'Rufus Maximus' - Build Thread

[Danny G]

I'm really digging how these dash frames are looking. I have the support bars and the heat shield for the passenger fire wall harness drying now.

After some digging in the forums for radiator recommendations. I found the post about the Champion units. Also the potential issue with AC and the normal engine fan.

I am doing a 3g conversion so I picked up the Champion 4 core radiator and fan bundle. Assuming these fans are variable speed I will need to see how I want to wire this up.

Full power when temp sensor is over 185. Half power otherwise, but also full power if the AC is on or if the AC clutch engages seems like a good idea as well.

I have a 220A 3g alternator on the way, some 1/0 battery cable, a 250A fuse and the alternator pigtail. Two 1/2 inch Vbelts should be more than capable of spooling that alternator up. I am interested in a serpentine set up in the future but all the kits seem way expensive to me right now.

I would like to route the radiator hoses in a fashion that doesn't have them all over the place, specifically the hoses to the heater core. If anyone has hoses or molded ridged hoses they like please let me know.

The 220A alternator also opens the door to a secondary battery.

 

[ArdWrknTrk]

For some reason Ford chose to run this harness around the front of the engine bay over the radiator. It's not going back in that way. The pink and yellow wires hook up to the starter contactor and then can make their way into the firewall.

I am going to be adding a fuse/relay box on the passenger side which will facilitate this even more. This keeps the yellow wire from needing to cross the engine bay at all because the relay is on the same side.

What kind of power distribution center are you considering?

Gary has 2 Ford boxes from later models, like the '95 450 I parted

Scott has a good thread showing something he bought, with a clear cover.

I have a cheap & cheerful Chinese box that replaces my fender relay and all the relays I had for high/low beams, foglights and dual horns.

I've got the 3G HMEG mounted to the side and used solid 10Ga as a bus to feed them all.

It was like $17 with a pack of fuses, 5 30A & 1 40A relay installed.

Been good for 5-6 years now. 👍

[Danny G]

What kind of power distribution center are you considering?

Gary has 2 Ford boxes from later models, like the '95 450 I parted

Scott has a good thread showing something he bought, with a clear cover.

I have a cheap & cheerful Chinese box that replaces my fender relay and all the relays I had for high/low beams, foglights and dual horns.

I've got the 3G HMEG mounted to the side and used solid 10Ga as a bus to feed them all.

It was like $17 with a pack of fuses, 5 30A & 1 40A relay installed.

Been good for 5-6 years now. 👍

This is what I have right now to mount on the engine bay wall so long as it doesn't interfere with the jack. Teonof these relays will replace the fuel tank and cut off relay and a couple of the fuses will replace the fuse links in the same system.

It has 6 relays which are protected by 6 fuses. The other 5 fuses are open and ready to go. I have a seperate megafuse block for the alternator. BUT as I wrote this I realized this unit has only 4 pin relays. I have another that was going in the ranger that has 4 -5pin relays and 1 4 pin relay. So maybe that's going to be a swap. As that one was just for lights. Or maybe I use both in the F350.

I also have a 6 slot fuse box with ground bus bar built in and clear cover. That I can put under the dash. It lights up if a fuse blows. It's a 100A service. I was going to use that for another project but I do not want any fuse boxes that are not sealed under the hood.

I have a ground bus bar to consolidate some of the random frame grounds instead of cutting up paint. The black wire that goes through the firewall literally just grounds to the dashboard support. Completely unnecessary for that to even penetrate the firewall.

[ArdWrknTrk]

This is what I have right now to mount on the engine bay wall so long as it doesn't interfere with the jack. Teonof these relays will replace the fuel tank and cut off relay and a couple of the fuses will replace the fuse links in the same system.

It has 6 relays which are protected by 6 fuses. The other 5 fuses are open and ready to go. I have a seperate megafuse block for the alternator. BUT as I wrote this I realized this unit has only 4 pin relays. I have another that was going in the ranger that has 4 -5pin relays and 1 4 pin relay. So maybe that's going to be a swap. As that one was just for lights. Or maybe I use both in the F350.

I also have a 6 slot fuse box with ground bus bar built in and clear cover. That I can put under the dash. It lights up if a fuse blows. It's a 100A service. I was going to use that for another project but I do not want any fuse boxes that are not sealed under the hood.

I have a ground bus bar to consolidate some of the random frame grounds instead of cutting up paint. The black wire that goes through the firewall literally just grounds to the dashboard support. Completely unnecessary for that to even penetrate the firewall.

I have that second one.

I use the 40A for my PMGR and mounted the Megafuse to the side to tidy things up.

It doesn't interfere with my jack.

I ran a separate 10Ga tinned, stranded ground in to my cab for the relay I use to control the sub.

It has a lug attached to the dash brace on the passenger side of the trans tunnel, where I put the relay...

I didn't go crazy with grounds like Gary did, but I felt having a clean path back to the battery - could never hurt, and it offers some redundancy to G701 and anything else, like the wiper governor that attaches to the dash frame.

[Danny G]

This is what I have right now to mount on the engine bay wall so long as it doesn't interfere with the jack. Teonof these relays will replace the fuel tank and cut off relay and a couple of the fuses will replace the fuse links in the same system.

It has 6 relays which are protected by 6 fuses. The other 5 fuses are open and ready to go. I have a seperate megafuse block for the alternator. BUT as I wrote this I realized this unit has only 4 pin relays. I have another that was going in the ranger that has 4 -5pin relays and 1 4 pin relay. So maybe that's going to be a swap. As that one was just for lights. Or maybe I use both in the F350.

I also have a 6 slot fuse box with ground bus bar built in and clear cover. That I can put under the dash. It lights up if a fuse blows. It's a 100A service. I was going to use that for another project but I do not want any fuse boxes that are not sealed under the hood.

I have a ground bus bar to consolidate some of the random frame grounds instead of cutting up paint. The black wire that goes through the firewall literally just grounds to the dashboard support. Completely unnecessary for that to even penetrate the firewall.

This truck is going to be set up as an all arounder for me.

For example. My Ranger is permanently equipped with gear for camping and recovery with tools and med bags in the bed all hooked up to a molle panel system. It has front and rear bumper lights and Sid and rear floods by the CHML. The rear facing lights are all side shooter cubes. I have the areo cab and aero hood light sets from AVS too. Those are wired up so they are on when the truck/drls/parking lights are on. But flip a switch and power is flipped to a wigwag box that flashes them and the whites. We had a microburst here on I26 a bit back and it all came to good use. I pulled over and there was a fellow that passed out but his head and started having seizures. He would quit breathing etc and we had to work him up.

I can pull over any time in the ranger and set it up to camp.

The F-350 is gonna be used to haul, tow, boondocks with or without a trailer etc. so onboard air, secondary battery with both engine and wall charging, power inverter etc is going into the build. I'd like a set of bars and a tonneau on the back along with plenty of lighting.

[ArdWrknTrk]

This truck is going to be set up as an all arounder for me.

For example. My Ranger is permanently equipped with gear for camping and recovery with tools and med bags in the bed all hooked up to a molle panel system. It has front and rear bumper lights and Sid and rear floods by the CHML. The rear facing lights are all side shooter cubes. I have the areo cab and aero hood light sets from AVS too. Those are wired up so they are on when the truck/drls/parking lights are on. But flip a switch and power is flipped to a wigwag box that flashes them and the whites. We had a microburst here on I26 a bit back and it all came to good use. I pulled over and there was a fellow that passed out but his head and started having seizures. He would quit breathing etc and we had to work him up.

I can pull over any time in the ranger and set it up to camp.

The F-350 is gonna be used to haul, tow, boondocks with or without a trailer etc. so onboard air, secondary battery with both engine and wall charging, power inverter etc is going into the build. I'd like a set of bars and a tonneau on the back along with plenty of lighting.

I'm not going that deep, but I do have bed lights and a pair of 4" lights attached to my receiver side plates that come on in reverse.

I used to learn a lot from the Wehlen tech that would come out to the tow shop to setup different patterns or troubleshoot the systems when Junior -who has no idea- messed with them...,

Nothing like laying on the side of the highway in driving rain with no lights and trucks whizzing by your head at 70+!

[Gary Lewis]

Gary is going to need a sub section in the documents for jacks lol.

[Danny G]

I'm not going that deep, but I do have bed lights and a pair of 4" lights attached to my receiver side plates that come on in reverse.

I used to learn a lot from the Wehlen tech that would come out to the tow shop to setup different patterns or troubleshoot the systems when Junior -who has no idea- messed with them...,

Nothing like laying on the side of the highway in driving rain with no lights and trucks whizzing by your head at 70+!

The problem is I don't know what the factory relays were rated at. Are they 30, 40, 60, or 80 amp relays. Surely none were over 40 amps in these old trucks with their 70 amp alternators lol.

[Danny G]

Gary is going to need a sub section in the documents for jacks lol.

There it is dually got a 3 ton jack.

[Danny G]

What kind of power distribution center are you considering?

Gary has 2 Ford boxes from later models, like the '95 450 I parted

I do need to go to the junk yard tomorrow. There are a couple 90s models and that 80s model with the buckets. I need to go scrounge parts. Maybe I'll bring the cable cutters and grab a distribution box.