Need some help from you wiring guru's!

It's possible. One option if you're going to run switches for the accesories in the cab, but have relays to control their power, is that you could use an interior switched circuit to "power" the switches, then have the additional fuse block always hot and powered directly off the battery. that will stop anything from actually being "on" when the ignition is off since the switches will be cold when the key is off, and it won't be possible for the relays to close on the accessories (I've got all of my off-road lights wired this way as well as my in-cab winch controls).

There's virtually no danger from wiring accessories this way (half the factory systems on the truck are already wired like that anyway), and the risk of a short run of single wire developing any kind of a short is also virtually nothing.

 

This may be a stupid question but I'm grasping straws here. Does it matter which way the add a circuit goes? I'm getting 12v across the new line no matter which fuse I'm tapped into. Even tried the cab! What am I doing wrong?

 

It does matter, but putting it in backward won't cause a hot voltage from a switched circuit when the power is off, you'll just end up with the new circuit pulling current through the primary fuse instead of the secondary.

Inside the cab, if you use either the audio or the aux fuse for the add a circuit, you should only see voltage on the line when the key is in and the ignition is turned to acc or the engine is running.

 

So I've figured out which fuse to tap in the engine bay. I ended up using injection after some trial and error. The only two I found that were not hot during shut off were injection and ac. I tried ac initially and it worked good until I realized the accessory shut off when ac did. So injection and we are off to the races. I figured out how to get my switch into the center console beside ect but need a little help with wiring. My switch has a red wire for hooking into dash lights, so it back lights when dash lights come on. Where can I tap for this?

 

There should be a wire on a nearby switch which you can tap (red quick tap should work, I'd avoid T-taps, though), but on the 2016s I don't know what color would be the one. If you're near the center console, you could also tap the climate controls, pretty sure it's the solid green wire in that harness on the 2nd gens, but can't guarantee the 3rd Gen is the same. It might be possible to identify the wire by checking for continuity to the TAIL fuse on the inside block, but I've never actually tried it to be sure, otherwise look for a wire that turns on/off with the parking lights (first click on the headlight knob, which also turns the dash on)

 

Yeah I was looking at the ect switch but don't really wanna touch any of those switches. First off don't know which wire, and secondly those are like 22 gauge wires. I don't want to start farting around with anything that fine with my meat hooks. Only chaos can ensue from that. Maybe there is one under the dash or in the kick plate that I could grab? How would I go about finding that out? No idea where to start that search.

 

When I tapped into mine for the switches, I wanted to avoid actually tapping into wires. I used another add a circuit and ran it off the fuse in the cab TAIL. Then it only turns on with parking lights and headlights.

 

Do they dim with dash lights if you do that? That's what I'm hoping for. I do like that idea but don't know if it would work. I am pretty set on not tapping the other switches. Too thin and not worth the risk. There is that little light over the qi charger that dims with dash, and it happens to be right below where the new switch is going. I may try to tap that one, then if all hell breaks loose then that little light won't work anymore. No big loss really, Better than breaking my ect switch. Just have to take a look at it and see how many wires are there, then figure out which one to tap. I can't imagine that little light having more than two or three wires to it. With a voltmeter should be relatively easy to find the dimming one.

 

Not sure if it'll dim. Just depends on your switch! Mine is a basic one off Amazon, and all it does it light up with the dash lights, not actually dim. All the TAIL fuse is good for is sending 12v when you have parking/headlights on. You'll have to look at your switch and see if that's what it needs or not.

 

I mean does yours dim wiring like that? I know I could always just tap off my 12v power to illuminate the switch when the ignition is on, but I would like it to act just like the oem one. Just curious!

 

What switch do you have?

 

Tapping off the TAIL fuse is such an obvious idea now that I've seen it, I can't believe I never heard/thought of it before. Great thinking on that one.

This is another thing that might be different on the 3rd gen, but doesn't have much reason to be, so it's likely the same:

On the 2nd gen, the dash light dimmer is built onto the "ground" side of the circuit from the dash lights (possibly to avoid dimming the tail/parking lights, or maybe because of something with the instrument cluster lighting being on a different circuit but sharing the dimmer, I'm not sure), and it actually increases the potential on that side instead of reducing the supply voltage in order to dim the lights by reducing the potential across the lamps/leds. Because of this, after-market switches which are grounded to the chassis won't dim with the rest, and might not work if you do ground them out through the dash dimmer (not sure if the switch companies use dimmable LEDs in their components, so they might not work if you do find the right wire to ground them to).

 

Glad I could spread some knowledge around these parts

 

I bought mine from cruiserheads. It was a custom make, but is identical to mictuning. I want the lower led behind the words to dim but am having trouble. I won't tap into the tail fuse if it won't dim. I can just tap off my 12v power into the switch if I want it on with the ignition. That will work fine for no dimming. But there is a wire on the harness that is supposed to allow dimming with the rest of the dash lights. Just don't know where to plug it in. I was thinking about the light just over the qi charger that dims with the dash, thought it would be as simple as tapping into a variable voltage line that dimmed the light. But now I'm a little confused abut this variable ground I keep reading about. Is that on the 3rd Gen or just the 2nd?

 

Hey guys so I am looking to start buying the parts for my inverter install. I want to put a relay between my fuse and inverter so it will only run when the truck does. I'm having trouble finding a relay that I like. Really I could get away with 100 amp, but I don't wanna handcuff myself. I would like to go with a 150 amp since it's going to be fused at 150 amp anyway. I doubt I'll ever need to pull close to that through the inverter, by need to cover myself for a 10 amp 120v surge. That's 100 amp at 12 v. Because I need an inverter that will give me that (at least a 1200 watt) I want the system to be able to handle everything the inverter can put out. No point in buying the big inverter if I can't use all the power! Anyone installed something like that or have any recommendations? More importantly if you have had a bad experience with a relay let me know what to avoid! I'm not super picky but everything I have seen on Amazon has had mediocre reviews at best. Thanks for any suggestions!

 

You might end up needing to go with a solenoid switch instead of a relay to get the amps you'll need, but you'll want to have some margin between circuit capability and the fuse. I'd say if you're using a 150A fuse, everything else in the circuit should be sized/rated for 175A or higher. Also, this one will obviously not go through your fuse block since the whole block is probably only rated for a total of 100A (most tend to be rated at this level); probably a non-issue since there's not likely a compatible fuse at that amperage.

The fuse is there to keep everything else safe, so you want to be certain that it'll be the first thing to fail before anything else is testing its limits since everything manufactured has some tolerances involved; you don't want to risk getting a fuse that's a little on the high side with a relay that's a little on the low if they're both rated for the same current level.

One last thing is that if you're planning on pushing the inverter to higher levels of draw for extended periods, you may want to look into getting a dual battery setup and possibly a different alternator (the factory alternator probably won't be putting out that much current at idle speed, especially if you don't have the tow package). If you're planning to use this system frequently and extensively, it might even get to a point where it'd make more sense from a fuel-economy viewpoint to just haul a generator around.

 

Wow. Always count on you for a bit of wisdom. Where do I start lol. I'm running from my battery to a 250amp breaker I'm using as a kill switch to work on my system, from there I'm splitting to two fuses, a 100 and 150. The 100 feeds my blue sea fuse box, and the 150 is for the inverter. The inverter is going to be used mostly to charge kids electronics on road trips. The only exception to that is to run a sump pump for my house is the power goes out. That pulls 9 amp surge, 3 amp steady. For that reason I am going to go with a 1500 watt inverter. That will allow me to pull 12.5 amp, but I won't be pulling more than 5 steady, if that. As for the alternator, I have the factory upgrade for the tow package. I'm not worried about that. Especially with the low currents I'll typically be pulling. Just want to cover myself for running my sump in a power outage. Seeing as how I'm happy with everything except for a relay, what exactly is the difference between a relay and a solenoid switch?

 

A solenoid switch uses an electromagnet to move a piston that operates some mechanism, they can be used to run hydraulic or pneumatic valves as well as a high current electrical switch; in this application it's not really different from a relay except that it might draw a bit more current since it's using a bigger electromagnet than what most relays have (unlikely any solenoid will even draw a full amp unless you're dealing with industrial applications so the difference won't really affect any switch options but you wouldn't want to use 26ga wire to drive it, which you likely aren't anyway). Your inverter may have a built-in power on/off circuit that can be run off a remote switch, in which case you wouldn't need a relay/solenoid on its power supply anyway, though.

How long are your power outages? For a fixed use like that, I'd think a permanent backup diesel generator in the building would be a better and safer choice since it'll also power things like refrigeration and interior lighting. Just make sure you're not keeping the truck running for extended periods inside an attached garage or you'll risk filling the house with exhaust and all that comes with that. Built-in generators aren't cheap, but neither are good quality high-wattage inveters which are mainly designed for solar/battery systems in houses as well (and may be awkward to really install well in a vehicle).

As far as charging electronic toys, since most of those will be using DC converters, you should be able to get some kind of way to supply it off the 12V system or a 5V system run to USB ports (the companies that make the switches even make dual 2A USB port units that fit both the small and regular sized switch banks) in the truck without adding the step of an inverter; that even has the advatage of being more energy efficient since it eliminates the heat/inefficiency losses in at least one device (inverter or AC/DC adapter).

 

Currently I have a 1500 w inverter I run of a car battery to power the sump during power outages. Also works great for powering lights etc at the bush camp. That setup has worked so well I want to add it to my truck. Power outages aren't super long, but have had it in the past where I have had to disassemble my inverter battery box concoction to run the inverter off a vehicle. Depending on the time of year and how much the sump is running it has lasted almost 20 hours before I had to attach it to a vehicle. Like I said it's rare, but I would like the option. A solenoid sounds like way to go as I would like a kill switch in the cab that looks good and is easy to access as opposed to the on off switches I have seen come with inverters. I'll take a look and see what come up with. Thanks for all the help. Again. Lol