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[dbdb]

I've just fitted a permanent power supply for my sat nav, to stop having to plug it in to the cigarette lighter.

One tip here was very helpful, don't cut off the plug and simply wire in 12V, as the plug transforms 12V to 5V which the sat nav uses. 12V direct would likely blow it.

What I couldn't find out here was which wires to use (I have wired it to the under steering column fuse box).  It turns out is was very simple - open and lower the fuse cover, undo two crosspoint screws, gently pull down the fuse box itself and you see together one red and one black wire, about middle top of fuse box.  The black is earth, the red is permanent live.  I cut those and rejoined them wiring in a cigarette lighter socket (cheap on ebay) and plugged in the sat nav socket to that.  The socket and plug and spare wiring then fit neatly in the cavity behind and below the fuse box.  I also have an inline fuse in the socket supply. Highly recommended to disconnect battery before doing this but I couldn't be arsed.

The sat nav itself fits neatly under the dash  cover, just below the car information screen.  It still sees satellites through the vinyl coated foam dash cover.

[Lazydocker]

I used to do this for all my cars... I tend to run my feed from the back of the cig lighter socket though

[zirk]

I used to do this for all my cars... I tend to run my feed from the back of the cig lighter socket though

Via a rated Fuse,  .

A friend of mine wired one of those I million Candle Torch charge cables to the back of his cig lighter to his Transit, something went wrong, cable melted and set some job sheets and the passenger seat in flames, luck had it he managed to catch it in time when walking back for some bits out of the back and saw the inside of his Cab full of smoke and flames.

Embarrassing for him, as his a qualified 17th Sparks, so he should have known better.     

[Lazydocker]

I used to do this for all my cars... I tend to run my feed from the back of the cig lighter socket though

Via a rated Fuse,  .

A friend of mine wired one of those I million Candle Torch charge cables to the back of his cig lighter to his Transit, something went wrong, cable melted and set some job sheets and the passenger seat in flames, luck had it he managed to catch it in time when walking back for some bits out of the back and saw the inside of his Cab full of smoke and flames.

Embarrassing for him, as his a qualified 17th Sparks, so he should have known better.     

Yep, fuse in line to the new socket, fuse in the item plugged in  Oh, and because it's from the Aux Socket feed it's also fused at the fuse box