Wire management tips/suggestions?

[murrman]

I currently have four light pods on my bumper, and four light pods on my a pillars (two on each side). While I feel like I've done a decent job routing the wires over to the up fitter switch wires in the engine bay, but I currently have what looks like a rat's nest of wires in that area. This is mainly due to the wiring harnesses being longer than necessary, but I don't really want to cut and shorten them. I was wondering if anyone here had any tips or suggestions on how they've organized their wiring. Right now I have everything bundled as much as possible and zip tied, but it still doesn't look pretty.

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[HalfmuleFarmer]

Pictures?

 

[murrman]

Pictures?

I can take some and post when I get home this evening.

 

[4x4TruckLEDs.com]

I currently have four light pods on my bumper, and four light pods on my a pillars (two on each side). While I feel like I've done a decent job routing the wires over to the up fitter switch wires in the engine bay, but I currently have what looks like a rat's nest of wires in that area. This is mainly due to the wiring harnesses being longer than necessary, but I don't really want to cut and shorten them. I was wondering if anyone here had any tips or suggestions on how they've organized their wiring. Right now I have everything bundled as much as possible and zip tied, but it still doesn't look pretty.

We usually fold the wires up and zip tie them. Then tuck them into the fender area OR along the battery side.

Attach your upfitter then route the extra slack along the battery and back/forth. Keeps it neat and out of the way and if you ever need more wire later you have it.

 

[Brian_B]

I'm not bad at wire management when first installing something. But once the mods start to stack and I've ripped back into looms and zip ties over and over again, it starts to suffer.

I love wire loom, especially the generic black plastic ribbed stuff (funny my wife said something similar the other night). Can bundle a handful of cables inside and make it all look neat. Kinda like conduit for your car.

Heatshrink. This makes crimps and connectors look much much better, and helps keep water and junk out of them. Can also use heat shrink when you strip outer sheathing off a cable bundle to make it look neat, or to hold a bundle of cabling together.

Friction tape. That's the black fabric tape you see on all the factory looms. It really helps keep things looking neat and clean. Much better for just organization than electrical tape (but it isn't a substitute for electrical tape when you need that)

Try to follow existing cable runs - makes it easier to just piggyback off where they tie up at. Or worst case can zip tie to the other cables, although I don't like doing that.

The car audio guys get crazy sometimes and will use a sheet of MDF or HDPE or something and screw in mounts to make all their cable runs perfectly straight with crisp 90° bends. Not always possible when trying to do something like lighting, but there are times I've taken a hint like that, like where my relay box is for my upfitters (I do not have factory upfitters)

 

[Brian_B]

Also, the only time I'm really leary of cutting a cable to make it shorter is if it has some kind of fancy connector on the end, or factory harnesses.

If it's just a standard lug - I cut away.

 

[DCblue]

I love wire loom, especially the generic black plastic ribbed stuff (funny my wife said something similar the other night). Can bundle a handful of cables inside and make it all look neat. Kinda like conduit for your car.

Agree. It’s not terrible to remove if you have to as well. Can be had in a few sizes for like $4 for 15 ft at Harbor Freight.

 

[Brian_B]

Agree. It’s not terrible to remove if you have to as well. Can be had in a few sizes for like $4 for 15 ft at Harbor Freight.

The spiral stuff though, that stuff sucks. There's a couple of very specific cases where I'd use that, but generally stay away from it.

 

[DCblue]

I use braided sleeving in my boat because it looks tidy, but it’s a bit more of a hassle than the split loom.

 

[CalvinT]

Get a roll of Tesa 51036 PET cloth tape for use inside the engine compartment.

 

[Johnny Mo]

Braided sleeving, or wiring pin connector kits to shorten wiring.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CN99TCA?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_7

 

[Bschurr]

@murrman sounds like you are doing a decent job of managing & bundling wires, you just need to find a nice place to hide them (and not just have them all bunched up by the firewall). Instead of bundles & zip ties at the termination point by the Aux pigtails, route the wires along the underside of the fender & bundle and zip tie the wires there where they are out of sight. Use wire loom or Tesa tape to cover the wires from the hidden bundle to the Aux termination and use a quality weather pack or other suitable connection method to the Aux leads. Lastly, use a common location for your grounds that way you can keep all those wires neat & organized as well. I hope this helps.

 

[Direvarg]

1: there is a nice big empty pocket in the fender by the fuse box for tucking wire bundles out of sight
2: better to have extra length if you ever need to redo things
3: quick disconnects are a wonderful thing. I have one for my bumper lights and I wired it up to sit right next to the oem harness quick disconnect on the bumpers so it would be easy to find when I need to drop the bumper
4: wire labels! Trust me this will be a lifesaver later on. All the black and red wires start to look the same after a few months and having labels (or different colored wires) will make trouble shooting so much easier if a light fails or you’re redoing your wires

if you want to go full ocd, you could build a relay and fuse board like I did. I only needed one relay but I was bored

 

[HalfmuleFarmer]

“if you want to go full ocd” — Bro, your labels are crooked.

 

[Joe M]

“if you want to go full ocd” — Bro, your labels are crooked.

Personally I think he did a wonderful job, and it looks great.

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