I have a few accessories to wire up. I'm not a fan of hooking into OEM electrical stuff, so I figure current and future me will really appreciate a dedicated fuse box. The ultimate setup would be one under the hood, in the forward dash area, and another in the rear. For now, I'm doing one in the dash area.

Mounting it next to the factory panel under the steering wheel would be convenient, but there isn't room... SRS styrofoam everywhere. I don't think the Disco I had that. If only I could remove the styrofoam - at least the left hand side - I could fit a fuse panel. Is it safe? What are the drawbacks? Hopefully one of those isn't dying.

Other potential locations:

• Under passenger seat (I've removed the CD changer). con: most of the accessories would be in the dash, so running wires isn't ideal
• Under dash, behind glove box area. Not sure about this one yet. Currently taking apart the dash. There does appear to be a completely unused grommet (capped) in the firewall. I might remove the molded cover piece under the dash permanently... if I can get the darn thing off

 

Under the passenger seat is not a bad idea that's were they put it on p38 range Rovers the wires run under the door sill panel and back up to the dash.

 

Under the passenger seat could be a winner. I just took apart the CD changer (it was busted anyway).. will make for a fine fuse panel mount.

 

Last time I took apart a D2 CD Changer it didn't look anywhere near as nice as that!! On a Java Black D2 I had the previous owner said it just stopped working one day. So I investigated it only to tear it apart and find it filled from top to bottom with red clay mud.... Yeah sure it just "stopped working" one day alright. Later I figured out my 02 was sunk up to the center console on the right side. I found the water mark inside the door, and when you slammed a door hard enough red clay would fall out from inside the door.

Sherlock Holmes would have been proud of me piecing that one together lol.

 

Haha, nice one. Yeah this unit keeps saying "No DISC". All the mechanics work otherwise. Could be an easy fix, but oh well, I swapped it for the GROM unit.

 

I removed my styrofoam for simplicity's sake. I haven't noticed any issues, but I also haven't been in any accidents, soooo...

 

FWIW I got a small fuse box and installed it next to the battery like this: A somewhat better overview - Imgur

I've read that closer to the battery is better, but I'm not sure why. Full album here: Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

 

Removing the styrofoam is tempting... I think it would be the most convenient location for the fuse box vs criss-crossing wires between the dash and passenger seat.

That's a nice setup next to the battery, but I want to keep the thin accessory wires out of the engine bay... panel needs to be in the cab. The gauge on your wire between the batt and panel looks quite thin.. is that 10 gauge? I guess since you're so close to the battery, and as long as you're not running big lights off that thing, you should be ok.

 

In this picture: https://i.imgur.com/dWCff8Q.jpg I think you missed out on the 1" hole to the bottom right of the photo. That's a pre-drilled hole.. just pop off the rubber cap (drill it or replace w/ grommet). That's the hole I plan on using.

 

This is 10-gauge wire. It's for an amplifier. I calculated the required gauge based on what it draws—there are a number of online tools for this.

If I were to install something bigger, I'd obviously replace the run from the fuse box to the battery with beefier wire.

I'm not aware of that 1" hole, but using it sounds like a good plan. I know of other people who have successfully cut into the rubber housing around where the main harness goes in.