Video on hardwiring GPS?

I haven't taken a peek out on Youtube yet (busy at work), but has anyone found video on how to hardwire a GPS?

I have a Garmin Nuvi 250W and I want to pass the power down the backside of the dash and splice it into the cig adapter. My local shop does this regularly, but I'd rather do it myself due to the fun factor and the fact that I clean things up better.

I guess what I need is advice on how to reach behind the dash with the wire, plus know what I need to do for the splice (just cut the GPS power cord and splice or find an adapter to splice into?)

 

couldn't find any videos... or any really good write ups either, but here is a method i just thought of:

this could be easily done by splicing into the stereo power cables (or any 12v power source), the question is do you want it to be powered all the time or only when the truck is on? what i would do is just buy a cigarette lighter extension from autozone like this:


and cut off the female end and hardwire it to the 12v cables and you would have an outlet under the dash, that way you wouldn't have to modify the original garmin cable, which could get hairy if it actually changes the volts and/or amperage... form there it's just running the wire up to your gps' location, i recommend doing this first to make sure your cables are long enough.

good luck, if you have any question feel free to pm me

 

I have my GPS hard mounted on a heat bend polycarbonate plate in the location where the garage door opener chamber is. I hard wired a 3 - way plug. One goes to my phone charger, which is in the pocket to the right of the steering wheel. I thn routed my power wire up through the passenger window pillar to the GPS. I also got an external antenna that's mounted to the inside of the windshield right beside the mirror, because the GPS wasn't picking up as well up under the roof of the truck like that...

To cover the mounting hardware, I machined a part out of plastic that snaps in...

As soon as I get a minute I'll snap some pics.

*The reason I did this was because I go hiking / biking a lot, and I can still lift the GPS out of its holder and put it in my bag...*

 

I hardwired mine with an "add a fuse". I just drilled a small hole behind the gps for the power and the aux input to my stero.

 

Excellent, that's what I was looking for.


Wormhole7, can I get a side picture of your mounting? I'm interested in knowing if you just used the sticky pad against the deck or found something I'm not aware of.


As I said, my original idea was to have the power cable come out where the dash and the windshield meet, but I might just mimic Wormhole7's idea - the stereo needs to come back out soon to hook up the amps, anyway.

 

I did use a sticky pad disc and just put it right above the cd slot.
I have had no problems with it so far and it's been there for about 6 months.
I am considering using a dremel and cutting a slot above the cd and mounting
an arm inside. I'll be sure and take pics when I get around to it. I did buy an extra complete radio with dash from someon on this site so that If I screw up, I'll have an extra to put it back to stock.