Moving battery to boot.

Iamzod · 23 May 2016 at 21:21

I'm looking at moving the battery to the boot on one of my cars, however I am no electrician & obviously I don't wish to cause an electrical fire so I thought i'd ask some advice. I am running the positive cable under the car rather than through it if that matters at all.

There are a few things that have me stumped-

Should I run a negative under the car also or am I going to be fine earthing the battery to the shell of the car?

How do I work out what thickness cable I need?

I know I will be needing a fuse of some sort, again how do I work out what rating I need?

Iamzod · 23 May 2016 at 22:31

DB_SamX said:
What's to gain from moving a battery to the boot?

It doesn't fit in the engine bay anymore as I fitted a different engine.

Iamzod · 24 May 2016 at 12:51

red eye said:
you can earth to a bolt in the boot and run a length of of cable from positive to the fuse box, alternator and starter. Use the same gauge cable and don't run it under the car, you don't want to damage the cable and cuase a short.

I was going to run it with the brake line down the transmission tunnel. If it shorts it should blow the fuse/circuit breaker. I don't want it anywhere near upholstery that burns.

It is proving difficult to find wire offline.

Iamzod · 24 May 2016 at 19:08

Managed to find cable at a welding supplies place a mile from work, only £3 a meter too for 40mm2 which is a tiny bit thinner than 1AWG from what I can tell.

Iamzod · 25 May 2016 at 00:16

red eye said:
You would need something like a 200-250 amp fuse at the battery for the starter motor regardless of where you run the cable. What car is it? I think vag cars have the fuse on top of the battery, you could find one in the scrappy and use that.

It's a Ford Capri. I have found various automotive circuit breakers online, they aren't expensive so will get one of those.