[How To] Eastern Beaver PC-8 Fuse Panel Install

I wanted to run every electrical accessory off of a fuse panel including a full set of Gerbing's heated clothing. I opted to use the PC-8 fuse panel from Eastern Beaver. It is capable of 15amp continuous draw from each circuit and is a quality piece of hardware with a ton of support from the vendor.

Eastern Beaver makes it easy for you. He can provide a kit that includes the relay and battery harness. He even has several different lengths you can order for the relay. 42" is perfect for the NT and where I mounted it (the popular "tool storage" area). Eastern Beaver also has all the electrical connections you'll need.

Here's a little bit on how I installed the panel on the NT.

Where can we get the oem 6 pin male and female connectors? I would rather use that than the Posi-Taps. I think it's a more professonal looking install.

Rob,

That is a very nice, clean looking install...

rcase13 said:

Where can we get the oem 6 pin male and female connectors? I would rather use that than the Posi-Taps. I think it's a more professonal looking install.

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The two suppliers I shop for this stuff are:

Eastern Beaver

Vintage Connections

rcase13 said:

Where can we get the oem 6 pin male and female connectors? I would rather use that than the Posi-Taps. I think it's a more professonal looking install.

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If you have a Fry's in your area check them out for connectors, wire, etc, as they have a pretty good selection.

As Kathrine posted, Eastern Beaver carries them. Look in the connectors link. The 6-pin that Honda uses is a MTW .110 connector. You'll also find the weather proof Sumitomo MT plugs which are excellent for wet/dirty locations (like behind the fender). The Eastern Beaver site provides photos and instructions on how to put the connectors together. You'll need to be patient though. It takes a good 10-14 days to get the stuff from Japan.

I've also purchased the MTW .110 connectors from Electrical Connections. They call these connectors Hitachi style connectors.

Vintage Connections is where I get the vinyl sheathing for the individual wire runs.

Thanks for this.

Yep thanks for the links. I ordered the 6-pin set from the Electrical Connections website. The Posi-Tap connectors work just as well but this way is so much more factory looking.

I agree. I also like the ability to completely reverse the modification back to OEM. I wired up my Hyperlites with these connectors and if the modulator goes bad, I can easily bypass the modulator by just changing the connectors I plug together.

If you're using 18 or 20 gauge wire, you can even get 2 of them crimped into 1 pin so it can save a little soldering as well.

rcase13 said:

Yep thanks for the links. I ordered the 6-pin set from the Electrical Connections website. The Posi-Tap connectors work just as well but this way is so much more factory looking.

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Thanks for the info. I think I'm gonna go with the Eastern Beaver setup when I do the wiring on Traveller this spring. Where did you locate the auxilliary relay, and also, what wire did you tape to energize the relay... I presume it is switched with the key?

Mike

I have one mounted on my Wee. Good product and easy to install. It gets my recommendation.

rcase13 said:

Where can we get the oem 6 pin male and female connectors? I would rather use that than the Posi-Taps. I think it's a more professonal looking install.

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Electrical connection. http://www.electricalconnection.com/electrical-components/connectors.htm

mikesim said:

Thanks for the info. I think I'm gonna go with the Eastern Beaver setup when I do the wiring on Traveller this spring. Where did you locate the auxilliary relay, and also, what wire did you tape to energize the relay... I presume it is switched with the key?

Mike

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You can purchase the 50amp relay kit with the PC-8. You can order it in a variety of lengths. I forget the length I use but I think it was 54". Just take some string and route it from the battery to the location of of where you want to install the fuse panel and order the harness length that best fits your need.

Based on my wiring diagram, I used the bike's running lights to trigger the relay. You can see that I made my tap on my custom harness that fit between the 6 pin OEM tail light connector. The "media notes" on my photobucket pictures provides additional description of the pictures.

Chucksklrst said:

Electrical connection. http://www.electricalconnection.com/electrical-components/connectors.htm

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Eastern Beaver also sells these connectors and many more including water proof connectors!

The FZ-1 fuse panel is nice and quite easy to install. It does have one significant con when compared to the AP-2 and PC-8 fuse panels. The FZ-1 fuse panel is only rated at 10 amps per circuit. This is VERY important if you want to use the fuse panel to run high load accessories such as heated gear (which would require 15 amps for a full suit). There are of course ways around this. Just don't use the FZ-1 panel for those accessories and wire them directly from the battery. That seems to defeat one of the main purposes I had for an auxiliary fuse panel which was to get access wire off of the battery.

The AP-2 and PC-8 have a 20amp (15amp continuous) load capacity per circuit. Before deciding on which fuse panel to use, define what your requirements are. What accessories? What is the load of each accessory? What is the maximum constant load you expect at any one point in time (lights might be run all the time but an air compressor only occasionally)? What accessories do you want to be switchable with the ignition of the bike?

Identifying capacity, number of circuits, and the type of circuits (switchable or not) should provide you what you'll need to make the right choice on an auxiliary fuse panel.

For example:
The FZ-1 was insufficient for both my wife's NT and my Goldwing. I run a full set of heated gear on the NT and 2 full sets of heated gear on the Goldwing. That's 15amps per suit. The FZ-1 is not able to handle one suit let alone 2 so that eliminated that option.

The AP-2 and PC-8 didn't work for the Wing due to the restriction of switched and unswitched circuits and the total capacity of the switching relay. I went with the AP-1 on the Wing so I could pick the number of switched/unswitched circuits and use individual relays to increase the capacity of the switched circuits over the AP-2 and PC-8.

The PC-8 and AP-2 were perfect for the NT. I liked the PC-8 for the smaller sized fuses which match the OEM fuse size on the bike.

ken said:

I appreciate this write up, and at the risk of stepping on the thread, have a question.

I'm in the process of adding some electrical bits, and have been shopping for a fuse block. What advantage do you see in the PC-8 as opposed to the FZ-1 or the AP2, or others (Powerlet Termin-8, Blue Sea, etc.)? Other than price or number of fused circuits, is there a functional advantage of any one model? All opinions are welcome, but specific details are appreciated.


ken

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"" said:

I prefer the FZ because it allows me to change a circuit from keyed to constantly powered by moving the fuse. Pretty easy.

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That is the biggest advantage of the FZ-1 and why I went with it. I have several smaller devices, that use less than 10Amps per circuit, that I wanted to be able to mix between switched and unswitched so the FZ-1 was a better choice for me.

Rmcapozzi said:

You can purchase the 50amp relay kit with the PC-8. You can order it in a variety of lengths. I forget the length I use but I think it was 54". Just take some string and route it from the battery to the location of of where you want to install the fuse panel and order the harness length that best fits your need.

Based on my wiring diagram, I used the bike's running lights to trigger the relay. You can see that I made my tap on my custom harness that fit between the 6 pin OEM tail light connector. The "media notes" on my photobucket pictures provides additional description of the pictures.

Click to expand...

Rob:

I understand that you made the harness to be easily removeable at some point in time. I'm thinking of just getting replacement terminals for the 6-way connector, removing the one I want to tap from the plastic housing and crimping in a second wire and reinstalling the pin and using this wire for the relay signal.

Mike

As long as the pin can hold the OEM wire(s) plus your extra tap, that will work just fine.

mikesim said:

Rob:

I understand that you made the harness to be easily removeable at some point in time. I'm thinking of just getting replacement terminals for the 6-way connector, removing the one I want to tap from the plastic housing and crimping in a second wire and reinstalling the pin and using this wire for the relay signal.

Mike

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