[Mike, 92 Country Coach]

I use Blue Sea bus bars.

https://www.bluesea.com/products/category/18/BusBars

[Richard]

Blue Sea makes good stuff, all my fuse holders are Blue Sea.

[Richard]

Looked at Blue sea need high amp and to fit 4/0 lugs? Lug bolts have to be at least 1 inch apart, So what do you think of this, These bars are 400 amps skip a couple of lugs attach from both sides on both ends 2 batteries one 1 side and other 2 batteries oppose them and middle would be to positive on coach both Positive and negative from middle of both bars red and black??????????

[Michael]

That’s fine. I just want to make SURE I understand that all the cables in the picture are POSITIVE cables. The color has me just asking the question. On my coach some positive DC battery cables are also black. Makes me doublecheck my thinking every time.

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Mike Harper

2004 Marathon XLII

[Art]

This is just a test on seeing if the bus bars will work with 4/0 cable lugs, Ordered some more 4/0 cable to finish.

[Bernie]

The reason for changing to Bus bars is after a couple of months of testing batteries and a couple of weeks of using them(not dry camping) plugged in but still travel and using DC volts, Victron looked fine 13.2v 68 percent, but the LiTime battery bluetooth reading was off, Volts were close but SOC was off, Before removing batteries I wrote this down #1 battery 100 percent 13.3v – #2 Battery 32 percent 13.2v – #3 Battery 32 percent 13.2v – #4 Battery 72 Percent 13.3v So 1st and 4th batteries used less or none compared to inner batteries, I know this is true because I pulled out batteries lined them on garage floor and charged them with a lithium charger,It has a led that turns green and charger shuts off, on bluetooth said 100 percent charging volts 14.4 resting volts 13.3. #4 battery 72 percent took around 3 hours to fully charge #3 battery 32 percent took around 6 hours to fully charge #2 battery 32 percent took 5 hours and 30 min to fully charge #1 battery 100 percent have not charged it yet but I bet won’t take long. That video the guy said if your using 2 batteries bus bars aren’t needed, 3 batteries they are needed 4 batteries are Absolutely Necessary, After I get bus bars wired I will test again in a few months. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pQ0WjpSEa0

[John]

Hey Mike I did find power bars at Blue sea picture shows 2/0 cable and lots of room.

[Art]

Finished Adding Bus Bars and re wired came out pretty clean you can see Bus Bars next to batteries the 4 red and 4 black cables from bus Bars are the same lengths and from bus bars to ground and to positive are the same size also.

[Terry]

Looks good, thanks for the pics!

[Chris]

A recommendation. While we all like really neat looking wiring, I recommend you also consider making it easy to modify while on the road somewhere. You never know when you will need to isolate a failing component, or wire around one that totally failed. Leave wire runs long enough to form a service loop and think ahead to how long that loop needs to be especially for these very large cables. Also, be sure you use only professionally crimping tools that truly create a gas tight crimp. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard back from attendees at one of my presentations or readers of my articles two years later when they ask why performance has diminished over what it was when they first did their conversion. In all too many cases it came down to buying cheap crimpers “because I am only going to do this once so didn’t want to pay for professional tools”. Over time corrosion can form in these less than gas tight crimps causing increased resistance and diminished performance.

Jerry

[Jeff]

I bought a hydraulic crimper that seems to work pretty well and I used nice colored shrinks that looks like it has glue in it that seeps out when heating up. And the bus bars have 1/2 inch steel on them for transfer rated 400 amps with 4/0 cable, The way it is easy to go back

[Jon]

what is gas tight crimp?

[Bill]

So after adding the bus Bars In testing running electric heater all power sources the batteries are down to 75 percent SOC on Victron and on LiTime blue tooth app the Volts on all 13.1 and SOC is with in 3 to 4 percent pretty close where before I had a 100 percent on #4 and a 75 Percent and 2 of them were 32Percent so much better.