Painless vs Kwik Wire

[mnkeeking]

Looking at rewiring my truck with a new 14 circuit harness as the PO made a real mess with all his splices and electric tape. I know Painless is the popular choice and I like the features of p/n 10117. While searching for a cheaper price (Summit wants $600) I found Streetrodelectrics.com and they sell a 14 circuit harness for $290, p/n 14SG-FORD. Painless says they use Ford colored wiring, which would be useful as I can use all my old diagrams. Street Rods harness is labelled every 4 inches with its destination, which is more useful to me. The Painless harness looks a little easier to deal with, but I'm not concerned about installation. The Street Rods harness has a built in coil kill switch on the fuse block, which is nice, and is made in Wisconsin. One of the reviews stated that SRE's customer service will help with your install over the phone if you get stuck.

Has anyone used a Street Rod Electrics harness? If no one has, please take a look at the website. I need some advice. I'm very good with wiring so the install will just take some time. I need to know if they're of approximately the same quality. At half the price of the Painless harness I'm leaning toward the Street Rods harness. Anything will be better than what I have now.

Thanks for all the help.
Take care,
Joe

EDIT: The company that makes the harness available from Street Rods Electrics is called Kwik Wire.

[tbone6]

I have used a Kwikwire harness, but not from SRE. The wire type, fuse block, fuses, terminals and such are, in my opinion, going to be pretty much the same in both kits. The difference will come in the instructions and the quality of the build. I found the Kwikwire harness satisfactory in quality (I had a few minor issues), but not as good as painless. I used Kwikwires POC for help resolving two issues and found them to be decent, but not overly helpful, one issue was the brake light wire from the fuse panel was wired to the run position of the buss bar vice the "always hot" position. They would not provide a fuse block schematic so I could easily rewire it, so I had to draw my own (PITA). Also, a few of the instructions were not correct for my truck (see this thread http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... =8&t=72460 for one example, also had to redraw the starter circuit, etc. ). The instructions provided by Kwikwire were for a generic installation, not specific to your Ford Truck, so just be aware you will need to tweak a little.

I suspect most of the less expensive harnesses you buy are going to be pretty generic (EZwiring, Kwikwire, etc.), not specific like the painless harness.

Another consideration in using generic harnesses is what happens 5 years from now when something quits working? Did you redraw your diagrams and save them for future reference, or did you just rewire on the fly? Are you going to be able to figure out how you wired that dome light down the road? What about the poor sucker that bought your truck?

How comfortable are you with wiring diagrams/schematics? If not REAL comfy with it, I suggest spending the extra just for the instructions and diagrams that painless provides.

I don't think you can build your own harness for less than a generic harness unless you already have a ton of material, but the harness in these trucks is pretty basic if you were so inclined, that would be my preferred method. All the work is done by switches and relays and the instrument cluster, not much to the wiring itself.

Bottom line, would I use a Kwikwire harness again? Probably not without reservation.
Would I spend the money and get a painless harness? Maybe, if I had someone else's budget, but probably not if it was on my dime.
I think if I couldn't build my own, I would go with one of the other generic harnesses. My

edit: I believe the kill switch and cover are additional cost... verify if important.

[mnkeeking]

Thanks for the in-depth info and review, T-Bone! Exactly the info I was looking for. I won't rewire now until my frame-off, which is hopefully about 18 months. I'm with you, I'd rather make my own harnesses. For a minute there I thought I might have to rewire now, so was in panic mode. Time to think, and fixing the problem without rewiring, have calmed me down. I agree with you. If I were doing a complete rewire on an intact truck I'd buy the Painless harness because of fit and finish issues. I'd buy the EZ or Kwik if I HAD to rewire NOW, and for frame-off, I'm building all my own.
Thanks again,
Joe

[wbulick76]

I've used American Autowire and was very happy. Had a very bad experience with Painless Wirings customer service department and left a bad taste in my mouth.