Ok, so I need another 12v outlet, and I hate the ghet-ass feel of the splitters (plus I had one catch on fire once).

I've got the outlet and wired an inline fuse, but where should i have it hooked into? Should I just solder it to the leads for the existing outlet? Should I lead it back to the fusebox? Direct to battery? I'd like this one to be able to have current when the car is turned off, so I'm leaning to going right to the battery but I want to have the most elegant, OEM look and wires leading off the battery look ghet. Oh yeah, I'd like to avoid shit catching on fire when I'm running the xm and charging the cellphone at the same time

6/22/2006 10:29:40 AM

What is ghet?
And you may be able to run it right off the other outlet, just check the fuse rating for that circuit and compare that to the power demands of the XM unit and the charger. If the demands exceed the limit just find another circuit. There is no reason to go all the way back to the battery that I can see.

6/22/2006 11:22:06 AM

Many/most wires are going to be ignition switched. Get a voltmeter and start checking stuff. If you run it right to the battery you're probably going to have to make some kind of hole and shit, so avoid if you can.

6/22/2006 11:28:53 AM

I would go to the ignition harness. Depending on the car there should be some pretty heavy gauge there. Let me know the year/make/model of your car and I'll get u the tech sheet to tell you where to go. Just put a ring terminal on ground and screw it to some metal, then strip some wire back on the constant 12 volt ignition, poke a hole in the wires, stick the positive wire through and wrap it around(solder if you want) then tape well... from there its just putting the plug where u want it...

Heres a tech sheet for a vehicross(its what i see in your gallery)


[Edited on June 22, 2006 at 11:34 AM. Reason : .]

6/22/2006 11:30:07 AM

sweet.

Thanks thats the kind of idea I needed.

6/22/2006 11:39:36 AM

^^ can you get a wire color chart for 94 dodge ram 2500? i got two off the internet but they have have some discrepancies

6/22/2006 12:02:58 PM

there is a RAM 50 and 250 listed also but I think the 2500 series falls under just "pick-up"

6/22/2006 12:39:44 PM

I used one of these when hard-wiring my XM. Its called an Add-A-Circuit and available at some autoparts store for under $10. It lets you pull power anywhere from your fuse box, and protects whatever you are adapting with a second fuse. The best part is you don't have to do any splicing.

6/22/2006 4:42:15 PM

goddam Cheryl that's an awfully small pic.

6/22/2006 4:57:24 PM

^I don't know how to make it bigger on my own, and when i tried to link to their bigger picture, it gave me a copyright message and crashed my browser. Too much damn effort.

6/22/2006 5:56:29 PM

thats a great way to fuck your fusebox up! youre a genius!

6/22/2006 6:09:09 PM

^How so?

6/22/2006 6:14:15 PM

the buses in the fuse box are only designed to take so much power

you run too many amps through it and you can blow it

6/22/2006 8:57:26 PM

yes and splicing the extra output in that same circuit is not gonna add any load to it, therefore making it a lot safer

you should be fine with that lil fuse thing unless yoou are planning to draw mad current through the circuit (unless you are running a power inverter with a fuckin elecgtric lawnmower plugged into it i dont see that happening for a 15 amp rated circuit)

if you are in fact plannning to run high currnet through the new circuit, wire it to ignition circuit under the steering wheel or to one of the big 30 amp fuse circuits under the hood (make sure it is not something important like ABS or ECM circuit). i wouldnt wire it to the battery directly unless it is a power inverter or something of that sort and even then i woud have a big ole switch to it off when you are not using it)

6/22/2006 9:21:31 PM

fusebox slots are designed to hold a fuse and thats it, not a fuse and a tap.

6/22/2006 9:41:10 PM

fuck the bullshit, just wire it to the battery with a fuse. Nobody looks under the hood anyway. Use a relay to make it switched +12v if you feel like it, or just have a switch on there that you can manually turn off. Custom wiring jobs are rarely going to look OEM...

6/23/2006 12:55:32 AM

^What Ray said. Especially if you wanna run uber current through it.

6/23/2006 1:32:00 AM

you can also tie it to the hot lead at the alternator so noone sees it

6/23/2006 2:03:17 AM

Can you wire from the power distribution block that comes off of the + lead of the battery?

My old car had an extra slot so I added another fusible link and pulled + power off of it because I didn't want to deal with extra wires going directly to the battery.

-- Dave

6/23/2006 10:56:33 AM

yeah wiring to the alternator would be cleaner

6/23/2006 12:53:26 PM

if you use the add a circuit deal with the same size fuse as was originally intended for the circuit, you have in no way damaged the electrical system. what the hell are you talking about ?

6/23/2006 1:18:09 PM