Hey all,
Just got done with my install yesterday and took everyone`s advice. Bought a new Garmin GPS nuvi 1260T and wanted to hardwire it in. I hate having the wires show. A side note...Garmin is coming out with something called an Ecoroute HD this month. You attach it to the OBD port (it`s about 4 inches long) and through bluetooth you can get GAUGES on your GPS! Like water temp, intake manifold and so on...kinda like a Scan Gauge but in opinion better looking.
First, I researched a mount for the GPS and for me, I wanted to install it by the left side of the tach. Someone on another forum had mentioned GoMiniGo.com had great mounts. Went to the website and I called. Alan called me back within a half hour. He was very informitive. Basically, I had asked him whether to mount a 4.5 screen gps or a 3.5...which one would fit better? He offered to take photos of his 3.5 screen in his Mini and email them to me to check out which he did! Thats when I bought the new Garmin.
Bought a straight armed left side mount for the Garmin. I received it within a few days of order. The install for the mount went very smooth. I can`t recommend GoMiniGo.com enough!
Then, I read through this forum and followed the hardwire procedures. Was able to put on the Add-A-Circuit easily to fuse F32. What I did do different was that I attached an alligator clip to the ground wire for the female cigarette lighter plug and clipped it to that inside metal piece in the upper left of the inside fusebox area. I wasn`t comfortable drilling or soldering in such a tight space. The clip worked out great!
I hid the wires in back of the glove box area above the passengers footwell and through the back of the centerstack to the drivers footwell then up through and behind the steering wheel. There was enough space to get the wire through the small crack by where the steering wheel tilt adjustment lever is.
It all worked out great, and I thank everyone here! And this is from someone who didn`t even know where the friggin` fusebox was!

 

^^^ only a few questions.....

#1 - why not throw up any pictures?

#2 - I'm not sure what kind of "alligator clip" you are talking about, but I don't think I'd be "clipping" any type of ground wire on the inside of my fuse panel where most (if not all) wires are hot when the ignition is on.

A ground does not have to be in the fuse panel.....ground it to anything metal and scrape the coating off the metal first....also keep the ground wire as short as possible.

 

When I get a chance, I`ll snap a pic.

BTW, that piece of metal the clip is on isn`t on the fuse panel , but located a decent distance away from the panel itself. Plus the clip is very secure...I wouldn`t take any kind of chance if I thought it would come off. Its hard to even get it to move. But now you do have me paranoid and I`ll check it out periodically. Thanks for the heads up.

There aren`t any metal parts or screws that go into metal anywhere in that vicinity or under the glove box to attach a ground to.

 

I used the screw to the right of the glovebox, only visible when the glovebox is open, for my ground. Used the same strategy for hardwiring mine in, although I did not use a female lighter socket - I got a wire that goes straight into the fusebox. I did have to give up traffic doing that, but that was not a big deal to me. Having the original cable, suction cup mount, etc., available was useful just this past weekend when I had to use the Garmin in my wife's minivan

 

Just curious...

Why would you add a circuit and add an additional accessory socket?

Why wouldn't you just get a bare wire power cord or modify your "vehicle power cable" (cigarette lighter adaptor) for the GPS then tap into the power for the existing accessory socket?

 

Xeraux,

I think the reason people use the additional accessory socket is so they can preserve the original power cable that comes with their unit. Wire in an "accessory" socket and hide it up under the dash somewhere. Then use the original power cable. Should you ever need to pull it out for some reason, it is undamaged.

With mine, it came with a traffic antenna built into the power cable. I didn't want to go the accessory route or cut up the power cable, so I just got a bare power cable and wired it in direct to the fuse box. That's why I lost traffic service as the bare power cord does not have the traffic antenna. I thought about buying a second cord with the antenna and hacking it up, but they run ~$80. The power cord itself was like $10.

 

Gotcha.

I was just wondering if there was something I was missing.

I always end up buying an extra cable or two, so I'll probably just hack one for a cleaner install. The accessory socket is a switched and fused power source and a heck of a lot closer than the fuse panel.

I don't really care about the traffic service as my city doesn't participate and when I've used it in other cities, it rarely helped. The slowdown I was in either wasn't reported yet or had already cleared, but the "Caution" icon was still showing. When I moved from a Garmin StreetPilot 2820 to a Garmin GPSMap 478 on my motorcycle, I didn't miss losing the traffic feature.

 

I recently hardwired my TomTom 330xls. I used the cigarette lighter adpter and the add-a-fuse. Initially I had the add-a-fuse in F20 but I did not like the fact that the GPS did not turn off when I turned the car off. So I moved it to F30 which is for PDC. I do not have PDC so I thought that was a great place for it and the power turns off when I turn the car off so my TomTom automatically turns itself off.

Even though the Craven Speed Flexpod parts are expensive they work very well and are easy to install. $155 for a W shaped bracket on the back of the tach, an arm and mount for the Scangauge and an arm with a ball on the end for the TomTom GPS. BTW you need to use the stock mounting ring from TomTom. You just remove the ball with the suction cup attached to it.

I had the add-a-fuse and cig lighter adapter for more than 9 months and finally decided to do this the other day. Now its nice and clean. See pics:

 

For all who use things like "Clips" to permanently attach wires to a circuit. From an electronic technicians point of view a loose connection in a circuit creates more resistance in the circuit and therefore makes for higher currents, excessive heat in a circuit and blown fuses. I would NOT make a temporary test procedure permanent.

S.

 

Hi,

Would someone mind giving me some help? I'm interested in the Kuda mount but before I buy it I would like to see how it is attached. As I understand it, there are clips that hold it down. Does someone have a picture of these clips so I can see how they work?

Thanks...