Thread: painless vs. ron francis

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We bought Ron Francis 32 circuit setup for our 70 shelby superstreet and were able to move the fuse panel from high up on the fire wall.(Boys & Girls, can you say CONTORTIONIST)to mounting the new fuse box to the back of the Glove Box door! It sure make things nice when you need to add something! I'm glad we went with Ron's Kit!

As an old veteran wire monger (industrial, commercial electrician), may I offer a few opinions/observations.

The kits with the pre-terminated and loomed wires are handy, if you are going to wire your ride the way the kit is layed out. All you have to do is mount the fuse block in approximately the spot that the setup was designed for, and place all of the stuff that uses the juice in the approximate locations that the kit "wants" them, and weasel the wire loom into place. If, on the other hand, you want to put your coil, or some other component somewhere other than the spot they have pre-ordained, or very nearly so, or add something extra to the setup, then you must "haywire" or "jury rig" it. This can get messy, and may not look completely "tits" (apologies to the ladies), because there will be extra splices in a given wire, and the color and/or markings usually will not match up, or the extra wires will have to be accomodated outside of the design. Sure, it will be inside of a "snakeskin", or taped up nice-like, but the added splices are a weak spot in the system; and, the differences are there, whether they can be seen, or not. Also, as mentioned in other posts, the extra wires for things you don't use are just sort of hanging out there; extra stuff that might get in the way, or take up valuable space. These kits are generally easier for a novice to install, because you dont have to be too well versed on placement, shaping and bundling; basically, it's all been done for you.

With the kits with a non-terminated, or open terminal fuse block, (my preference is Ron Francis), you have complete freedom to mount all of your "stuff" wherever it suits you, and run the wires wherever you want to. You only install the circuits that are needed, and don't have bunch of "extra" wires that you don't use, hanging out in the loom. And, you install the right length of wire, without the need for extra splices. Just a neater, and more serviceable solution, in my opinion.

So, do your homework, research, and choose what you are most comfortable with, or like the idea of. They all will work, at least all of the major ones. I think I would steer clear of any system that is not too well known, though; you might just get an ugly surprise.

Hi, I wire cars as a sideline and have used both harnesses you have mentioned. I liked the Painless better, mostly because I work on more GM than Ford. The Francis harness dissappointed in the fuse block terminations. I preffer not to have screws holding my harness to my fuse block. Easier to service but may loosen due to vibration. That is the big difference between the two harnesses one is terminated in the fuse block the other is srewed into the fuse block. You could always make your own, it really is not all that hard. Good luck.

After reading everyones reply, I feel a little confused on the different manufacturers setup. Many are saying with the Ron F. wiring you can run one wire at a time. The painless wiring you have to run all. To clarify my thoughts;
Ron F kit you would mount the fuse block and run and terminate each wire individually.
Painless kit you mount the fuse block and run the wires, but they are already terminated.

My question: why can't you run one wire at a time with the painless or other kits?

I am going to be wiring my 56 in late winter and getting geared up to do it.

On both systems you run the wires one at a time. The advantage of the Ron Francis system is that you don't have a lot of preconnected wires to contend with, making everything easier. I have a Ron Francis unit in my 48 - installed it over 20 yrs ago and never had a problem with it. One advantage with the Francis unit is that all updates he has made can be incorporated into an older system.

I have wired four cars - one with a Francis unit, one with a Its A Snap unit (sort of like a Painless) one with another brand I can't remember the name of and one self made. All have served well with no problems so far. My opinion, the Francis unit is probably the best on the market, although you probably will not have any problems with most of the others.

I used the "It's a Snap" ZZ-20 also, and I didn't see any problem with having the whole harness in the car to contend with. I did like the idea of everything already connected to the fuse block and the very small fuse blk also. I didn't find any problem running out the harness where it needed to be but the GM harness fit my 48 really well. I couldn't justify the enormous price difference between the 2 and my car is wired neatly and works great for my first time. I had no problem with thier manual figuring it out.

I wired my '32 with a Centech kit, and would highly recommend it. Their customer service is excellent, too. There is nothing wrong with Painless or RF wiring kits as they are both high quality, but because I have issues with RF as a person, I won't use his stuff.

EZ wire was cheaper by over $100 and the quality was every bit as good. I'm not joe wiring and I did it without a hitch. All wire was marked and easy to read.

Painless for me. Service was awesome both on the phone and through email. I plan on using them for my next project as well. Ron Francis is way too pricey....$$

putt putt to www.delcity.net and buy the components to do your own harness......although you wont have the nice wire stamped identifiers. You can buy wire labels or numbers to compensate.

DelCity sells the good high temp wire like Painless and Francis use.

mike in tucson