fuses

I'm sure you already know this but be careful not to over-fuse your wire. There is a strict schedule of max fuse size for wire gauge. If you go over this, the wire becomes the fuse and then you have a potential fire. It defeats the purpose of the fuse, which is to blow out in the event of a short/spike. Just my $.02.
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Old 03-24-2010, 04:48 PM   #7
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Re: Battery separator and Fuses

Quote:
Originally Posted by webbmac
I'm sure you already know this but be careful not to over-fuse your wire. There is a strict schedule of max fuse size for wire gauge. If you go over this, the wire becomes the fuse and then you have a potential fire. It defeats the purpose of the fuse, which is to blow out in the event of a short/spike. Just my $.02.
Exactly why it would be better to split all the loads and fuse each for it's max normal pull. It's no good to have a 200a breaker if the starter will blow it when you do need to jump the vehicle. And if you have a short going to something that splits to a smaller gauge bus the fuse will not blow and the wire will fry. Basically the original poster is asking what amperage to use and that would be the max load (probably the starter) but if you fuse only for that and are running an inverter at 80% of say 2000 watts at the same time, the fuse may still go if trying to start the vehicle with dead chassis batteries. I think SMB uses too light of wire going to the separator between the batteries. I would use 2 strand or 1/0 copper. Big fuse with larger [edit: proper sized bus rated for the main fuse]bus and coordinate a smaller fuse sized for each separate load behind it. I think SMB used 4 strand copper so you don't want to crank the engine for long periods trying to start it. I’ll go out on a limb; I haven’t checked but fusing for max load using 4 strand copper might not be enough for handling the starter load. Has anybody ran the numbers?
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