Bongo wiring and adding extra power

[stumcloughlin]

Hi everyone, and I'm sorry if this has been posted previously but I haven't found an answer on the forum anywhere.

I have a 2.0 l petrol Bongo that has previously been converted with a leisure battery and I'm trying to add further 12 volt sockets in there. On previous information both on here and on the web I've seen fairly extensive wiring details with regards to positives and negatives and that it is best to have separate supplies to the current sockets supplies (if that makes sense).

However when I went to look at the current wiring I was confused with the setup in that the leisure battery seems to have positives only leading to the original fuse box, the negative from the battery is connected to the body.

And so the questions are:
-How does a setup work in that it doesn't seem to be a negative in the original fuse box in this situation.
To wire in this new 12-volt socket, would I need only a positive and then to attached the negative to the body also?

I hope none of these are stupid questions

[g8dhe]

Yes there is no need for a chassis/-ve/Black wire in the fuse box, in-fact its more of a danger! Never plug a new wire into the upper fuse connector of a fuse socket as that is protected by a 60 Amp fuse and any smaller wiring added won't be protected it will catch fire quite happily if shorted. The only way of using the upper connection of the fuse pair is to use a Piggy Back fuse so that the new wire is protected at a lower fuse rating. The -ve/chassis/Black can be picked up locally to the device being added, however be aware that in older vehicles with rust not all panels are well connected due to rust and age! I personally always run my own -ve wire to new circuits.

[stumcloughlin]

Hi, thanks for the reply it really helps.

What I was hoping to do was take the new supply off the leisure 'board' as there's two spare ways on there. If I was to run the positive from there could I then connect the negative of the socket to the body and if not when you say that you would run your own -ve where would you run it to as the leisure 'board' doesn't seem to have any negative points?

Again sorry if they seem like obvious questions

[g8dhe]

Yes if you have spare fuse sockets on the LB fuse panel no reason not to use them. For your purposes just find a convenient point on the chassis and wire the -ve of the device to that point.

[stumcloughlin]

Amazing, thanks for all the help