I am going to be hard wiring my radar detector into my 2009 Dodge Ram, and would like to pull 12v from a switched source.

In my old Camaro, I could easily run some wire down to the fuse box under the steering column and stick it on the spare accessory circuit, but the Dodge Ram looks to be a little more complicated in seeing where to get at wires in the fuse box. Granted, I only spent about 20 seconds looking at the fuse box in the rain, so it might be easier than it looks :-)

Anyway. The detector will probably be mounted high on the windshield, with the power cable running under the headliner and down a pillar. There is a small control box that will be mounted somewhere near the steering wheel/center console that allows me to mute the detector without reaching up all the time, and then I need a place to source switched 12v from that is nice and easy to get at.

What would you guys recommend as the easiest place to source power from? Should I run it to the fuse box, or can I splice power from somewhere inside the vehicle?

Also - what is the simplest ground point to attach to? I haven't spent much time looking at the wiring, but I am sure that all the metal under the dash is probably a bit better insulated than a late 80's car, so probably harder to find a random screw to ground under lol.

Thanks!

 

well, this should take care of the power..
http://stealthcords.com/shop/home.php?cat=280

this should do your mount.
http://www.blendmount.com/

dont know how you could get a cleaner/easier install....

 

That BlendMount looks great! But will it work on the 2009 rearview mirror? The stem on my Ram 1500 looks to be quite short, perhaps not enough clearance for it. Has anyone tried it?

Thanks!

 

i believe it does.. i was planning on doin that one day when i get my v1. im pretty sure their are other members on here with 09s mounted like that. to be sure start a new topic asking about blendmount users to gaurantee a hit...

 

I just wired mine last week. I have the Passport detector with the additional small box that can mute and store the GPS hot spot.

Mine is mounted under the rear view mirror the harness follows the same path as the rear view mirror harness does, into the headliner and down the pillar under the dash, feeding the small box through the small opening for the tilt steering and mounting it to the side of the column. ( it does not interfere with the function of the tilt)

From there I tried to tap into the mirror harness at the bottom of the pillar for power but found it was not switched. I tried that for a while but found it very annoying as even with the detector switched off, it would still "click" when the door was opened. I was expecting to find a good switched source but everything is a harness and I just did not want to dig to deep.

My solution was running an extension wire ( soldered and shrink) and running that under the drivers side of the center console to the rear Cigarette lighter. The rear one ( for the back seat) is very easy yo access and provides a nice path for the wire harness to be fed. I even found mine with the female wire tap spades already installed on the wires at the plug ( from the factory).. It almost made it "plug and play" easy.

Hope this helps.

 

If you have the power slider rear window, thats where I got power from for my Escort. And I used an old phone extension cord for the hook up. Just added a fuse to the power to the window switch.

 

Everything is mounted and completely clean. Ill take some pics and post tomorrow. Went with safe-n-sound1 cable instead of the invisicable due to the fact it has a fuse on the hot wire not to mention it's only 9.99. Cheaper and better....always a good way to go. Was going to go with the blend mount but didnt want to take up the space of my window under my mirror (Im tall and so I had my wife hold it there to see if it would get I the way and it did). So instead I bought a mount with a real suckin cup that wont come off the window from best buy (infact it as a pain in the @#$ to get it off when I was trying different placements).
So all in all spent way less for better solutions.
Heres the website links:
http://www.safe-n-sound1.com/Escort%...%20Mirror.html

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Escort+-...=1218205766174
(With this its better to jsut order offline-they have them in the store but they arent in boxes so took forever to find the sku number to ring them up)

I have the big horn with the dimming mirror. 1st wire with pink is the power the 2nd wire that blakc with stripping is ground (or at least thats what I used)

 

I went to the fuse for the cig lighter for power for mine, its switched. I used a fuse tap. The install is clean and invisible except for the small controller box by my knee, radar detector is mounted in the grill. I have a passport SR7

 

I have a million phone cords. I should cut them find out which two wires spots the radar detector take and then cut them and eliminate the extra wires and strip out just the two I need put a inline fuse at the power side and sell them for 9.99. Mine are straight cords too easy to hide.

 

lol they have people doing that now