The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk best wiring harness to buy?

OK. I'm at the point where I need to start considering what wiring harness to purchase and from whom.
I know that I want to go with the stock look. Since the cost of the harnesses are about $400 I thought it best to ask my bolt buddies.
Any suggestions? Does one company have a better harness qualitywize? Any bad experiences?
Thanks for the comments!

Kevin,

Search on "wiring harness" in this forum and the electrical forum. You will find a wide variety of replies and a lot of good advice.

The critical choice you have to make is do you want it like the original or do you want to upgrade (in particular to be able to add more accessories and have fuses).

If you want to look original, you will find that cloth-braided wiring is pretty expensive.

If you want the least expensive harness that is high-quality but has no extra circuits (other than alternator/generator choice and turn-signals), Chevy Duty has an excellent inexpensive harness.

If you want an excellent quality harness with expansion options, check out the advice from Alan Horvath.

Tim

Thanks for the reply Tim.
I have looked over Alan's site before. It's great. and I did a search but didn't find any opions on the harnesses that you can buy from the vendor catalogs.
I'm pretty well convinced that I want the exact original.
Do you think I'm crazy for not adding fuses?
Is their a harness that is original looking with fuses that I should be considering?
Thanks again.

Kevin
For the amount of wires you could make your own or buy a basic painless wire harness and cover it with cloth loom. In my opinion fuse are better. As it is better to replace a fuse rather than the harness, if somthing should go wrong

Y n Z makes an excellent wiring harness, very original looking. You will find they actually use modern day wire with the plastic covering, but over the plastic is cloth covering, so it looks original. Jim Carter also sells a harness that has cloth covering, I have seen his, they are not as well done as Y n Z. But the price is much less.

Kevin,

Check the links page on this website and check out what Chevy Duty and Jim Carter have in the way of cloth-braided wiring harnesses. Their prices will probably be better than Rhode Island Wiring (the third link below - they sell excellent reproductions but are very expensive).

The first two links below are to earlier discussions on this topic (search on "braided" or "cloth" and "harness").

I have never had a problem with the original two-fuse wiring harness (plus original additional fuses on the heater control and for the radio) AS LONG AS I have had a good wiring harness installed correctly. I now use the inexpensive Chevy Duty plastic-coated wiring harness on my '54s - 1954 was the first year for plastic-coated wiring.

http://www.stovebolt.com/bboard/cgi-bin//ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=001066#000000

http://www.stovebolt.com/bboard/cgi-bin//ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=001371#000000

http://www.riwire.com/

Do you have the two-fuse fusebox on the firewall in your truck (1940, I presume)? I do not know about the use of fuses in a pre-1948 truck.

Tim

Usually on this type of stuff, you get what you pay for. If you want top quality, it'll cost more. I don't go cheap on my brakes or wiring,
Scott

try Frances wire works.com

Kevin,

I am very please with E-Z Wiring harness for $185.00 I bought and the new Dolphin guages I picked up.

I would buy them again!

JAke

A big thanks to everyone's inputs.
This is a good education. I just want to have the least amount of problems as possible.
It looks like YnZ may be local to me. I will do some more research before I buy.
Thanks again for the help.
That's why I keep coming back!

Wiring Harness Links:

http://woogeroo.home.mindspring.com/autolinks/wiring.html

most of those are prolly linked in Links/Parts(up top on every page of the bolt) but just in case...

-W

Not too long ago I installed an American Autowire harness in my '56, and was surprised how easy it was to put in. Good quality and all color coded. Great technitions on hand to answer any questions you may have.

My father has used Ron Francis and Painless wire harness's he had good and bad things to say about both of them...

The key is how well the wires are marked....

I bought e-z harness. Every wire is marked every 6 inches and therefore almost foolproof if you can read. Take your time and do it right you won't be sorry.

may i suggest the use of relay's to your stock wire kit. they were not around way back when but add safety and reliaibility to your ride. learn more about them, do a search and read.

Read my thread on 'another wiring harness question'. There's a response in there with a bunch of info on relays.

Just curious...why would anyone NOT want to use fuses and/or relays? Outside a 100-point restoration, I don't understand why it would be a consideration, especially if it can be done so in a manner that is not visibly noticable. I guess my problem is that I've seen one too many vehicle electrical fires, the worst of which was an engine loom blaze that stranded me out where James Dean took his last breath.

The best wiring harness is the one you make yourself. Every project is different - I just can't see how a store bought harness would fit everyone's purposes.

On our truck we only have one relay - the horn relay. That's all it needs. (OK, I suppose there's a relay in the regulator).

On our car project, I used relays for the headlight door limit switches, electric fan, horn and driving lights. (i.e switching high current loads)

I don't think anyone should "fix" thrashed wiring and worn out switches with relays.

I used a $99 Chevy Duty harness. I got relays on the headlights and electric fan. I also installed an extra stock fuse box under the dash. I run all the accessories thru it. Seems to work great. The EZ harness looks like the best deal. I didn't know about it when I did mine.