what would be the easiest way to rewire my cigarette plug to only feed power when the truck is on? meaning, i want to leave something plugged into the outlet overnight/all weekend. dont want it eating at the battery.

 

Hook up the power line to a relay, find a switched power line, tap it and run the relay off the switched power line.

Done.

 

Might be able to pull out the orginal outlet, rewire it to your fuse block that has a open switchable power source and put it back in.

 

pull what ever it is you want in it part way out unless yer using it

 

+1 on the relay.... i dont know in yours, but in the 2004-08, i can tap into the wire going to the radio, to trigger the relay.

 

I'd use a four prong relay, and some basig wiring. just use the same wires going to the cig lighter to power the socket, and just interupt with the relay. You'll need to ground one lead off the relay which is easy, because the whole metal part of the dash is ground. There is a wire on the back of the radio that has ignition switch on power, tap that and run it to the other prong on the relay. Not hard at all.

Kurt

 

And forgetting once leads to a dead battery. Better to take the human element out of the equation and know that you won't have a dead battery due to the device being plugged in all weekend.

 

LOL, I have done that before. Nothing like getting the battery charger out at 6am before work.

 

this ^^^ is y i want to do this...

 

Like said before, you will need to run a relay. It'll be really easy to do, power in from constant source(currently hooked to power outlet), a line out to the outlet, a ground line, and a line in that is PROPERLY tapped into a switched power source. Don't be the guy who just shoves a small tab in beside a fuse, tap a wire or use a real fuse tab.

I did this in my old car to charge my booster pack while it sat in the back seat all the time. That way it would charge while the car was running, but when the car was off it wasn't. So if the cars battery went dead it wouldn't also drain the booster, so I could start it still. Hell, i ran in that outlet with my own 8 awg wire, even with a almost dead main battery the car would start just by the power coming from the booster through the outlet.