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Thanks, Kent! Frankly, I have too many projects in mind. Electrical projects tend to exhaust me the most, though. Thanks, and no problem. There are actually a lot of enclosures available that can be used for stuff like this. This particular example consumes a lot of space (I'd put that panel around 8" x 12"), more useful for a trailer or camper. That Bussman panel is a good overall solution because it uses the mATC fuses, has smaller relays, and all of the connections on the backside include waterproof plugs (the case itself also has a sealing gasket). True. But, in terms of electrical projects, there's nothing fun about later having to troubleshoot shoddy wiring work or otherwise undoing rats nests.

Hawairish, as always, great write up. You clearly are avoiding some other job or project. Seriously though, this should get stickied or put into an electrical thread. I’m going to want to read it again later & others might want to see it too. Can we see if an Admin can fix it.

I'm looking to do a dual battery set up on my 2004 pathfinder. I wonder if anyone here has done it and how they positioned the batteries. Photos would be appreciated! Sent from my SM-A520W using Tapatalk

Find a new shop. Stephen Pearson probably deals mainly with Jeeps, and always has issues with Nissans and Toyotas because he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Absolutely no practical difference between those trucks and any other trucks. No joke, shop elsewhere, or risk this guy screwing something up to prove his point. Only things you need to give thought to are backspacing, center bore, and lug nut style. Most steelies take acorn lug nuts and have large center bores to allow them to fit all vehicle makes. That means you’ll likely need hub-centric rings. You can buy them on Amazon or eBay or wherever; they’re a couple bucks for a set of 4. You’ll likely need 100mm-106mm or 100mm-108mm. For the steelies I ran on my 98 Frontier long ago, the center caps somewhat served a centering purpose because they installed between the wheel and hub. I never had balancing issues. Keep in mind that you may have some issues installing both hub-centric rings and center caps like this since they’ll occupy the same space. Also, don’t rely solely on the lug nuts to center the wheel. Your OE nuts are acorn style, but you might not be able to re-use them unless they're tall enough. Aluminum wheels have thicker mounting surfaces than steel, so short lugs may bottom out on the wheel stud. If your OE lug nuts reach, or almost reach (~1/8”) the wheel hub when the wheel isn’t installed, you’re probably okay. If you do need new ones, they’re M12x1.25. Not too relevant here, but only notable with Toyotas are when dealing with their mag-style nuts. The basic solution is to just change them to acorns. In my case, I run 17x8 4Runner alloys on my Frontier now...I use 100mm-106mm hub rings and mag-style lugs on it. Works fine.

Thank you! I would love a picture, if you have one! Sent from my SM-A520W using Tapatalk

I had 2 at one point. I turned the original 90*, moved the fuse box a tiny bit back, removed the battery clamp, slid the original as far as i could to the passenger side, then fit the second one beside it. Had to extend the ground cable.

Dang we boutta have a bunch more bumper options finally!

If you're just confirming diff (front or rear) operation, leave it in gear, leave it in 4wd. Taking out of gear or putting in 2wd (front diff), the differential will do its job of rotating anything that's willing to rotate. If you hold one tire stationary and turn the other, the driveshaft spins. If you rotate both tires in the same direction, the driveshaft spin. If you rotate the tires in opposite directions, the driveshaft won't spin (unless the speeds are unbalanced or there is excess friction in the carrier).

I smelled the wire loom, which was wet, and it was purple powered then pressure washed. I wish they wouldn’t have done that. Hopefully whoever did it was careful where they pointed the pressure washer. And so it begins... again. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Either transmission, if the driveshaft isn't held stationary, it might spin before the opposite tire does; both might spin, too. Think of it in terms of path of least resistance. Hold the driveshaft stationary, though, and the opposite tire will spin. For the front, it's held stationary when in 4wd; for the rear, when in gear, park, or drive.

Presuming it's your front diff, the driveshaft is spinning instead of the tire when you're in 2wd. By putting it into 4wd, the driveshaft is held stationary, forcing the opposite wheel to spin. If it's the rear diff, same concept, but whether in P or 4wd, the rear driveshaft is stationary so the opposite tire will spin. Condition normal in both cases.

Auxbeam 42" Flood/Spot is what I have and it is awesome. I'll take some pics on how I mounted it on my roof rack if you have one.

Yeah, I wasn’t about to pass it up. The pre-order was a frenzy...they sold out of the first batch at $795 within a minute or two. I luckily got in on that before it jumped to $895. Got an Everlast PowerPlasma 50s. Langmuir has tutorials for using Autodesk Fusion 360 for the CAD and CAM, and Mach3 as the g-code sender. I’m not a fan of either, but am still learning.

Langmuir Systems CrossFire. They conveniently popped up right around the time when I was having frustrations with local shops. They did a pre-order sale in March, paid $1K shipped with water tray. They'll start selling at retail price ($1495) later this year. The cutting area isn't huge (25" x 23") but I'm holding hope that they follow through on an expansion kit. It's a low frills unit, but was significantly cheaper than other available tables of similar cutting size. It's already come in handy for some brackets and gussets.

There aren't many mini-ATC (mATC) fuse blocks available. You have to look to the motorcycle industry to find more/better mATC options, but they can get expensive. Fortunately, carrying spare fuses for both sizes isn't too cumbersome. The little containers they come in can hold about 10 fuses and take up less space than a Zippo. It's the glass fuses I wouldn't bother carrying. Any wires coming from the battery are always hot, even with the key off. You'll find these hot leads going to each fuse panel, plus the ignition switch. Another lead will come from the ignition switch and back into the fuse panels for any ACC (accessory) devices. The leads are attached to power rails for distributing to relays or fuses. On that note, I wouldn't tamper with any OE leads, unless you're installing a distribution block directly to the battery and need to modify the OE terminal to fit (pretty common when installing a proper audio setup). It's trivial to add a new hot lead from the battery with ring terminal. So, let's talk options (noting this is generic for most electrical upgrades)... These are some fused distribution blocks. The first one uses mATC fuses...you can find it at Aerostitch, a motorcycle outfitter. The 2nd one is from Blue Sea, a marine outfitter. The 3rd is similar to the 1st, but uses ATC fuses. The 4th (Dorman 85668) also uses ATC, but is also modular allowing you to slide multiple blocks together, and even relay mounts (5th image). The 6th option, also from Blue Sea, connects directly to the battery terminals. There are numerous options like these from the car audio world, but many of them use glass fuses...which I avoid. I've used a few of those. The 4th one I had installed under the radio in my Frontier to provide power to several accessories (additional 12V socket, aftermarket alarm, door locks), and I've got a Blue Sea box hanging in the shadows for when I get around to installing a power inverter, 12V socket (always on), and possibly a water pump and water heater in the cargo area of the Pathfinder. One perk of the Blue Sea blocks is that they also have a distribution (consolidation point) for a ground, which may save you the trouble of finding/drilling other ground points. As far as relays go, they're pretty standard. You can get harnesses that provide some wiring leads (as shown), or you can use slide connectors. They also have relays with fuse slots. Because most relays have mounting tabs, you can mount them somewhere on the chassis very easily, or with a strip of steel or ABS, create a mount for holding multiple fuses. If using the fused relays, you can get a distribution block and some jumpers (3rd pic) to distribute power, or just splice together a low gauge wire with higher gauge wires. Normally, I'm not a fan of terminal blocks because I try to make sure all power leads (aside from those on the battery) are not exposed...it doesn't take much effort to short something when using a screwdriver or wrench around them. Plus, the plastic on those styles can get brittle, causing the separate terminals to loosen over time. Putting it all together, I usually put a relay on just about anything drawing more than 10A but it depends (stereo amplifiers have built-in relays). If it's just a single accessory in an isolated area, I keep it simple. One example is my air compressor: it's close enough to the battery to warrant a direct connection, and because of its proximity to the inner fender wall (which has a few M6-threaded holes), it was easy to find mounting and ground locations: If you plan to run multiple devices, making a custom panel makes connections very easy: You connect the main lead to the fuse block on the left, the switch leads on the terminal block in the bottom-middle, and the devices to the larger terminal block on the bottom-right. (By the way, this guy sells this board for $300!...probably has maybe $50 in parts. The use of different terminal jacket types drives me nuts, but at least it's a clean solution). These Bussman modular fuse/relay boxes are probably my favorite, but require a fair amount of effort to wire up: Long long story short...if you're just planning to install the light bar only, a single lead, fuse, and relay (like what's sold in the wiring kit), is sufficient. If you plan on adding any other lights, or anything under the hood, plan on supporting those with some distribution point. Since you'll need to run at least one wire into the cab for the switch, if you plan on installing any other accessories inside the cab, minimize the numbers of wires going through the firewall. This is may mean having the distribution block inside the cab, but in doing so, all of the wires for switches will all be accessible.

Finally put mine on, was a little harder than I thought it was going to be. It does have a bracket on the pillar. Also it does not sit flush with the pillar.

From what I've read, it should bolt right in. If your old trans died a messy death, be sure to flush or replace your cooler and its lines before installation.