Best way to get battery power cable into passenger compartment

[JetsetBkk]

The vehicle is a Toyota Tiger pickup. Are there any grommets or other cables that anyone has used to do this?

I was thinking of the handbrake cable route. I don't want to start drilling through the firewall.

Or is there a route down under the engine compartment and up through where the brake pedal is?

 

Anyone done this?

[Yellowtail]

Why not follow the wires from the fuse box into the cab?

[pgrahmm]

I'd suggest finding a nearby Dynamo (Thai for auto elec)....

What are you pulling power to do? Heavy draw, or auxiliary lights?

I've had lights/switches installed with fuses so there has to be some of way through....

If it's just a power supply you might be able to tether off the cig lighter.....

[tifino]

sometimes the main loom (if it hasn't passed through the upper firewall) - instead is threaded out from the engine bay via the cavity in a front fender.  

 

Don;t ever use the grommet acces used by a handbrake cable or Speedo cable - due to abrasion/compression from tension changes of those cables

[JetsetBkk]

1 hour ago, Yellowtail said:

Why not follow the wires from the fuse box into the cab?

 

I had a look. The wiring loom is pretty thick and I was hoping to not force a hole in the grommet surrounding it. But that may be a last resort.

[JetsetBkk]

1 hour ago, pgrahmm said:

I'd suggest finding a nearby Dynamo (Thai for auto elec)....

What are you pulling power to do? Heavy draw, or auxiliary lights?

I've had lights/switches installed with fuses so there has to be some of way through....

If it's just a power supply you might be able to tether off the cig lighter.....

 

"Tether off the cigar lighter". That's exactly what I'm doing now ???? .  I've got a three way cigar lighter socket plugged in to the cigar lighter socket - like this https://bit.ly/308OBU3 

 

They are a front and a rear dashcam, and a radio transmitter that sends my USB MP3s to the radio.

 

They don't take a lot of power, but they cause problems when their contacts are intermittent, i.e. if one of them gets knocked and momentarily loses contact there is a power surge when it starts up. This has recently caused all dash panel warning indicators to come on while driving. I have to turn off the engine and on again for them to go off. This is what I have deduced - I don't have proof. So I want a separate supply from the battery rather than take from the cigar lighter or jumper off a fuse in the passenger compartment fuse box near the driver's door.

 

[JetsetBkk]

1 hour ago, tifino said:

sometimes the main loom (if it hasn't passed through the upper firewall) - instead is threaded out from the engine bay via the cavity in a front fender.  

 

Don;t ever use the grommet acces used by a handbrake cable or Speedo cable - due to abrasion/compression from tension changes of those cables

 

In my pickup, the loom goes straight back through the firewall in to passenger compartment. Regarding the cables - duly noted.

 

[Yellowtail]

8 hours ago, JetsetBkk said:

 

I had a look. The wiring loom is pretty thick and I was hoping to not force a hole in the grommet surrounding it. But that may be a last resort.

 

I would check it inside and out, then poke it trough and silicone around it. If you are coming direct from the battery, where will you put the fuse?

[tifino]

 If the final jobssealing of a disturbed grommet brcomes a problem -I'don't personally keep away from Silastics...

I use successfully : "Brush On Electrical Tape"  

It is sort of similar to Plastidip, but designed for proper water sealing of electricals. 

Silastics (Silicones) take too long to Cure; whereas the "BOETape" cures in minutes upon contact with air. 

[tifino]

1 minute ago, tifino said:

 If the final jobssealing of a disturbed grommet brcomes a problem -I'don't personally keep away from Silastics...

I use successfully : "Brush On Electrical Tape"  

It is sort of similar to Plastidip, but designed for proper water sealing of electricals. 

Silastics (Silicones) take too long to Cure; whereas the "BOETape" cures in minutes upon contact with air. 

Post Edit of autocorrect glitch... should have read as:

"I'd personally keep away from Silastics..."

[Daffy D]

On my Toyota Pick-Up there is a grommet with lots of wires under the passenger seat.

 

I threaded my wire through this hole/grommet and followed the existing wire along the cassis using cable ties to the rear.

 

 

 

 

[JetsetBkk]

4 hours ago, tifino said:

 If the final jobssealing of a disturbed grommet brcomes a problem -I'don't personally keep away from Silastics...

I use successfully : "Brush On Electrical Tape"  

It is sort of similar to Plastidip, but designed for proper water sealing of electricals. 

Silastics (Silicones) take too long to Cure; whereas the "BOETape" cures in minutes upon contact with air. 

 

Thanks for that info - haven't heard of any of that apart from silicon sealant. ????

[JetsetBkk]

4 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

 

I would check it inside and out, then poke it trough and silicone around it. If you are coming direct from the battery, where will you put the fuse?

 

I've got inline fuse holders and fuses. I haven't decided whether I would put one either side of the path through the firewall or just put one near the battery. I don't think one is needed in the passenger compartment cable. Any thoughts?

[JetsetBkk]

4 hours ago, Daffy D said:

On my Toyota Pick-Up there is a grommet with lots of wires under the passenger seat.

 

I threaded my wire through this hole/grommet and followed the existing wire along the cassis using cable ties to the rear.

 

 

Thanks very much! I'm going to have a look later. My pickup is really old - 2004 2.5 diesel, but still looks new and runs great. The only problem is the reg. book has run out of space!

[NanLaew]

1 hour ago, JetsetBkk said:

 

I've got inline fuse holders and fuses. I haven't decided whether I would put one either side of the path through the firewall or just put one near the battery. I don't think one is needed in the passenger compartment cable. Any thoughts?

 

Single fuse as near to the battery terminals as practical. If you put the fuse at the other end and there's a short circuit (+ve cable chafed on grommetless firewall penetration), then you will have a 2 meter long electric fire in the engine compartment.

 

I recently discovered the importance of having a fused cigarette lighter/USB charger when a short developed in the smartphone charging lead. The cheaper USB charger adapters may be incorrectly fused or not have one at all.

[JetsetBkk]

6 hours ago, Daffy D said:

On my Toyota Pick-Up there is a grommet with lots of wires under the passenger seat.

 

I threaded my wire through this hole/grommet and followed the existing wire along the cassis using cable ties to the rear.

 

 

The only wire under my Toyota's seat is for the air-bag device. But after looking around, I have found a good path. It is where the air cleaner intake control knob cable goes. I've never used the knob and it has always been set to "Inside Air".

 

     

 

At floor level you can see where it goes...                               and it comes out in the engine compartment...

   

 

Then it runs along the top of the engine to the Air filter.

 

I'll put an inline fuse near the battery connection. Then I'll have to sort out converting the 12v that the cheap cigar lighter units use to the 5v that the 3 devices need. 

[Yellowtail]

Yeah, I would use a single fuse close to the battery as well.

 

You could maybe put a couple of these in the glove-box or in the dash:

 

 

I like this stuff better than using nylon tie-wraps:

 

[JetsetBkk]

6 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

You could maybe put a couple of these in the glove-box or in the dash:

 

Actually, I do have a cigar lighter plug-in device with a couple of USB outputs. And just tonight I was rummaging around and found an old Garmin GPS that works, but haven't used for a while because I ran out of cigar lighter outputs to plug it into!

So I'll look into getting that wired up as well.

 

Its power supply can produce 2amps at 5v so I'll have to add up all the power requirements of the 4 (or maybe 5 devices) and choose a suitable cable from the battery. I'm currently thinking of a 2.5sq.mm cable that will cope with 9 amps. But if that is too close to what these devices need in total, I'll have to use a thicker one.

 

The power supply to produce the 5v for all the devices will probably be something like this:    https://bit.ly/2OhNRJD 

[Yellowtail]

8 hours ago, JetsetBkk said:

 

Actually, I do have a cigar lighter plug-in device with a couple of USB outputs. And just tonight I was rummaging around and found an old Garmin GPS that works, but haven't used for a while because I ran out of cigar lighter outputs to plug it into!

So I'll look into getting that wired up as well.

 

Its power supply can produce 2amps at 5v so I'll have to add up all the power requirements of the 4 (or maybe 5 devices) and choose a suitable cable from the battery. I'm currently thinking of a 2.5sq.mm cable that will cope with 9 amps. But if that is too close to what these devices need in total, I'll have to use a thicker one.

 

The power supply to produce the 5v for all the devices will probably be something like this:    https://bit.ly/2OhNRJD 

 

So you would install the power supply, cut the ends of the charge cords off and wire-nut them all together?

[JetsetBkk]

2 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

So you would install the power supply, cut the ends of the charge cords off and wire-nut them all together?

 

Yes, that's what I'm thinking. The 12v to 5v DC-DC device would be mounted in the passenger compartment, probably down by the air intake control knob, and the power to the two dashcams and Garmin device will be connected to the 5v output via individual fuses. The USB radio transmitter device requires 12v so that may have to stay plugged in to a cigar output, unless I take it apart and determine that it has a 12v - 5v converter inside and, etc, etc.) Or I could always change the radio to one that has a USB input! ???? 

 

Here's the current setup: 3-way cigar output with two dash cams and the radio USB transmitter -

The other wrinkle is that I'd have to have an on/off switch before the DC-DC converter in the passenger compartment because normally the devices go on and off with the ignition.

 

[Yellowtail]

1 hour ago, JetsetBkk said:

 

Yes, that's what I'm thinking. The 12v to 5v DC-DC device would be mounted in the passenger compartment, probably down by the air intake control knob, and the power to the two dashcams and Garmin device will be connected to the 5v output via individual fuses. The USB radio transmitter device requires 12v so that may have to stay plugged in to a cigar output, unless I take it apart and determine that it has a 12v - 5v converter inside and, etc, etc.) Or I could always change the radio to one that has a USB input! ???? 

 

Here's the current setup: 3-way cigar output with two dash cams and the radio USB transmitter -

The other wrinkle is that I'd have to have an on/off switch before the DC-DC converter in the passenger compartment because normally the devices go on and off with the ignition.

 

 

Why do you not want to  come through the fuse-box? 

 

Are you planning on turning it off and on every time you get in the car?

[JetsetBkk]

59 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

 

Why do you not want to  come through the fuse-box? 

 

Are you planning on turning it off and on every time you get in the car?

 

I don't want to use power through the fuse box because of the number of devices using the power. 

Yes, a push button switch near the drivers door would do. There's already a panel there, so easy to install it there.

 

[canthai55]

Use a relay on the incoming battery power, controlled by a ignition on switched circuit in the fuse panel

[JetsetBkk]

2 hours ago, canthai55 said:

Use a relay on the incoming battery power, controlled by a ignition on switched circuit in the fuse panel

 

Hmm, that's a good idea! There is an instrument panel fuse box on the driver's side:

The yellow one in the left column in the middle is for the dashboard. It kept blowing so I uprated it to 20A. I think there was too much on-rush current with all the devices plugged in to the Cigar lighter.

 

So I could try to find a spare switched circuit or piggy-back off the existing dashboard fuse using one of these to power the relay:

 

I'll investigate relay types now. Cheers.

[Yellowtail]

A relay is what I would do, ideally with an off & on delay. A few seconds before it comes on to allow the car to start, and it stays on a few minutes after off so your stuff stays on for a while after the ignition is off.