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One more project finished.

Skandocious

Post Whores Make Me Sick
19,076
655
California
Whelp, got the flashlight hardwired into my truck and MAN was it a hassle... I made more work for myself because I also decided to FINALLY install a power distribution block under the hood (bout time). Turned out pretty good. I really had a hard time drilling and setting the screws in the floor... The insulation under the carpet makes for a very annoying job. Pics pics pics



Power dist block:
DSC01364.jpg


DSC01363.jpg




Oh and by the way... I LOVE this flashlight, its really incredible how much light it puts out.
 
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lil_dq

Let 'er eat boys!
6,933
265
Union, MO
yep broke pics!
 

lil_dq

Let 'er eat boys!
6,933
265
Union, MO
looks good bud!
 
3,121
67
Michigan
Good job. I like where u put it to. I think if i get one im gonna put it up by the front tunnel. Looks good tho man!
 

Skandocious

Post Whores Make Me Sick
19,076
655
California
Thanks guys! I was pretty surprised about how much the my truck DWARFS the light, lol. My brother's 3 or 4 D-cell Maglight looks pretty good cuz he put super duty seats in his truck (bigger) so the space between the seats and the jam fits the light PERFECT. Plus his mag light is a little more massive. Too bad mines about 20x brighter and half the weight :rofl:
 
yea, current pic was taken mid-install. it looks better now.

i tried to get it in the same spot, but i had issues with the map pocket on the door getting in the way. if i put if back far enough where the map pocket wouldn't hit it, it got in the way of people getting in the back seat when the seat slid forward.

EDIT: looked at that picture again - looks terrible. now there's just 1 wire you can barely see going straight up into the dash
 

slmann

Charter Member
13,472
232
Festus, Mo.
Looks good Chris. I really like this project. Anymore info you can provide, I might want to do something like this. How hard was it? Where did you get the power from?
 

Skandocious

Post Whores Make Me Sick
19,076
655
California
Sure thing! Bought a generic Buss 6 fuse power distribution block at Napa (in the electrical section near the fuses). The power distribution block just takes 1 hot wire (which I wired to the alternator with 10AWG wire) and then distributes that power to 6 spades, which you can see in the picture, with a fuse holder on each one of those circuits (you choose which capacity fuse to use). So I looked at the power adapter for the flashlight and it said it pulled 1amp, then I took the fuse out of the cigarette lighter and it was a 2amp fuse, so I decided a 5amp would be fine in the power dist block. It's kind of redundant because if the fuse in the cigarette lighter before it gets to the fuse block anyways.

So I ran the 10awg wire to the fuse block, then to a 5amp fuse, and then 14awg wire from the block into the cab. Here's the trick part. I bought an auxiliary cigarette light socket at Napa which I mounted under the dash. Took that 14awg wire from the block and wired it to the aux socket, then plugged the flashlight plug into it. Wired up my grounds and presto chango, flashlight is charging ;)
 
something to think about...what kind of battery is in your flashlight - or anyone's light that's planning on doing this. i hooked mine up to a toggle switch. my battery is they type you don't want charging all the time (ni-cad i think...google it). ni-mh you can charge all the time. again, double check. anyway, mine you're only supposed to charge when dead, unlike a cell phone that you can top off constantly
 

Skandocious

Post Whores Make Me Sick
19,076
655
California
Already researched it before I bought the light Tom :)

My light has a Lithium-ion which is okay to charge from any point at any time. It's also got a built in kill switch that cuts the power from the charger when it gets to a full charge, so I don't need to remove it from the charger when it's done, I can just leave it there all the time.
 

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