*Battery Jumpers*
By: Jaden
18 June 2006

I’ve built 4 gauge jumper wires to go from my batteries to the buss bars. The buss bars are home made, cast from lead with battery charging posts soldered to them. Actually, a few Rubiconners have done this for the better. Warlord noticed a 2-volt increase IIRC. That’s pretty good, just gain 2-volts DC by upgrading wire & connections. The more surface area to conduct electricity the better. These terminals have much more area & mass than ring connectors, and 4 gauge interconnects are much bigger than 8 gauge.

My old battery bank setup was linked together by 8 gauge wire and ring connectors and one battery was linked to another down the line, so on and so forth.

Wal-Mart sells color-coded terminals complete with anticorrosion felts. 4 gauge (413 strand welding leads) fits perfectly.

2 packages will make 2 jumpers. 1 positive, 1 negative.

 

You’ll need to know the length of wire you need to go from the battery to the buss bar. Make ALL of the wires the same length. Don’t have short + wires and long - wires or combinations. I needed 28" so therefore every single one is 28".

Ok, hold the wire up to the terminal and then carefully cut around the jacket and remove it to expose the wires.

Then insert the wire into the terminal and evenly tighten the bolts.

 

Positive jumper done

Install the felts on the battery posts. Red is +, Green is -.

Then simply hook it up.

 

This battery bank is complete. The extra studs on the buss bars are for charging or loads.

By having it set up like this there are 3 main advantages-

  1. It’s neat & organized
  2. The batteries charge evenly
  3. The batteries discharge evenly

No one battery is getting the brunt of the load or charge and then having to disperse it to another. Again, make sure the leads are the same length. That’ll help.
Jaden



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