Matching Fuse Amperage to Accessory

JohnnyCanuck

Supercharged
Joined
Dec 28, 2010
Messages
360
Location
Vancouver, Canada
Just received my Eastern Beaver PC-8 kit yesterday and am starting the install. I am in the process of setting up my switched and unswitched fuses and am wondering which fuse size should pair up to which accessory.

I have or anticipate having the following accessories:

1) Gi Pro (switched)
2) Eastern Beaver Headlight Relay (switched)
3) GPS (switched or unswitched?)
4) Scorpio i900 alarm (unswitched)
5) Stebel Horn (which will go straight to the battery)
6) Heated gear (which I anticipate plugging into the auxiliery outlet on the left side of the bike - ordered the Powerlet for this)
7) Radar detector (switched)

Which fuse size would be appropriate for which accessory?
 
At a minimum you gotta' look at the rating of each component, which is in the installation or user manual. It'll either be listed amps or watts. Amps are easy. Watts...you gotta' convert to amps. Here's an online convertor. Select the, "Convert Watts to Amps" option.
 
Thanks a lot - that's very helpful.

Just by way of example and so I understand completely, the Gi Pro instructions state: "Supply current in stand-by: 4mA@ 12V. Maximum supply current: 85 mA @ 12V."

mA is milliamperes so not even 1 amp which would mean the Gi Pro does not use much power at all if I am understanding correctly. Does this mean I can simply use the smallest fuse I have on the PC-8 - i.e. the 2 amp fuse?
 

1) 2 amp or 1 if you can find one.
2) 20 amp
3) I plug mine into a 12v outlet mounted where the ignition switch was. Unswitched.
4) can't help ya there.
5) not a factor. You're not going to run this through the PC-8 anyway.
6) can't help on this one.
7) shouldn't be much but I have no idea.
 
Thanks a bunch guys. I feel like I have a fairly solid understanding on what goes where now and am going to finish off the job. Looking forward to doing the headlight relay and stebel next!
 
You pick the fuse depending on the wire size, not the load.

AWG 10 - 30 Amp
AWG 12 - 20 Amp
AWG 14 - 15 Amp
AWG 16 - 10 - 12 Amp
AWG 18 - 8 Amp
AWG 20 - 5 amp

The idea is to prevent a short circuit from causing the wire to burn
up. The fuse must blow before the wire insulation melts.

HTH,


Tom
 

One thing you didn't mention is a pigtail for a trickle charger going directly to the batt. Highly recommended and something to consider. The Battery Tender Junior (from Flipmeister - best price I've found) carries a 7 amp fuse. The heated gear I have (Warm 'n' Safe/Gerbering) requires a 15 amp fuse. I use the heated gear pigtail (15A) and have an adapter for the batt tender - both wired directly to the batt. By doing this, I have the accessory plug available for cell phone charging.

I don't know which bike model/year you have, but for the '08 and newer bikes, there is a direct plug-in GPS accessory harness available from Triumph. They're about $20 and fit into a plug on the main harness under the fuel tank.
 

Absolutely good advice. A failure of the charger circuit can easily cause a fire under the seat. Not good.


Regards,
Tom
 
ummm, no, the wire size should be rated to cope with the current draw of the accessory + some, the fuse should be matched to the current draw of the accessory so as to prevent damage if a fault occurs
 
Johnny-As you know I've got the H4 relay and PC8 on my Rocket also and I don't see the purpose of running the H4 harness, which is already on it's own relay, through the PC8 (especially a switched connection). Why run the lights through 2 relays? I could see on an unswitched connection if you didn't have room on the battery terminals, but otherwise it would be redundant wiring, no?
 
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