BTOWN4RUNNER

I am thinking about adding some power outlets to my 4Runner. Right now I have a 3-way splitter there now. The reason being that for the fire department, I use a rotating blue light and a blue strobe light. The problem that I am finding is that it is just a pain in the to have to plug them in everytime. I do not want to hard wire them to a switch, because it is just not worth it. So what I am looking for is a "outlet set" of two outlets that are hardwired to the fuse box, battery, etc and each outlet has an illuminated switch to turn it on and off. Does anyone know/have something like this and where did you get it at. Also, with the splitter that I have now, it seems as if the power is not as strong to each light when they are both on than if one would be plugged in. So I am guessing that each light is not getting the whole 12 volts. My question is that if I were to get the hardwired one, would they be getting the whole 12 volts. Because the splitter works off of one outlet and into 3, then the hard wired one would be just like adding two more. Is this correct? Thanks for the help. :fireman:

HBoss

My understanding of it is yes. All 3 will have the full 12 volts available. I believe this is where electrical current is different from say, television cable, when it comes to splitting. It's all in your wiring at that point. If you are using all 3 sockets, each at full power, ya'd better make sure your power & ground wires can handle it & don't fry on you.

Like a power bar out of a wall socket, allowing you to plug in various items. Each of those items have full power access, but if they all actually fully-utilized it, it'd probably trip the circuit breaker.

Just my thoughts on it for you.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Ryan, see the Tech section here, and look under the "Electrical" area.

I have two articles in there that may be if help to you

One is for a duel 12v outlet that is wired up hot full time, and the other one is how to wire up an extra fuse box under your hood.

The extra 12v outlets can be wired to the new fuse box.
Works for me, and I have a lot of stuff wired to the extra fuse box such as my CB, 3 sets of off road lights for the switches, the Warn Power Interrupt for the winch, and of course the incab duel 12v outlets.

I use the incab outlets for the GPS, and for charging a spot light.

Doublepump

I can answer the electrical part. If it is wired in parallel, then all sockets will have the same voltage, as if there was just the one, but they all share the amps. Now if it were wired in series, the amps would all be the same, but the voltage would be shared between them. A splitter like that would be wired in parallel. Easy way to check the volts is with a multimeter.

Los Gatos?

And you have no circuit breaker if it's hard wired straight to the battery!!!

Firefyter-Emt

Hey from one FF to another.. this is easy, Strobes take very little in the way of Amps.. What I run is clear strobes in the headlights, a traffic backer in the rear, (had a dash light on the windshield but got sick of it) and a wail/yelp sieren all mounted in the switches in my center console.. (there was a post floating with the photos.. If not go to my site and look under the rosewood dash page).. Anyway, I would buy the seperate cig lighter sockets with the metal bracket.. These can be mounted behind your pocket under the radio eaisly.. Install switches in the center console that operate these outlets and plug in your accesories into them.. You can also mount a small fuse box under there and power it off the batttery (just put a 30amp breaker near the battery to protect the wire feed) This would suit your needs perfect and looks very sano, and will not damage the truck nor will you see anymore than the switches..

The DPDT switch on top is for the wail/yelp which is run off a remote siren.. this was a pain because of the way the factory switch worked, I had to use a relay to do what I needed to do..

I did have to relocate the rear window switch to the dash, this was quite easy.. I just cut the plug off the harness, ran new wires fron the center console to the dash (where my clutch switch used to be) and solderd the new to old.. I left that stupid lock out hanging under the console.. Does anyone ever use that??)

Drop me an e-mail if you have any Q&A's...




And here is my hidden scaner.. I run an external power to it, external speaker, and a full length 33.62Mhz antenna on the fender to pick up our town the best..

Firefyter-Emt

PS.. the fuse box is held in place with a good dab of silicoln and stuck to that bracket.. The block is powered with 1 wire for all 6 outlets and is cheap and very sweet..

Also, the lower switches run left to right as front strobes, dash light, traffic backer

Wow.. those are some old photos.. They pre-date the leather swap and the rosewood dash!!

BTOWN4RUNNER

Thanks for the tips guys! I really appreciate it. I will have to look into getting the power outlets. We can order them at my work, and I will see what I can find. I think it will be alot easier than having to plug everything in and all.

Lee,
Thanks for the great ideas. That is really sweet what you did there. It is a great idea. I have my scanner mounted under the radio. It is a Uniden Bearcat 350A scanner. I love it. It looks good too. So I was thinking of mounting the outlets under the steering column cover, almost right between my feet. I will have to see what I can come up with. Thanks again! :fireman:

ManyMods

If you are going aftermarket for the 12V outlets, John Deere has some really good quality weatherproof outlets with covers. I have used them on motorcycles and they don't rust or fall apart like some of the crappy AutoZone (etc) stuff does. I would probably try to get the Toyota 12V outlets, like the one in the rear, if it wasn't going to cost something ridiculous.