Today I was playing around with cleaning the interior of my truck and noticed that my lighter didn't work. I don't smoke and I have two other outlets in this 01 Tacoma but I still hate it when something is not working right. Anyway I went through the ash tray hole and found that the wiring to the outlet was coming loose. Fixed it but I got to looking at the wires and they sure are small. I have run inverters, CB's, Soup maker and even an electric oven from the outlet with no problems at all . This oven will even bake a pizza it gets so hot! Never had any problems but it sure is hard to believe when I see how small the wiring is. Anyone ever burn one up or start a fire by running something from one of the outlets? Mike

 

I ran my refrigerator on a hot day for 10 hours and blew a fuse. It was really hot. I know better than that
I will have it rewired and on its own circuit next time!

 

That refridge had to draw alott of currant. I know that KC tell's people to tap into there cigg lighter hot wire to run there off road 46 series lights. They only draw about 8 or 9 w. But that wire still seems to small to me. Maybe they just make wiring better than they did years ago. I'm getting old!,Lol.

 

If it can't handle the load then it would blow the fuse. So you are protected there...But I agree with you, they are small.

 

Good point David and you have a great looking ride! Mike

 

Can you tell what size the wire is? I don't know what lighter circuits are typically fused at, but most utility outlets that I've seen are rated 120 watts so we're talking about 10 amps @ 12vdc. Even a copper #20 AWG wire can handle 10 amps, although I wouldn't consider it too safe, especially for continuous duty.

 

That outlet is protected by a bit of fusible link wire on the cig outlet itself, which will happily blow before causing any other trauma (as many of us have found; a truck air compressor did it for me!). Unless you replace the link wire with straight wire like Corey, you're safe on that score. And even then, you should be reasonably protected by the fuse at the box...

 

Thanks for the great info guy's. Guess I wont worry about what I use , just carry extra fuses. Mike