I want to hardwire my GPS and my Radar Detector. I can buy a hardwire line for the detector, but the GPS only makes a standard plug and a cigarette lighter plug. I was thinking of buying another cheap plug off of ebay and cutting the ends off. How can I hard wire these 2 items correctly without overloading a particular wire and/or fuse? I have an STX with power windows that I installed myself. I want to make sure the wiring is done right if I hardwire.

 

first off and definetely the easiest, i would probably check the fuse box in the cab and see if any of the fuse slots are not being used and then if there are a few free ones that have power to them run a power line, put a fuse in the slot, and away you go. (check the amperage of your toys and use the according fuse.)

if that is not possible heres the other solution.

run a seperate power line with a inline fuse (fuse no more then 12" from the battery) to a mini fuse box and then split it to your different electronics.

on the power line install a relay and use a accessory like the radio lead to power the relay to turn the electronics on.

heres the types of fuse boxes i used to do my audio system. you may be able to find smaller ones since the gps and radar are not going to be sucking anywhere near the amount my amps are.

 

If there are empty slots, how do I know how to hook into them? Where do I run the wire to?

 

your going to have to look on the back of the fuse box and see whats free or not. if there is a free one then splice it oneo the fuse box and run the wire up to your dash or wherever you want to put your gps/radar.

 

Yeah I looked behind, I had a few open spaces but unlike most fuse boxes there isn't a place to put a wire, It's all plugs. I got it done, I wired it to the 12v power source my radio uses and it works great. For some reason both my cigarette lighter and my 12v power point are constantly on. I was wondering if I bought a cheap home charger could I hard wire my GPS the same way? cut off the plug end and ground one wire and tap into another 12v power slot?

 

u can, but running the radio/gps/radar off of the radio fuse/wire might cause it to overload and blow or melt the wires. you could however, use the radio lead to trigger a relay that you spliced into the cig/power point wire.

 

I am only using the radio wire for the Radar Detector. It has it's own built in fuse in the wire. I was gonna hard wire the GPS through the cigarette lighter since I never use that.

 

the only downside to hardwiring it to the cig is that the gps will always have power to it. the cig lighter is always hot, even when the truck is off, so just be aware of what your doing.