12v Camper Van RV Boat Fusebox review 

Hey, thanks very much for the comment. I was always unsure if the videos were too detailed, long and boring but I'm glad you find them useful. Jamie

Thanks for the positive comments, really appreciated and glan it helped.

Thanks for the nice comment, really appreciate it!

Thanks a million, really means a lot. It's really great to get good feedback, Jamie

Thanks Michelle don't forget to give a thumbs up. 👍🏻 really helps

Thanks Gerry, appreciate the comment and I'll certainly have more good stuff up soon!!

Dee, there's a few factors at play to give you the correct answer. That's for the great question and now for the boring bit. You need to work out the total load, in amps that your fuse box will require. Basically if you have everything in your build switched on at the same time. For example, lights, heater, fridge inverter etc obviously only 12v stuff connected to the fuses. Then you need to work out the length of the wire from battery to the positive input on the fuse box. If you need more advice, let me know but lots of good info on calculations if you Search the net, but they will all ask for the current draw/load and the length of cable run, so that's your first task. Any more help I can give. Just ask

Hi. It's a perfect solution. Using the bluetti as a power supply works fine but remember you only have a max load combined of 30amp s. So 4 10 amp fuse loads would trip the bluetti. Having said that, unless your using big 12v loads everything should be fine. Personally, and again my opinion, these are great for backup power but I prefer battery bank solution as if any one component fails it's usually an easier fix. Inverter fails you lose ac but cheap fix Battery fails simple fix at a cost. Usb socket fails cheap simple fix. If a bluetti/jackery/power bank fails you lose everything. Depending on warranty and they are bloody expensive to replace. I'm not saying that it will fail! Let me know how you get on

@campervancreations7656 I was thinking a 25 amp fuse between the bluetti and the DC fuse panel box thing. That way I can't damage anything. All I wanna run is a few lights and a couple fans in my van while I travel for my job

Hey 25amp fuse would be fine from the ac200 to the fuse board. Also worth noting. The fuse is there to protect the wire and not the item it's connected to. But with lights(i assume led) and a fan or two it should be perfectly fine. Jamie.

Hi, I used 6mm2 multi strand wire. Can't remember the AWG equivalent but Google had the answer.

It's 11 or 12 g I think

That's actually correct as it uses the voltage to light the LED in the event of a fuse blowing. I actually explain that in the video. Thanks for the comment jamie

Hey Glenn, that caught me out first time around. Actually had a total brain fart about it until I realised what it does and how it works. Jamie

@@campervancreations7656 Exactly. Glad I’m not the only one 😅 Btw thanks for the fuse tip. Just as a short-prevention alone, or for cutting power when necessary it’s brilliant.

I've always said that as long as it's safe there are so many ways of wiring 12v systems. I've years of experience with all this stuff, it's the making of the videos makes it hard to cover everything. Thanks for watch and the comments. Jamie

Alan, thanks for that, really appreciate it, I'll have a listen to your music and hopefully I can use some to make the videos more interesting to watch

Thanks for the great comment, obviously if you have any questions just pop them here and I'll see if I can help!! Jamie

Sorry, did see your message till now. You need to work out the max current draw that the bike needs and match the wire size.

Obviously the quality may vary with price. No discernable voltage drop. They work fine in a camper, boat etc. Wouldn't use in an aerospace application but suitable. Jamie

@@campervancreations7656 Sweet. It's cool to get advice from an actual engineer. I'll get those twin positive bus bar ones I've been looking at on eBay then. Gets a bit complicated if you want to take advantage of the programmable, switched load outputs of 2 victron solar controllers in parallel- so much functionality though!

Rafael I used 35mm2. Jamie

Your most Welcome. Jamie

Excellent question. All of the negative screws are connected together behind the fuse board so it doesn't matter electrically qhich screw you use but if you have a few different negative wires going to the fuse board, it would be best practice to use differed screws. Thanks for watching and if you enjoyed the video, a thumbs-up always helps. Thanks again . Jamie

@@campervancreations7656 Thanks for the speedy reply. I have the exact fuse box, and will be working on electric this week. Just another question for you. Does the wires from the battery to the fuse box 4 AWG or can or can I use 10 AWG?? Thanks Again!!

@@nspacelofihiphop7101 4awg is probably overkill but 10awg should be more than sufficient. Remember, the correct fuse size based on your expected load for the total combined load connected to all outputs is there to protect the wire rather than what's connected to it. As long S the fuses are rated for each appliance/circuit, you should be ok. But without knowing your exact setup, it's hard to give precise info. Jamie

@@campervancreations7656 Thanks for the vid!!1 again and thanks for the feedback!

Your very welcome

Thanks so much. Glad you enjoyed it. Jamie

Thanks for the nice comment, really appreciate it!

Thanks for the comment, go raihm maith agam. Jamie

Billy, your completely out of luck, I was planning on only covering the BLUE Triton. If you would consider a respray, I could probably help you out.🤣. Just comment below if you've any questions. I'd be delight to help or Instagram, facebook or direct email. Should be links in description on some of the videos. Havent been able to get to them all but should be back to making videos shortly. Jamie

Campervan Creations thats great mate, many thanks 😊

Sheena, glad you found the channell. I should be back on the build in the next two weeks. If you have any questions, queries or comments, just put them in the comments section on any of my videos and I'll be more that happy to help you if I can. Jamie

Excellent, I'm delighted it was useful to you. Thanks for the comment

Colin, The light only comes on when that fuse is connected to the circuit blows. The led is not lit up if nothing is connected. If something is connected and there is no fuse then the light comes on. Hope this helps. Jamie

If you have any questions just ask. Might be a bit slow in responding

Thanks for the really good and positive comment. Always appreciate it. Jamie

What a really good question, if you connect the earth from the battery to the van body and to the fuse box, you now do away with the need to run two wires from each accessory. You just need to run a positive wire from fused terminal via a switch if necessary. Hope this helps. Jamie

Confused me at first. Its actually explained in the video but it uses a low voltage to light the led if the fuse is blown. Jamie

@@campervancreations7656 thanks Jamie! I understand that, but surely this means that it could still short and start a fire because that voltage passed beyond the light to the outputting terminal? Doesn't that defeat one of the key points of the fuse? Thanks for the help!

So, your really getting deep here. Electrons do indeed flow from negative to positive but I think you might be referring to a sacrificial anode used in marine applications to prevent corrosion. This is due to the presence of alt water, which is highly conductive. In 5he case of a road vehicle, the tyres act as insulators and the body being ground is irrelevant but good question. Jamie

Thank . Appreciate the response.

Hi Lass-inAngeles, Firstly let me thank you for subscribing, always great to see and welcome new subscribers. I understand your frustration with the issues your having and the inability to get anyone to look at your problems and huge respect for undertaking the job yourself. Remember, the information and people who are willing to guide and advise are out there but ultimately doing the job yourself will be very rewarding, it will be done right and you will know how everything is setup, making future work considerably easier. Fuses are designed to primarily protect the wiring, it can be bigger than is necessary for DC but using the correct size fuse and wire avoids running anymore expensive copper than is necessary. Are you rewiring the fuse box in 12dc side or just replacing the fuse box and using existing wires? On the AC side, the protection is done in 2 ways. Firstly we use a device that detects any imbalance in the system between live and neutral.RCBO (for residual-current circuit breaker with overcurrent protection) in Europe; GFCI breaker (for ground fault circuit interrupter) in USA and Canada, These are critical on the AC side as they protect against life threatening situations 12v dc fault could have the potential to cause a fire of give nasty burns but are rarely life threatening. I'd need photos and more info to be or more help. Facebook campervan Creations or Instagram as the same. Thanks for watching and hope it all works out. Jamie

@@campervancreations7656 Thanks Jamie! Yes, the GFCI outlets are already installed. The main circuit breaker box where the AC comes in - I'm not touching that. All I am doing is putting in some new fuse panels for DC wired lights and small stuff. All 5, 10, 15, 20 amp fuses at most. I am lifting this wire mess out from under the steps and installing fuse panels on a wall right next to leisure/house batteries. I know my RV is a '30 amp system' but not sure if that relates to type of fuse panel to get. You have a 60 amp fuse panel. Do I need a 30 amp fuse panel? Do you count all the fuse amps and add them together or just pick the highest one at 20 amps, or go with the 30 amp RV power setting? Sorry, for using all the wrong terms and being such a newbie but I know nothing about elec. I really envy your knowledge! Wish you lived here, I could learn a lot. I'll take some photos. I'm truly grateful for this knowledge. If you want to know anything about health, supplements, how to fix pain in lower back, or pet health, give me a shout out. I'm very good with that.

Making a few assumptions here so forgive me. What I'm guessing is the Max 12v dc current feeding the fuse board is 30amps and should be protected by 30amp fuse. This would be where you have everything DC switched on at the same time and big red wire bringing the power to the fuse board is protect by a 30amp fuse or DC breaker or in my case 60amp but the wire I'm using is rated far higher than 60 amps but 60 was the breaker I was happy with. 30 amp fuse in your system means that the maximum load at any one time cannot exceed 30 amps. However all you would need to do to up the spec to 60amps is change the positive wire going from the battery to the fuse box to 4awg which has a maximum of 100amps over about 10ft. Protect that with a 60 fuse or dc breaker as in my video and you should have plenty of capacity to run your RV 12v system. They probably put 3 x 4way boxes each feed with 30 amps. Also each individual circuit will be protected by the 5,10,15,20 amp fuses individually. You could and should, work out the maximum power consumption of everything dc in the system, heaters, fridges, water pumps lights etc etc. And add them all together. And multiply by 1.5 and round up to the nearest fuse or breaker size and that will give you the protection for the wire feeding the board. J

@@campervancreations7656 Lots to digest here, so noted all this. Now I'll go add up my amps and work it out. Thanks so much for your help!!!

The led's are part of the circuit, if a fuse blows the LED will light up. It's done on a loop back wiring. The LED's are part of a series circuit, and a break in that circuit uses a 12v supply from the main live in to light it up. Jamie

Hi luisa, sorry for delay in responding but I'm not getting message notifications from YT. The breaker I use only isolates the fuse box feed from from the battery to the fuse box but I will have(and would recommend) 100 amp version that isolates the battery supply from everything. I chose 100 amps as based on my calculations, I should never draw any more than 100amps with everything on, charging, solar, battery to battery charger and anything else. This allow me to completely remove the batteries from the system short of undoing the cables to them. I also went a bit over board and replaced the inline fuse on the solar controller with a breaker on both the positive and negative so I can isolate the panel and controller individually. Probably overkill but 'Do it once and do it right'. Hope this helps. Jamie

But to answer your actual question, there would be no need for a separate isolater switch with the breaker in place. Jamie

That’s wicked Jamie, thanks so much for the response and info!

First bit of information needed is what power in Watts or amps is the fan and that will dictate the wire and fuse size also how far away from the battery will the fan be and including any switch.

@@campervancreations7656 The fan is 12 volt Thule vent Min power 2w max power 34w The fan is a roof fan above the kitchen area The on/off switch is on the fan unit I hope that all makes sense. Michael

So your fuse size would be amps. this is reached by dividing the power 34w by the voltage 12v which gives 2.83amps. There is no 4 amps fuse so the next size would be 5 amp's. Blade fuse, inline holder would be fine but with a current of 4 amp's the minimum cable size I would recommend would be 1.5mm2. Suitable for a run of no more than 5m. Remember The fuse protects the wire from heating up and melting and not the fan. Jamie

Ok, so this confused the crap out of me for a bit when I first started with the panel. Here's the sneaky....there is power to the terminals. Even without the fuse. Couldn't figure it out until the obvious dawned. How could the led light when the fuse is either removed or blown. That's why your getting a small voltage without fuse. Jamie

Sam, forgot to mention, you only get an led lit once there is something connected to the output. If the circuit is not completed the LED doesn't illuminate regardless of fuse or not. J

@@campervancreations7656 thanks Jamie very helpful. Sam

Either method is acceptable, by grounding the box to the leisure battery you then need to run 2 wires + and - to everything you want to power from the box. If you have the leisure battery connected to the body and also to the fuse box, you only need to run a + wire from tleach fuse and the - wire to the nearest suitable point on the body. Jamie

Ok, the negatives just all need to be connected. As long as there is a link from the battery to the chassis, you can also link it to the negative on the fuse box, incase you have something you want to wire using directly back. All fuses are on the positive cables so. Jamie

Your very welcome

Bob, I use the vehicle as my ground or Negative supply for all my interior lighting, usb sockets and any other 12v, light current accessories. I've connected the -( negative)of the battery to the earth point on the fuse box and also to the body. This allows me to only run a single +(positive) wire to power lights and charge point, fans or what ever I need. The only thing you would need to be certain of is that all panels are conductive and have metal to metal fixings, some manufacturers use high strength adhesive rather than spot welding, equally as strong but no use as an electric circuit for what we need. So in short, yes. Jamie

👍

thanks for commenting, really appreciate it. jamie

Will be back at the camper very soon so hopefully I'll get it done as part of the van build

Hi, if you go into the description, there is a link for it there!! Jamie

Your very welcome. Jamie

Excellent plan, just remember most of the equipment on the bike is mostly low voltage, so remember to keep the fuses low. Jamie

@@campervancreations7656 Ok 👌 it should be safe with 5 amps ? Is there any lower fuses than 5?

Yes, you can get 1 and 3 amp fuses. Most wiring is protected by the fuse size so always be sure to size for the wiring and not the equipment.jamie

Your very welcome, glad it was if some use. Jamie

Thanks very much, I'll answer any questions you might have and hopefully have a lot more videos going up soon.

I'll get on that straight away, appreciate the heads up!!

Link has been updated, Thanks for the info!!

Sorry George, when say you don't need a relay, what are you using a relay for? Jamie

It most certainly is. I'll link you to a video that does it. Jamie

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-F1d5r2DI6ho.html

Very welcome Callum, thanks for comment, Jamie

Hi, basically it's using the body as one big earth wire. Once you connect your leisure batteries negative to the body your providing a point anywhere in the van back to your leisure batty earth terminal and all you need to do is run positive wires from the fuse board through various appropriate switches.

Thanks Joe, appreciate the comment, hopefully more to come very soon. Jamie

Glad it was of some help. Jamie

It's a chinese copy of a German design, they are so cheap, you could split the whole power system across 2 of these. Technically you could zone the van/boat RV into 2 or more fuse boards, just like a garage consumer unit separate from the dwelling house. It's only for convenience, if it was a narrow boat, having a fuse board in the bow and one in the stern. Probably overkill for most applications. J

@@campervancreations7656 Absolutely. It’s a 30+ foot Bayliner, so there’s already 3 or 4 fuse panels. I’m trying to simplify and reduce for easier maintenance and better overview. But I’m also thinking going for the Chinese stuff. What I get in stores here are identical, just branded with the store name and for 3x the price.

@@nordemoniac The only thing that could ever cause trouble might be the quality of the soldering or crimping of connections. The store bough ones will be Chinese ones just shop branded and waaay more expensive. Anything with the word Marine or RV in it is always 2 or 3 times more. Most of stuff is either agriculture or automotive and just put in a different packaging.

@@campervancreations7656 Yeah, as long as it isn’t fully submersible or stainless steel, it’s not really “marine”.

Mike, delighted it was of somebody who can see it for what it is. Chaos. With a bit of organising. Making a video about the fuse box is a lot more time consuming than just installing one. Thanks for watching and a thumbs 👍🏻 up always appreciated jamie

thanks for commenting, really appreciate it. jamie

Good point but the draw is so low. Its only over long periods of standby. Thanks for the comments. Jamie

Glad you found it useful, Jamie

Glad it was of use, Jamie

Thanks Nico, glad it was helpful. Appreciate the comment. Jamie

Your very welcome!!

Mike, The wires on the inside are only used to power the red LED indicator lights in the event of a fuse blowing. The actual power connectors are the steel terminals. Jamie

@@campervancreations7656 Thank you!. Is this unit suitable for a 6 volt application? Are you in Kansas, I'm in Ottawa.

@@a075923 Mike, I'm actually based in Wexford, Ireland. As for the 6v application, I'm unsure, there is no reason it wouldn't work as long as the fuses were rated to blow at the 6v rather than 12v. Simple formula to calculate fuse rating to protect the wires P=VI will give you current. Work out the fuse required and hey presto. Not so sure if the 6v will work the LEDs. Jamie

Thanks for the comment!! Jamie

That's correct. 25mm² or 4awg. Any bigger and it's too inflexible and protected by the resetting fuse/Breaker. Incidentally I use the breaker regularly as an isolator. Well worth having one in the line. Jamie

@@campervancreations7656 smart 👍🏾

Thanks for the comment, appreciate it.jamie

Thanks for watching the video, really appreciate it.

Very welcome!!!

Thanks very much, positive comments are always appreciated, thanks for taking time to watch. Jamie