Fire Suppression System wiring

I'm planning out my new harness right now, thinking of the fire suppression system.

I considered running the wires for the fire system completely on their own. But then I decided to bundle that in with the rest of the harness, it'll save space and have a tighter and neater finished product. Also a bit cheaper too, a lot less DR-25 will be used by bundling it all together.

Yes if I make a mistake, it could trigger the system the first time I power up the car. But I trust myself enough to check and verify that before connecting the battery.

But I just rewatched the wiring course, and noticed that they specifically call out fire suppression systems. The course says that they should be wired completely separate from the rest. So now I'm second-guessing myself...

What do you think? Is it really that much of an issue to run the suppression wiring in with everything else?

Fire systems change over time. I would have a separate harness, particularly since it has it's own power source. If you were to have an electrical problem that melted your chassis harness -- you would hope you could trigger the fire system. How much wiring does the fire system have anyway - just an external button correct?

I'd still suggest running that wiring separate, as David has pointed out, they have their own battery power supply, so can be (are are designed to be) made completely stand alone.

That being said, I can understand the appeal of integrating the wiring for it... You sound like you know what you're doing, so you'll be able to weigh up the pros and cons of this :-).

"You sound like you know what you're doing" - Thanks Zac for the vote of confidence! Lol :)

I know what I'll do. It's only 2 wires, so I can easily include it as spare or filler in the concentric harness. And if I change my mind again, I can run a separate wire at any time later.

Hi Matt,

A lot of motorsport bodies will reject a vehicle at scrutineering if the fire suppression system wiring is integrated with the vehicle main loom. Check with the regulations and speak to the local ASN/organiser for the class/category that you are planning on racing in before committing to embedding the fire control wiring into the looms. They are supposed to be a totally separate, self contained system in the vehicle that can be activated with no other part of the vehicle working.

No, this body doesn't enforce the wiring for the system at all. Only that it must be "according to the manufacturers instructions". And most manufacturers don't specify this one way or the other. The only wiring this manufacturer provided was a set of pigtails for the controller and the bottle. The included switches aren't even terminated, just bare solder posts. So I take that to mean that all the wiring in between is entirely up to me.

To be clear: I'm only talking about sheathing these wires in the same loom as everything else. But electrically it will still be its own completely independent circuit. So it will still function even if the rest of the car is shut down or otherwise inoperative.