Mega Powerbox With Upgrades

March 20, 2022

I’ve had some problems with the battery on my F250 keeping a high enough voltage. After spending hours running a cable directly from the battery, under the running boards, fully covered. Worked fine when the engine was running, but have have had issues with the battery voltage not staying high enough. After getting one new battery under warranty, the replacement had issues after a year. More than enough to start the truck, but not enough to sustain 50W transmissions from the FT-400.

Decided the best solution would be to just build a power center with a dedicated lithium battery. Can use it for a variety of purposes, and hook it up in the truck to either be charged from the truck when running either from the power I already ran, or from the AC outlet or cigarette lighter socket in the back seat.

Also thinking, given all the space left in the box, to either mount or just transport a mobile radio in the box, so I have more powerful portable radio setup in a togo box.

I ordered a battery from Bioenno, and after pricing out all the parts from Powerwerx, I decided that getting their MEGAbox would cost about the same as buying all the parts individually, and save me some time putting it together. Only thing I didn’t like about the MEGAbox was it only switched the 15A outlets, the top Powerpoles and 12V studs were always energized. I wanted a master battery disconnect as well.

The 30Ah battery I got from Bioenno had two Anderson powerpole connectors in 30A and SB50. with the extra powerpole, I decided to add another external socket, going directly to the battery. The MEGAbox already used an SB50 to attach the battery to the existing outlets. I’ll use the new connection to hook up the AC charger I got from Bioenno, and can also use it for their 12V cigarette lighter socket charger. I figured if I later decided to add an Epic PWRGate, that could also be used as the input socket for it. And since having 2 powerpoles in a panel mount cost the same as one from Powerwerx, I got the 2 powerpole model for future upgrades.

Quick update: When I put it in the truck, I realized it really would be more convenient to hook up the radio power to the newly added powerpole, rather than running it into the top, or putting the box on its side. So, I quickly wired up the 2nd connector labeled “Unused”, and tied it in with the other switched powerpoles.

Here are some pictures of the box after the first mods…

Published: 2022March20