Instead of plugging in my GPS to the 12V socket, I've decided to hard wire it into the panel on the driver's side access panel (when you open the door and take the vent panel off). Behind that there is the light switch and the dimmer switch. I wanted to run it off of the dimmer switch wiring but not through the dimmer switch itself. I just want to have constant power.
I've taken a photo of the wires but I'm not sure which wire is which. Does anyone know?
No upfitters - that probably would have been my first choice. I can probably run the wire from the drivers access panel deeper into the dash to find something that's permanently hot but I wanted a bit of guidance before I dug in.
I bought a 12v outlet from Walmart and wired it into the 12vAcc and ground for the stereo. I put the outlet behind the stereo in the area above the metal shelf. I dropped the GPS power cord into that area behind the stereo from the top of the dash and plugged it in. Trust me on this, you want to use the full power cord, not with the plug cut off and wired directly. Takes me about 5 min to access the plug if I need to remove it for some reason. And the GPS turns on and off with the truck.
I did something similar. I tapped into the back side of the cig lighter, with an additional outlet. Ran the wires below the dash up the driver side and plugged into the gps...turns on/off with truck.
Today I may do the wiring. I like the idea of behind the cig. lighter. I want there to always be power. I am currently running the GPS off the accessory plug and their is always power there. I like that when the truck is off, I still get power to the GPS. Often I enter waypoints and figure things out with the truck off.
The downside is that if you forget to turn the GPS off, it runs all night. I've done this a few times but the GPS draw is so low, the two truck batteries don't even notice it and starts right up. I wouldn't want to leave it for multiple days, but I'm getting more careful.
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