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Hi,
I'd like to add a cigarette lighter socket to my Hilux, and I'd like to make it permanently powered so that I can leave a solar panel attached to drip-charge my batteries. It'd also be vaguely useful to have a permanent power connection for charging some small devices, so that's why I'm looking at doing the cigarette lighter socket rather than e.g. hard-wiring into the 12V rails.
So, I thought about first converting the standard socket to permanently-powered by replacing the relay with a jumper wire so it's always-on, but that idea fell down when I realised how little fun it was locating which relay it was (I could only get a couple of relays in the driver's footwell out 'cos they're so tight!) and when I realised I'd also be powering the clock all the time -- not ideal.
Therefore, I'd like to cut a new socket into the centre console and permanently wire it using heavy-gauge wire (with an inline fuse-holder). Does anyone have any ideas about the best place to "leach" this connection from? I thought about running a pair of wires direct from the 2nd battery terminals and through the bulkhead, but that sounds tricky. Is there a better source for this? I'm thinking I'd spec the wiring for e.g. 20Amps of current (realistic max use of half that).
cheers
I'd like to add a cigarette lighter socket to my Hilux, and I'd like to make it permanently powered so that I can leave a solar panel attached to drip-charge my batteries. It'd also be vaguely useful to have a permanent power connection for charging some small devices, so that's why I'm looking at doing the cigarette lighter socket rather than e.g. hard-wiring into the 12V rails.
So, I thought about first converting the standard socket to permanently-powered by replacing the relay with a jumper wire so it's always-on, but that idea fell down when I realised how little fun it was locating which relay it was (I could only get a couple of relays in the driver's footwell out 'cos they're so tight!) and when I realised I'd also be powering the clock all the time -- not ideal.
Therefore, I'd like to cut a new socket into the centre console and permanently wire it using heavy-gauge wire (with an inline fuse-holder). Does anyone have any ideas about the best place to "leach" this connection from? I thought about running a pair of wires direct from the 2nd battery terminals and through the bulkhead, but that sounds tricky. Is there a better source for this? I'm thinking I'd spec the wiring for e.g. 20Amps of current (realistic max use of half that).
cheers
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