How to SAFELY make a power point (lighter socket) always-live?

[bimjim]

Hi, all...

Mine's a 2004 Camry SE... sweet!

Question: Is there a simple/easy (and SAFE) way to wire a cigarette lighter "power point" direct so it's always live??? At the fuse panel, maybe?

Reason:

On occasion my cellphone (used for road emergencies or necessary calls only, and never while driving) gets unused for a week or so and I head out without noticing that the battery is almost dead from holding while unused.

Since most of my trips (on my days off) are 20 to 30 minutes with stops of 20 minutes or more, it's not practical to leave the car running just to maintain the trickle charge long enough - the battery needs about two hours for a complete charge.

I had an oil change yesterday and the Toyota mechanic said they could not do it... all I want is a fraction of an amp for 2 hours with the ignition switched off, not to drain the battery with a car heater!!

Any SAFE ideas, anyone?

Jim

[ekim55121]

charge it at home, just remember to throw it on the charger every night n you will be fine

[BakaWill]

you may find it far easier to buy a truck utility socket(basically a lightersocket with its own harness) and just wiring it into your dash.

[Eye8Pussies]

well...why do you have to keep the car running just to recharge the battery?

all you have to do is switch the car to ACC....unless you mean you're not in the car at the time.


Personally, when I installed my ps2, I ran a fused 8ga wire from the battery to inside the car, and it runs two lighter sockets, both with power inverters hooked up as well, one permanently to my ps2, and one that I can use for whatever. as well, I hooked it up to a switch, so only when I want it, do I get constant power w/o the car on

[Tercel GTS]

Most cell phones have an optional power cord(not recharger) that plugs to the lighter. No waiting.

[bimjim]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I absoloutely cannot believe it's not as technically simple as moving a pigtail at the fuse panel to another slot - maybe there's even a spare (fuse slot).

But it could be that the dealership doesn't want to get into the liability taboo by having something non-standard wired into a standard vehicle (it's still under most of the warranty). If someone goes to make repairs later on, causes a fire and destroys the car they may see the dealer and/or Toyota as liable.

Add in a random gross idiot scenarios - hyuk, hyuk, retarded rural moron with a soldering iron in the back of the dash adding a gee-toar amplifier outlet and a welded-on smokehouse rotisserie, hyuk, hyuk, working next to a gas pump, with a stick of dynamite under his seat (yee-haaaaaa, maybe he blows up tree stumps for a living?? It could happen...) - and I can see that legally it's a minefield.

Minefield. Hyuk, hyuk...

Yee-haaaaaa!!

So since Toyota will not make the change I decided to leave it that way...

Instead I bought one of those (relatively) small sealed lead-acid battery powerpacks, the ones you use instead of a jump-start cable. It has a cigarette lighter "power point" on it, and fits under the passenger seat (or I might remote it in the trunk and run two cables under the carpeting from it, one for charging by the car, the other for the cellphone).

So I can plug the cellphone into that when I need continuous power, and the power pack will be charged intermittently whenever the ignition is on (the powerpack charging cord has a switch on the "power point" plug).

I guess I shoulda thought of that at the beginning...

BTW, if my memory was good enough to carefully charge the cellphone before I went out I wouldn't have been asking this question in the first place.

Thanks again, everyone...

Hyuk, hyuk!

BimJim