Ken the electrical guy Q n A

what is your concern with leaving them on all the time ?

mine are live 24/7 with no issues

 

The motivation for adding a "deactivate" function is twofold.

My primary reason is to minimize unnecessary power draw when I'm on travel for extended periods of time. This could be as short as a week, or as long as 6 months. I have a dash cam that runs 24/7 in parking mode, and will cut off when the battery drops below 12V. I'd like to stave off this voltage drop for as long as possible.

The secondary reason, which is less rooted in logic, is because I'm electrically inexperienced and an "off" switch is comforting. I assume de-energized circuits are less likely to start a fire.

 

If there nothing plugged into the outlet there won’t be any draw. There’s tons of circuits in your vehicle that are constantly hot. Having your cigarette outlets on or off doesn’t change this.

if you park your vehicle for long periods and want to keep your camera on you should buy a battery tender.

If you have your heart set on the mod I’ll draw you a diagram at work. Lemme know.

 

OK thanks for your input. This is great. If i do end up cutting the rca and replacing will i need the same type of rca jack as a replacement?

This is the head unit:
MVH-1400NEX_OperationManual062918.pdf

Here is the camera:
products.html

Thanks again

 

On page 92 it talks about the video signal going to the head unit. I attached a screen shot.

On page 105 of your head unit manual on the top right it talks about settings for video equipment. Try to go onto the headunit and play with the settings for the camera input signal. This could very possibly be the issue. Would also hold true with why it worked with other monitors.

 

If you’re willing, I’d be interested to see what’s involved.

 

This is one way that you can accomplish what you are trying to do. You'll have to cut the trigger wire on the back on the fuse panel. Then install a diode blocking back feeding from your "truck off on switch" which allow you to energize the relay with the truck off.

 

Would I need to add another diode to ensure power from the switch doesn't back-feed into the truck's ignition circuit?

 

In this configuration the 12v ignition circuit is protected by the diode. If we were to feed 12v+ to our key off outlet switch it wouldn’t have any adverse effects. Even if the switch was on we’d just be sending 12v+ to a 12v+ nothing would happen.

By putting the diode on the 12v ignition side we are insuring that we only power your outlet relay and not the entire key on circuit

 

@Kens04Taco, are you ready for another dumb question? I am chock full of them.

Would this work? Pardon my lack of artistic skills.

 

Does anyone here do custom wiring? I am looking for an adapter from factory fog lamp to led pods with a splitter.

 

Yeah that looks workable to me. When you put two relays in series you're creating a logical AND - both must be on for the thing to activate.

You could achieve the same effect with a single relay by connecting the high beam wire to your switch input, and then the output of that to the coil of the relay that runs your lights. Without the high beams on, the relay will never activate. The only power going through the switch is that which is running the relay itself.

 

That makes a lot of sense. I guess I'm kinda stuck on finding an appropriate high-beam-only circuit near the cab, since I want to avoid long wiring runs wherever possible. Just to keep things tidy, if nothing else.

Speaking of keeping things tidy, where are people mounting their relays? Is there some commonly-accepted way to secure them in the engine bay? I recall reading quite a bit about the Bussman RTMR, but am electrically illiterate enough to not know if this is an appropriate application for that sort of product.

 

Hey Ken, appreciate the help with previous questions. I've got another dumb question.

Is there any harm in upsizing wire while splicing wires?
I have some KC cyclone rock lights that came with a prewired harness but it's not long enough to reach the back. The supplied harness is 14 or 16 ga and I only have 12 ga currently. Is there any harm in splicing in a section of 12ga?

 

Hey there! I have yet another rock light related question...I posted another thread here (https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/need-help-with-rock-light-wiring.698823/) before I realized this thread existed! If you could please look over the diagram I posted in there I want to make sure that would work... Thanks in advance

 

Ken,

Thanks so much for putting this thread together and assisting all of us!


Some questions:

1. For AOB or similar switches, can I gang the trigger wires together to a single fuse tap? I am assuming so as this power is just needed to trigger the relay coil, which is a low milliamp draw, but let me know. I was just hoping to clean up multiple fuse taps in my cab fuse panel.

2. I have dual batteries with one in the bed and I want to clean up my wiring over the holidays. I want to move all my accessories to the house battery, so with switches in the cab, would I just run the AOB (green) to a 14 Ga wire to the bed and locate my relay block there? From there, I will run my load wiring out from the relays.

3. I have rack lights that I have switched from 3 locations; cab, bed and top of rack. I use the bed and rack switches when I have my tent on my truck. What is the best way to wire this setup? I want cab and bed switchable at any time, but the rack switch would need either cab or bed switch to be powered on. I have it working now, but it’s a lot of wire and each switch works based on which side of the power source I have tapped….just hoping there’s an easier/cleaner solution.


Thanks again for all your help.

 

You can always use larger wire than the manufacture supplies. Never smaller. You're good bud party on!

 

Hey bud everything is electrically sound. However There's some confusion I have at the switch. Theres a fused purple lead heading to the switch. Is this the illumination power to turn on the lights in your switch? Is this purple lead the fused input that were going to energize the relay with via the switch?

Also the red constant wire you have jumping from number 30 of your relay to the switch? same questions as above.

I have suggestions depending on your answers so lemme know.

 

The purple wire is to a fuse to power the lower lights when my headlights are on, I might leave that one disconnected because it always trips me up at night when I see the button illuminated...

The red constant wire is to have constant power to the switch so I can power the lights on with or without the truck being on. In the other thread I posted someone suggested that constant hot be drawn from a fuse as well but I am unsure which fuse would allow me to have power at all times...

 

Ken,

Thanks so much for putting this thread together and assisting all of us!


Some questions:

1. For AOB or similar switches, can I gang the trigger wires together to a single fuse tap? I am assuming so as this power is just needed to trigger the relay coil, which is a low milliamp draw, but let me know. I was just hoping to clean up multiple fuse taps in my cab fuse panel.

By AOB I assume you mean Air on Board and they are just standard rocker switches. To answer your question plainly yes, you can gang all of your switch inputs that will trigger relays only! You are correct the draw that is applied to a circuit that is energizing a relay or many relays is very small and can be grouped together. One solution is running a single wire tap for your switch input into the switch closest to the wiretap. Then from there just jumping from switch to switch. Ive done this many times and comes out the cleanest and at times most durable. If you have switches in multiple locations this may not be the best solution youll have to make a judgement call.

2. I have dual batteries with one in the bed and I want to clean up my wiring over the holidays. I want to move all my accessories to the house battery, so with switches in the cab, would I just run the AOB (green) to a 14 Ga wire to the bed and locate my relay block there? From there, I will run my load wiring out from the relays.

I have my dual battery set up with the battery in the bed as well. Heres how I did mine.

From main starter battery---BLUE sea ML-ACR---Housing battery located in bed.

I used 2 gauge welding cable to get from the ACR to the battery in the rear.

I built a switch panel that also works as a electrical box in one. All of my electrical components are mounted behind the switch panel. I've attached pictures for reference. The panel is installed on the driver side corner at by the tailgate. I used rivnuts in the sheetmetal and mounted most of the electronics away from the bed so I can still wash my bed and not fry my stuff.

This configuration has the fuses,relays,and other required components mounted close to the battery and is the most cost effective and efficient in my opinion. I did lose some bed space but eventually I'll fabricate a box under the bed with a door in the bed for the battery but until then this will work just fine.

Ideally you want to mount your relays and fuses as close to their battery bank as possible. Then all you have to do is run your 87 relay out wires to their respective accessories and the trigger wires. If you were to use a configuration like this you can run a multi conductor cable from the switches inside to the relays in the back. This would be a nice clean and single wire running from the cab to the rear for switching. I've used CAT6 in the past and has served me well but theres other options out there that are better just cost a little more.

I also included a picture of how I pass my large gauge wire through the bed and into my main power/maintenance switch. These are affordable and water tight cable glands. just need to drill a hole and theres a metal nut on underside. Easy, safe, cost effective.


3. I have rack lights that I have switched from 3 locations; cab, bed and top of rack. I use the bed and rack switches when I have my tent on my truck. What is the best way to wire this setup? I want cab and bed switchable at any time, but the rack switch would need either cab or bed switch to be powered on. I have it working now, but it’s a lot of wire and each switch works based on which side of the power source I have tapped….just hoping there’s an easier/cleaner solution.

You may want to look into a bluetooth control system like switch pro or a knock off version. Seems like a lot of extra wires going on. You can control all of these with your phone and you can power almost all of your camping stuff off of it. If you can swing it. look into it.

Thanks again for all your help.

You got it