Columbia Electrical Question

If you want to tap un-switched power at the fuse box, you need some little do-dads called Fuse Taps. You pull out a fuse, lay the Fuse Tap against one of the blades, then put the fuse back in the box. Then you have a nice little spade to attach wires to.

The hillbilly way is to wrap a bare wire around a fuse blade and stick the fuse back in the box. Bad idea. Tends to make fuses loose in the box and can be a potential short circuit. I've been known to do it in a pinch on personal vehicles, but its not a permanent solution, and I do not recommend it.

You can also use those little click-splice things if you can get to the wires on the backside of the box, but its a whole lot harder usually. Fuse Taps are plenty safe. I've probably used thousands of them when I used to install car stereos and car phones.

Now, which fuse do you use? Stay away from ECM and other Computer related circuits, or anything safety related (ABS, AirBags, Whatever). Get out the manual if the slots are not labeled. I like to use fuses that feed existing cigar sockets or other non-critical accesories. Sometimes these are labled AUX (auxiliary), ACC (accessory), or sometimes you are lucky and they actually say Cigar or something similar. Like I said, get out the manual for the truck if you have it. If you have a little cheap-o test light or even a meter, you can more easily test for unswitched power. Sometimes the truck stops have test lights for less than $10 and its a good investment when poking around in the fuse box.

Ground can be anywhere that leads back to metal on the truck frame. Period. It can be tricky to find ground in a truck cab sometimes, because cabs are often isolated from the frame.

However, the best, safest source of unswitched power, hands-down, is going to be a wire ran directly from the battery(s). If you want to do this, goto WalMart back by the headlight bulbs and stuff, and buy a little fuse kit and 2 small spools of decent size wire. One spool of black, and the other red. Install the fuse as close to the battery as possible, within a foot or less if possible. Then run your power wire wherever you want it. Doing it this way, you can get all fancy if you want. Install your own switches, extra fuses on the other end of the wire, make a little custom cabinet that has 4-6 cigar sockets with switches on each of them and all their own fuses. Whatever you want.

And lastly, if any of this is over your head. Let someone else do it, PLEASE! You can burn your truck down, with you in it, maybe asleep. Bad way to go driver.

 

My fused accessories are powered from the studs that feed the fuse box (06 Columbia).
Never had a problem since the truck was brand new in June '05. Just be sure the accessories etc are fused, as a short will cause havoc with the electrical system otherwise.
I run an independent fuse block for accessories, powered from the live wire on the posts(s), with an inline fuse also.
LOT easier than tapping into the battery tray, and easy to hide the wiring behind the side panels.

Martin

 

Agreed, and MUCH easier than running leads under the bunk to the battery box etc. I just get paranoid when running power leads through metal, regardless of the rubber grommets I install etc.
My battery charger, which runs off my generator, is wired into the power inverter feed wires and works a treat too. Sometimes the easy way can also be the best way, or near enough to the best for me anyways.

Martin