If you love adding powered accessories to your adventure vehicle, you know that cable management is a struggle. Between lights, winches, more lights, backup batteries, and even more lights, our engine bays and fuse boxes quickly turn into a rat’s nest of wires.
In the off-road world, scattered wires and floating fuse blocks are as common as dirt and dried mud. But there’s more to wire management than a clean look. Keeping your fuse blocks and disconnects organized and in a single location makes them easier to access and troubleshoot.
Bison Gear has created a bracket specifically for this purpose. Their On Battery Fuse Bracket is an aluminum plate designed to sit over your OEM battery tie-down using the factory J-hooks. With several holes and slots, this bracket provides numerous mounting options for your electrical connections.
While I am doing this post around my 5th Gen, this also fits a few other Toyota and Lexus models.
Table Of Contents
Installation
You do not need to replace the existing tie-down nuts; you can fit this bracket right on top of them and secure it down with the provided mounting hardware.
The factory nuts have a washer flange too wide to fit the Bison Gear bracket opening without manipulation. I found it easier to leave the OEM nuts in place and secure the bracket on top of them. It wasn’t worth the fumbling around with the J-hooks for a non-structural accessory. This option also allowed me to loosen or remove the bracket to work on any wiring without messing with my battery.
Tools Required
- Ratchet
- 10mm socket
Installation takes a couple of minutes. Fit the bracket over your existing battery tie-down and secure it using the supplied 10mm nuts. That’s it! You are now ready to mount any electrical disconnect you can fit onto the bracket plate.
When attaching electrical components, I found it easier to keep the bracket loose or off altogether. By attaching my disconnects and fuse block to the Bison Gear bracket before securing it down, I created enough wiggle room to allow me to get the wiring zip-tied and secured, as well as tightening down the screws and nuts for my rear distribution breaker.
Final Thoughts
Although there are several options in the market for the 5th Gen 4Runner, this one is a simple and sturdy design that allows me to free up otherwise cluttered areas of my engine bay and keep most of my electrical disconnects and fuses in a localized area.
This keeps access open and organized, allowing me to have shortened power wiring, which is a plus for fuse blocks and eliminating possible engine noise through electrical components. These advantages will enable me to quickly add or delete accessory wiring and troubleshoot any issues.
Overall, Bison Gear has developed a great design that is simple, strong, effective, and convenient.
