What's the best way to run battery cables into cab . . .?

[Bungee]

I want to install a power inverter under the back seat of my 2000 extended cab. To do so, I need to bring cables from the battery to under the back seat.

What is the best way to route these electrical cables into the cab? Ripping up the carpet and removing plastic trim peices? Or simply drilling a hole under the back seat and routing them underneath the chassis? And should I be drilling through the firewall to get the cables in?

I really have no idea how to do this. My main concerns are:

(1) Ease of installation . . . the easiest, most non-destructive ways possible. For example, I'd like to get away from tearing out carpet and trim peices if possible.

(2) Cosmetics . . . I'd like it to look neat and clean, without battery cables showing in the cab.

(3) Drilling holes through the chassis and firewall . . . my concern (a concern that may not be valid) is that making holes in the firewall or chassis would allow extra road/engine noise in the cab. Or that drilled holes would invite rust to form.

Sorry if this seems like such a basic question, but I really would like some advise from someone knowledgeable before I go ahead and screw this up by myself.

THANKS in advance!

[rpreston]

On my '90 I drilled a hole thru the firewall next to where the throttle cable went thru and sealed it with wad of bubblegum. Don't laugh! That was in '93 or '94 and its still holding fine! Just ran the battery cables to my linear under the mat... On my sons '97, we drilled a hole under the drivers seat to hook up his linear and tie wrapped the cables to the frame and sealed the hole with the same stuff they use to seal around pipes and electrical wires going into a house. His admittedly was a lot nicer looking job-no obvious cables showing...but no less effective!

[jeverett]

How big of a cable must be ran? If its not very large, you can tap into the fuse panel that under the dash next to your left foot. I've got my strobes and my siren hooked into it. Theres many open outlets here.

[jl_tulane]

This is an easy problem. There is a hole under the dash all the way to the left when looking at the steering wheel. You can wallow out the hole in the grommet and feed the wire through. Then pull up the plastic step molding on the door frame and roll the carpet back. Run the wire to where ever you want and find or cut a hole for it in the carpet. then put all the carpet and plastic back. If you are scared of this, then you can get any car installation shop to do it for you for probably about 30 - 50 bucks. But it is definitely something you can do yourself.
PS: you can run from an unused wire on the driver's side fuse box, depending on how much amperage it is going to draw.

[Bungee]

Originally Posted by jeverett

How big of a cable must be ran? If its not very large, you can tap into the fuse panel that under the dash next to your left foot.

It's as beefy as a starter cable.

[broughy84]

If you are going to be pulling heavy amperage, might I suggest, if you have room, add a second battery. We did this to our Heavy Rescue truck because we have alot of emergency lights (full light bar, rear strobes, side strobes, headlight wig wags, arrow stick, alternators on the corners of the roof, and oscillators in the grille and three siren heads on it. That's alot of stuff....but you can see us comming down the road!!! ) Just run them in series Battery 1 negative to ground, positive to battery 2's negative, positive to the vehicle electrical system. This will act like one HUGE battery.

[SpitAndDirt]

Is your rescue truck a diesel? I think you just told everyone to turn their electral system to 24Volts by running the batteries in series! Should be in parallel to maintain 12volt electrical system.

[simple_country_guy]

Do not do series your batteries if you decide to add a second one. Your truck is 12 volts and if you do what he suggests you will be running 24 volts and will cook lots of things in there. If you chose to get a second battery you should run a battery isolator which only allows one battery to charge at a time. This reduces the stress on your altenator so you won't fry it. As for running wiring throught the firewall. On the drivers side behind the fuse box there is a rather large rubber boot that I have easily ran two 4 gauge wires through. It comes into the truck right above the electrical junction box under the dash. You can then run the cable down the side of the truck by removing the trim ( it is very easy, they simply snap into place and pop right back down). I run a 3000 watt inverter in my truck and that is the way I have mine ran. Good luck, if you have any other questions just ask. If it can be done to a 99-02 truck I have done it.

[simple_country_guy]

one other thing very quickly. You don't want to run both positive and negative. You want your negative to be as short as possible. Only run your positive in the truck and then ground your negative on one of your seat bolts, they make for great grounding points.

[jeverett]

Originally Posted by simple_country_guy

one other thing very quickly. You don't want to run both positive and negative. You want your negative to be as short as possible. Only run your positive in the truck and then ground your negative on one of your seat bolts, they make for great grounding points.

hehehe

[Bungee]

Putting in a dual battery setup is good advice. I've been exploring this very issue. Here are some links for anyone interested in setting up a dual battery system for themselves:

http://www.off-road.com/chevy/reviews/wranglerdb/ (my favorite, because it's a custom-designed kit for the Silverado)

http://home.off-road.com/~landy/battery.htm

http://www.wt4wheeling.com/Dblue351/...ery_set_up.htm

Country Guy, I'll certainly hit you up for information when I get ready to install ... except your grounding ideas, of course.

Thanks

[broughy84]

sorry guys, i double checked that, and you are right, it is in parrallel. sorry for the bad advice. BTW no it's not deisel. it is a 1982 Ford F350 w/steel walkin box. It has a 460 (we put it in) and a 4 speed manual.

[huminski]

What I did on my 04 is run the cable off the battery, neatly zip-tied every 8-12 inches to the main harness that goes down the frame rail, all the way to just under the back seat floorpan, then branched it off and ran it through a grommet up through the floor. Easiest way to do it. I was going to go through the main harness in the firewall, or drill the firewall, but overall this method was much easier to do. Safer too as you can't drill through anything too important in the rear floorboard.