Hooking Batteries With a Buse Bar ?

luvrbus · August 10, 2016, 06:10:23 PM

Here is the problem in the Trek I have to many 3/0 cables (4) plus the Solar charger wire for the stud on the battery.

I found a Blue Sea 4 stud 1000 amp bar for 60 bucks with a cover, will that work or am I going to have problems doing it that way.

Is there another way to do this, it will only cost me a 2 ft long 3/0 cable with lugs if it works

thanks for any help

DoubleEagle · August 10, 2016, 06:39:30 PM

Blue Sea stuff is good quality. You might not need a 1000 Amp capacity, but is that the continuous rating or the maximum rating? They have many levels and sizes. A 100 Amp continuous rated (250 Amp Maximum) 4 post sells for under $20.

luvrbus · August 10, 2016, 06:56:42 PM

I don't know how many amps I need for sure the 1000 amp Blue Sea is continuous duty ? with 3/0 cables there must be a good amp draw,my battery bank is 400 amps and the inverter is 1500W with charger

Lin · August 10, 2016, 07:56:55 PM

Just to clarify-- you want to join the batteries together with a bus bar, right? Anyway, it seems a 3/0 cable is rated to 200 amps at around 160 degrees F. Hence, replacing it with a 1000 amp bus bar should be fine. Since you say the bank capacity is only 400 amps, you could even go with something smaller.

DoubleEagle · August 10, 2016, 09:38:22 PM

Your 1000 Amp bus bar should be fine even if that is the maximum rating. Looking at the product list at bluesea.com, the highest continuous rating is 600 Amps DC for a four post (3/8" - 16 stud) #2104, which would be greater than your battery bank.

luvrbus · August 10, 2016, 09:44:39 PM

Quote from: Lin on August 10, 2016, 07:56:55 PM
Just to clarify-- you want to join the batteries together with a bus bar, right? Anyway, it seems a 3/0 cable is rated to 200 amps at around 160 degrees F. Hence, replacing it with a 1000 amp bus bar should be fine. Since you say the bank capacity is only 400 amps, you could even go with something smaller.

Ok I know that my inverter should be tied directly to batteries right or wrong,now I have 4- 3/0 cables.

1 comes from a isolator up front for charging the house batteries off the engine alternator

1 comes from a 12V panel ( converter) where all the 12V lights,fridge etc are tied together.
1 goes to a 500 amp solenoid then from there to the starter for starting when the engine batteries are low the last one goes to a disconnect switch from there to the inverter.
This is all factory bs and they had a copper bar that bolted on the battery terminal where 2 cables were connected to the bar using the battery stud.

The other end had a bolt where the other 2 cables were connected it's always had a problem with corrosion is always a problem at the bar.If the buse bar is not the solution please tell me a different method to use.My main goal is to do away with mickey mouse bar and bolt that causes me grief every 2 months.The 2104 is the bar I bought Walter

thanks

Lin · August 10, 2016, 10:47:23 PM

I guess I misunderstood what you are doing. Using that bar could be a good way to clean things up. However, you will need to size the supply cable according to what you will run through the bar. Your 3/0 cable will be good for 200 amps. If you wanted to run your full 400 amp bank through it, you will need something a good deal bigger.

bevans6 · August 11, 2016, 04:21:27 AM

The normal way to size things is not based on the supply capacity (400 AH at a 20 hour discharge rate is the typical way people talk of the size of a battery bank) but based on the load (1500 watts at 12 volts nominal is 125 amps running at full capacity, so call it 150 amps with losses and such). You would size the cables to carry that load, and 3/0 cable is a completely adequate size of cable. You would then use a fuse or breaker to protect the supply cable, so if 3/0 cable is rated at 200 amps, you might use a 200 amp fuse. You busbar (I had to look up how to spell it, I've been calling them buss bars all my life) is rated for 1,000 amps, well over the cable capacity or the inverter load, but you have four cables attached to it, so the theoretical capacity needed is four times 200 amps (the cable capacity) so 800 amps, so again you are fine. The only way I've found to deal with corrosion is to cover the joint with protective grease.

A battery bank that is rated at 400 ah at a 20 hour discharge rate can deliver 20 amps for 20 hours before it's 100% discharged. It will probably supply 400 amps for about 30 minutes, or 200 amps for about an hour, depending on the battery, but they really hate to be discharged that fast. Normally you expect to discharge to only 50%, so a 400 AH battery bank will deliver about 10 amps continuously for 20 hours before you should stop using it and start charging it.

DoubleEagle · August 11, 2016, 06:02:27 AM

The 2104 is it then, but the 1000 Amps is a short term maximum load, 600 Amps DC is the continuous load, which should be more than enough. The actual maximum load at any given time should be a lot less.

luvrbus · August 11, 2016, 06:33:17 AM

I am running a 4/0 -14 in long from the batteries to the bar and go from there

Dave5Cs · August 11, 2016, 08:01:44 AM

When qwe had corrosion at the cable ends, I found out that I had to use Brake cleaner on all ends and the tops of the batteries to clean any outgassing settlement there. When I sprayed them all down then washed with distilled water and dried them. Did this 2 times. Turned them to off and sprayed them. After all that I sealed the ends and connections with the red battery seal spray and all has been good since then 2 years now. Even my Maintenance free batteries used to do it.HTH
Dave

Timkar · August 11, 2016, 09:08:12 AM

Not quite sure exactly what you are doing with the bus bar, but when I used to maintain UPS systems for Telecom we always used SS bolts and coated copper bus bars. Here are pics of my house batteries after 3 years of bus bars and ss bolts. Haven't had to clean any corrosion (yet)

Cary and Don · August 11, 2016, 09:23:41 AM

We have buse bars on our batteries and it works great.

Don and Cary

bigred · August 11, 2016, 10:52:31 AM

Find an electrical distributor Ilsco Products .They make one that is insulated and I'll promis you that it will be a lot less than 60 dollars .I believe the cat number would be a PDB3/0-4 .

luvrbus · August 11, 2016, 11:15:10 AM

Quote from: bigred on August 11, 2016, 10:52:31 AM
Find an electrical distributor Ilsco Products .They make one that is insulated and I'll promis you that it will be a lot less than 60 dollars .I believe the cat number would be a PDB3/0-4 .

I did check out the Ilsco at my local electrical supply yesterday even the dual purpose he could not find a studded model they were all aluminum body, insulated with Allen head set screws all you could do is insert the cable and tighten it down.On advice of the person in charge I passed because aluminum and the battery gases don't mix to well lol he wanted $174.00 for the BlueSea