Anyone mod their aux power so that it doesn't require you to have the key in the ignition with the car turned on?

Or is it easier to just string in a new aux power receptical direct from the battery?

I plan to swap the battery with a deep cycle optima battery as well. In the summer I carry an electrical cooler (not the cheap type but one that has a full compressor on it) that draws 0.7 to 1.7ah.

Thanx

 

If you plan on using something that will continue to pull current I would just power one directly from the battery and use good quality power wire as well. I would hate to have something like that cause a fire and ruin a good Fit!

 

Do you think the cable they use for the AUX power socket is rated at less than 2ah? Or 24Watts?

I had an Xterra and it had 4 AUX ports, 3 which were untethered to the ignition switch. I put in a deep cycle battery and never had an issue. Perhaps they use lower gauge wire?

Thanx for the suggestion though

 

It could work but I am very conservative when it comes to power and current overdraw. Honda uses 22 or 20 awg wire to the outlet but I would hate to have a melted wire when you add more accessories. I would run 12 awg or even 10 awg wire if I were adding anything. When I added an invertor to the Accord for the PS2 I used 8 awg to power it. I would just err on the side of caution.

 

Wire size is not a guessing game. Check out this chart to know what size you need:

Amps and Wire Gauge - 12V Circuit

Remember, Watts = Volts * Amps or Amps = Watts / Volts and for a car Volts = 12. You can check the rating on whatever device you want to power and know what you need. Wire gets expensive and hard to handle, so don't over do it, but don't under-do it or you can easily start a fire.