12V supply for UHF Radio

Picked up the power from the rear of the accessory socket on mine. You'll need arms of rubber though.

Steve.

Buy a length of twin insulated auto wire and run it through to the baterry and put a fuse in the positive lead.

This unit has a remote head - so will mount the unit itself under one of the seats - so will have to run the 12v to under there too.

I've already pulled out the glove box - but soooooo many wires! Looks like there are a few plastic connector plugs not being used - possibly for accessories for the Grande Model??? Anyway, 'spose a multi-meter will tell me if they're live.

In my travels as a prospector with my old Mav ute, I developed a sub fuse board for accessory and supplementary wiring feeds. This was an old fuse board out of wrecker Diahatsu. This was wired direct to the battery with high ampage cable - big stuff. The sub board was screwed into in the inner wing panel, under the drivers side wing of the Mav. The sub board takes the regular glass fuses but can suffer from rusty ends on the fuses if you use steel capped fuses and not the hard to find brass capped ones. I used to spray 'em with WD40 stuff often to try and prevent the rust, sometimes used "Fishoilene".

Once the sub board was established, it was just a matter of running any accessory or supplementary wiring back to this fused supply board for 12 volt power. I ran a fridge, a set of spotties (through a relay), an electric fuel transfer pump for a long range sub tank, HF radio, CB radio, all sorts of gear from this set up and each supply was individually fused. There are about 14 seperate fuses on the board and it worked a treat. Only problem was the steel capped fuses occasionally got rusty and had to be rubbed down once in a while.

I remember I had a set up for gear that I needed when the ignition was "Off" (straight off the cranking battery) and another feeder for when the ignition was "On". But I can't remember where took the high amp feed cable from for the former. I think there was a high amp spare wire in the loom very close the cranking battery on a Mav/Nissan. I seem to remember it was yellow cable and looked about 20 amp rating or more. The set up fed just everything I ever needed.

Bilbo

Whoops make "But I can't remember where took the high amp feed cable from for the former" into "But I can't remember where took the high amp feed cable from for the latter".

BTW - the fuse board was fastened inside the inner wing, in the engine bay and NOT outside over the wheel.

Bilbo

Drewsie,

I concur with Bilbo. The way to go is to establish a second fuse block for all your accessories. I attached my last set up to the second battery; therefore it was isolated by the solenoid; the down side was that you could potentially leave it on, just became a habit to turn it off whenever I stopped. When I do it next time (currently OS and will be back in Jan) my plan is to pick up the fridge and any other permanently connected bits off the second battery; i.e outlets for lighting etc and have a second bank for the other accessories, HF, UHF etc. You should be able to pick this up at the rear of your original fuse box. An old fuse box out of another vehicle should do the trick, or you could by two five bank fuze holders from an auto sparkie for a couple of dollars.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Craig

Thanks guys - much appreciated.

Often wondered what others did when setting up accessories. You often hear of the number of accessories and gadgets people have, but not how the electrics is done!

Cheers :-)

Run direct to the battery, easy as, get your pocket knife and just slit the gromet that has your wire looms going through it, run a single wire through to the battery, buy a water proof fusing housing from supercheap (blade type) and connect to battery, it'll take you half an hour tops, just earth it to the body. The rig is only 5watts max, it's not a big deal. Your going to have to run a cable throught the firewall for your coax anyway. Just use a dap of silicone to ensure water tight seal on the gromit when you've finished. You don't want the radio turning on and off with accessories either, you want it on all the time.

If you have dual battery you can run some 8 guage through the firewall and setup a disitrbution system to run all of your accessories.