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Terminal block under front hood

69K views 16 replies 15 participants last post by  wrongway66 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Both my 2015 and 2018 Ranger XP900s have a terminal block under the hood up front with one wire attached -orange with a white stripe. The league doesn't appear to have any power going to it, but it is in a handy spot to use for an accessory I'd like to add that would require constant power [shallow draw].

I've looked at several wiring diagrams but haven't found one that makes much sense to me, so if I can figure out what the attached wire is, I can start peeling the onion, so to speak.
Any thoughts?
 
#3 ·
Yes. that is the "accessory" or "Key-on" power wire. Generally not more than 10 to 20 amp draw depending on the fuse in the fuse box. You can finish out the bar by adding battery power and a ground to the remaining terminals with at least a minimum of 8ga wire. Put a circuit breaker in the positive wire as close to the battery as possible. Then you can start hooking your accessories directly to the bar. :grin:
 
#4 · (Edited)
I also have a new 2018 Ranger XP900 and have recently become familiar with the terminal block or “bus bar”. I hope the following information is helpful and not condescending. The bus bar has three terminals on it. My bus bar was not operable when I bought my Ranger because it had not yet been connected to the battery so I bought the Polaris “Battery Connection Cable”, Item/part # 2879388 for $36.99. https://ranger.polaris.com/en-us/shop/accessories/audio-systems/2879388/

The above cable connects the positive and negative terminals on your battery to the bus bar. Without this cable there is no power to the bus bar as I understand it. I bought and installed this cable. It was a fairly easy and quick install. The Hot or positive wire from the battery connects to the left terminal on the bus bar. That left terminal is therefore always hot. The negative cable from the battery was connected to the middle terminal on the bus bar. The middle terminal is therefore always a safe place to ground whatever needs grounding. The far right terminal is the keyed terminal which means that it is only hot when the key is turned on.

So, when I installed a horn I didn’t want it to operate unless the key was on. Accordingly, the red wire for the horn was connected to the keyed terminal on the far right side of the bus bar and the black ground wire for the horn was connected to the ground terminal in the middle of the bus bar. Similarly, my Viper Elite winch was connected to the keyed terminal because I only want the winch to operate when the key is on (and the instructions for the winch state that the winch must be wired to the keyed power).

The beauty of the bus bar is that you don’t have to find the wire from the ignition that is hot when the key is on and run several wires off of that wire for things such as your winch or horn. And, it is nice to have one location for the ground. It took me a bit to understand how the wiring worked. Electrical stuff is my weakness but I am determined to understand it so I can install my own accessories.

I hope this was helpful to you and I hope someone will correct me if I have misstated anything!
 
#15 ·
I also have a new 2018 Ranger XP900 and have recently become familiar with the terminal block or “bus bar”. I hope the following information is helpful and not condescending. The bus bar has three terminals on it. My bus bar was not operable when I bought my Ranger because it had not yet been connected to the battery so I bought the Polaris “Battery Connection Cable”, Item/part # 2879388 for $36.99. https://ranger.polaris.com/en-us/shop/accessories/audio-systems/2879388/

The above cable connects the positive and negative terminals on your battery to the bus bar. Without this cable there is no power to the bus bar as I understand it. I bought and installed this cable. It was a fairly easy and quick install. The Hot or positive wire from the battery connects to the left terminal on the bus bar. That left terminal is therefore always hot. The negative cable from the battery was connected to the middle terminal on the bus bar. The middle terminal is therefore always a safe place to ground whatever needs grounding. The far right terminal is the keyed terminal which means that it is only hot when the key is turned on.

So, when I installed a horn I didn’t want it to operate unless the key was on. Accordingly, the red wire for the horn was connected to the keyed terminal on the far right side of the bus bar and the black ground wire for the horn was connected to the ground terminal in the middle of the bus bar. Similarly, my Viper Elite winch was connected to the keyed terminal because I only want the winch to operate when the key is on (and the instructions for the winch state that the winch must be wired to the keyed power).

The beauty of the bus bar is that you don’t have to find the wire from the ignition that is hot when the key is on and run several wires off of that wire for things such as your winch or horn. And, it is nice to have one location for the ground. It took me a bit to understand how the wiring worked. Electrical stuff is my weakness but I am determined to understand it so I can install my own accessories.

I hope this was helpful to you and I hope someone will correct me if I have misstated anything!
This makes the most sense of any of the posts I've read. The right terminal may be keyed power, but it won't work without a ground.
 
#6 ·
I ordered the wiring kit from Polaris and got it yesterday but it didn't come with any routing or connection suggestions -something I would have appreciated after laying out $37 for two pieces of cable and a couple 8 mm terminal nuts. I'll just try running it back under the unit alongside other wires to try to get to the battery. I sure don't want to have to drop the skid plate to find a route. Once I get this one figured out, I'll get another set of cables for the other unit. Appreciate the heads up and part number on the earlier post.
 
#9 ·
Hi All
Thought I might add something to this. I ran the keyed wire to the 3 pin terminal block down in the service manual. This I believe has a 10 amp fuse. If you have a few things you want to be keyed you can add a relay to a little terminal block for your keyed power stuff. Most automotive relay are 40 Amps. If you add a relay the actuates when you turn on the key and have the power terminal supply power to the new little terminal block you can have 40 amps to run keyed power with very little draw on the keyed wire. I have quite a few things running off the key supply and have had no issues. Please let me know if this made any sense….

Thanks!!!
Joe
 

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#11 ·
The Polaris bussbar under the hood is a Mickey mouse setup at best. The keyed side will have a wire going
down to the solenoid. The other side of the solenoid is full time, and you will have to run a wire up to your
MM bussbar. The other 3rd terminal on the bar should go to ground. This is a good starting point. Order
yourself a Blue Sea #5025 Fuse Block w/Neg. Bus, or buy one from a parts place near you. They don't

have any near me so I ordered one from Walmart.com for about 28 bucks. Use this to wire up to 6 more
accessories for your machine. This will be connected to the Keyed side of your MM bar, and run a neg
to any metal place you want for ground.
 
#13 ·
2019 900XP Crew
Installed a heated seat kit. Needed a feed for positive power to the buss bar since it didn't have one, only had a ground (center post) and a switched feed (drivers side post). The Pax side post was empty. Put it on that one.



Got a red 12 gauge wire spool and an inline fuse setup and ran it up to the buss bar. Something like $15. Used a 10 amp fuse but could make it higher if other loads are added later.


Connected the battery end of the 12 Gauge cable to the hot side of the starting solenoid.


Careful how you route the wiring from the tunnel up to the buss bar. There are some (sort of) sharp edges that could chafe with use. So cable tie the wiring to stay clear of these.
 
#17 ·
Im a disabled Marine and I have a 2021 Ranger 1000 Crew Ultimate Northstar Trail Boss. I own a small animal rescue/petting zoo/horse motel/guest cabins ranch, so I use my machines/bedlifts everyday, all day. I purchased a bedlift when I bought it in June, but didn't receive it until last week. We support our rescues by taking our guests on tours of local mines and historical sites, too. I followed all of the instructions,, I disconnected the battery, plugged everything in and......NOTHING! So I started troubleshooting it, to no avail, so I decided that I'd dick with it later, since Polaris has no technical support, my local dealer won't help and I'm scratching my head. To my chagrin, now my dome light, my windshield wipers and washers and power windows also don't work. I've swapped out the relays, checked the fuses and although the front buss bar has battery power, it doesn't seem to have keyed power. Conversely, the rear buss bar has no battery power. I so wish I hadn't wasted my money on this piece of crap. For $34,000 I at LEAST expect the performance of the $14,000 Kawasaki Mule that it replaced after some of Biden's ******** stole the one it replaced and ran it off of a cliff. The Mule by FAR is a superior machine, even though it has half the horsepower, according to Polaris. I also wish that I had known that all of the wiring and God knows what else is made in China. I have never seen such crappy, shoddy workmanship or such an unstable platform. I've owned 2 Mules (2016 800 Crew Ranch edition & 2018 900 Crew Ranch edition) now with 5 years of service and almost 20,000 miles with no issues and this thing is literally falling apart after a few months use. The 2016 works circles around the Polaris and doesn't tip over when slightly off camber like Polaris and it has 5 inches of lift and 32" tires. I was totally surprised the first time that I took it in the sand. I was following the Mule and within 100 feet, was stuck and had to winch, while the Mule kept on putting along in 1 wheel high and to follow it, I had to run in 4 wheel low and floored, to keep from getting stuck. The creature comforts would be nice, if they worked, but the A/C sucks and that's what sold me on the Polaris. I figured out how to make the A/C "work," you turn it on, drive it and when you are wet with sweat, you roll down the windows, open the front glass and floor it, then you cool off. I also found out, when I tore the dash out to troubleshoot the wiring issue, that several of the A/C vent tubes were pinched closed to about 1/3 their diameters from being kinked, jammed between dash supports, etc. This piece of junk is brand new and I shouldn't even need to mess with it. It only has about 160 hours on it. Any help getting the wiring unscrewed would be FANTASTIC! I should have bought a brand new Jeep, instead. They're the same price. My advice, if you want the ultimate work/play machine, and you are serious about your work/play, buy a Mule. But meanwhile, I'm stuck with one window down, one window up, no windshield wipers or washers, no dome light and can't use my $600 tilt bed! Please pray that another ******* steals this piece of crap, so I can buy a new Mule soon! BTW, these are only a few of the biggest issue, I have a list about 3X this size. HELP ME WITH THIS JUNK PLEASE!!!
 
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