Im going to be installing a bunch of guages, and im having a hard time finding switched 12v sources for them to go to. Would a seperate fuze box be a good idea?

 

how much power are they going yo draw? if its more than an amp or 2 i would use ither the blower moter or wiper moter, take the fuse out and see whitch is the hot side, use that one then put a 3 amp fuse in the wire comming off of it. use that wire as a trigger for a relay(86) then hook up ground(85) run a wure off of your battery fused appropertley for whatever your running to(30) then hook all your stuff up to(87) this will be the safest way to do it since all your using the keyed power for id to trigger a relay then your drawing off the battery to power your stuff

 

Really what im thinking of doing is putting in a fuze box in the engine bay, and having it directly connected to the batt. and having a toggle switch for the whole fuze box, and run my power and light for my guages from that box, and thats all the box will do. So when I turn on the truck, flip the switch, when I turn it off, flip the switch.

 

Do you smoke (cigarrettes not tires)? I don't know about the 96's,but the lighter on my truck is switched. It did me no good with my pipe, so I used it for my a/f meter/ arc-1 set up. That circuit will run a bunch of stuff.

 

i dont smoke cigarrettes, but iv tried the lighter before for power for my LED lights and they stayed on consistantly.

 

you must be using the power outlet, cause that is always on, but if you only use the cigarette lighter outlet, it is only turned on in the key-on position,

 

If you wanted to add numerous "key on" circuits, find one that you can tap and use it to power a three post solenoid (like you would get at a RV supply store that will be rated at around 40amps). Those type of solenoids are about $20.00 and any RV dealer that does hitches should have them.

Then run a large gauge wire from your battery to the solenoid and from the solenoid to your new fuse box. You would then have a new fuse box to add as many "key on" circuits as your new fuse box can handle. You would also not need a toggle switch in your dash for this as everything you add into the new fuse box would then be "key on".

Hope that helps.

 

i really dont think a whole fuse block is nessary unless our going to add a bunch of stuff and want a fuse for every single thing, especially since gauges dont use much amorage, howevery if you do go that root rather than using a switch to control the fuse box use the relay like i was telling about in my other post just, since you would need a realy after the switch anyays

i think using an rv silonoid is way overkill in this application most relays are also rated for 40 amps (silonoids usally are around 75 amps costent 125 momentary or more, warn winch ones are rated at 160 amps constent)

 

mostly I want the fuze block for ease of instilation as far as wireing goes. I dont like having to cut and splice wires here and there, and having to find new spots to draw power from. I just want to keep it simple. its the army's KISS method.

 

IMHO unless your putting in a ton of stuff the fise box is gonna make it more difficult, i dont see what you need so much power for. i dunno how many gagues your planning on putting in but i cant see them taking more than 20 amps tops, id run all the power wites together and hook them up to the relay, its only one conection into the fuse box whitch you can use a fuse tap for so you dont half to splice anything and will still keep everything looking neet.

now another thing a just noticed ( i was re reading this thread) the lights for the gauges you were talking about do you mean the back lights for them? cuz if so i would hook those power wires to the park wire on your headlight switch so that way the lights will only be on when the rest of your dash lights are on just a thought, a little extra work but may looke neeter