Super Duty upfitter relay box - Raptor upgrade

[andreb]

I've never been very happy with the factory upfitter switches and in 10 years of owning this truck from new I only now just used two of them; weBoost cell repeater power (3 amps) and A-pillar lights (7.5 amps). They either seem to be too low of an amp rating (on board air), no sense for high beams, ignition controlled only, etc. I've got a SwitchPros RCR-12 installed now for some future lighting but I was still looking to get more from the factory outfitters. I've decided to replace the stock relay box with the six relay box they use in the SuperDuty trucks. My biggest complaint is that Ford ran all the switched wires back inside the cab. Why!? Everything I've wanted to control has always been outside the cab.

The SuperDuty box and harness solves for this by providing the six switched leads as cut/sealed wires right outside the relay box and available in the engine bay where they belong IMO. It connects directly to the battery for more amp capacity and has a modular conenctor that connects to a harness leading into the cab for the 6 SuperDuty upfitter switches. The plan is to abandon most of the wiring from the stock box but use the control leads from the upfitter to contol 4 of the 6 relays. That leaves me with 1 extra relay after wiring back in the front camera washer relay. There is also a PTO relay and Run/Start relay at 40 amps with a the option to have them hot all the time by moving a fuse.

Ford SVE Bulletin here: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=262264&d=1539868327

 

[andreb]

So now that I've solved for hot/relay switched leads in the engine bay, what about grounds? Well there aren't any body grounds on the drivers side fender area like on the passenger side. The closest common ground point is up front next to the radiator and under the air box. The radiator one has more wires bundled there and made more sense for routing so I tied into that with a 4 AWG cable and ran it back to a Blue Sea dual buss bar that I screwed to the sheet metal fender support. This allows me to get power from the relay output lead and then ground in a common spot close by.

The SuperDuty harness arrives in a few days so I'll update the thread with the install. I may even figure out a way to keep the original relay box for low amp usage.