Question:

> Anyone know a quick and easy way to hard wire my radar detector to one > of the cigarette lighter jacks in my 1995 Explorer XLT?

Why run it to the cig. lighter? forget to turn it off and it will run the battery down. Run it to the fuse box on the left side of the dash and hook it in to the radio fuse. You can buy taps made to slide ofver the fuse leg that the wire can hook to.

Response:

Anyone know a quick and easy way to hard wire my radar detector to one of the cigarette lighter jacks in my 1995 Explorer XLT?

Response:

I had a 90 Mustang before my 99 Sport and I wired it to the windows and grounded it to the steering column and it worked fine…haven’t had time to hook it up to the sport yet. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Anyone know a quick and easy way to hard wire my radar detector to one > of the cigarette lighter jacks in my 1995 Explorer XLT? >Why run it to the cig. lighter? >forget to turn it off and it will run the battery down. >Run it to the fuse box on the left side of the dash and hook it in to >the radio fuse. >You can buy taps made to slide ofver the fuse leg that the wire can >hook to.

Response:

If you have an overhead light near the rear view mirror you can tap into the hot or switched wire.  Use Velcro strips to hold the detector to the mirror and  overhead light.  It is out of the way, high up for good detection and a neat installation – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Anyone know a quick and easy way to hard wire my radar detector to one > of the cigarette lighter jacks in my 1995 Explorer XLT? > Why run it to the cig. lighter? > forget to turn it off and it will run the battery down. > Run it to the fuse box on the left side of the dash and hook it in to > the radio fuse. > You can buy taps made to slide ofver the fuse leg that the wire can > hook to.

  trock001.vcf

< 1K Download

Response:

> Anyone know a quick and easy way to hard wire my radar detector to one > of the cigarette lighter jacks in my 1995 Explorer XLT?

There are a couple ways to do it– The easiest is to run the wire down along the molding of the windshield, on the driver’s side.  Cut the cig lighter plug part off the end, and then just attach the ground wire to a metal part of the vehicle (usually you can just loosen a screw and attach the wire to it), and attach the positive end to the fused side of the radio space in the fuse box.  This will make the radar detector come on and off with the key. There are a couple issues with that type of setup though.  First, some of the better radar detectors will draw too much power, blowing the radio fuse. This forces you to use a bigger fuse, but that may put your radio at risk. Also, the detector will turn on when you have the vehicle in ‘ACC’ position (to just listen to the radio), and that can get annoying.  The best solution is to use a 12V relay — run relay’s coil to the ignition fuse, and then use a straight 12V feed for the power to the detector. Mirage

Response:

instead of going to the cig jack, i went straight to the fuse box panel (left side of dash end next to door when door is open. Pick a accessory fuse that had power only when truck is running. Run the wire up the windshield header to hide. -Roy 95 xlt 4dr 4wd xlt with valentine 1 – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – >Anyone know a quick and easy way to hard wire my radar detector to one >of the cigarette lighter jacks in my 1995 Explorer XLT?

Response:

WHat do you think is the best thing to use use to hold/run the wire? When you say "the fused side" (forgive my ignorance) I’m not sure what you mean.  Thanks for all your help (everyone). Sean – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Anyone know a quick and easy way to hard wire my radar detector to one > of the cigarette lighter jacks in my 1995 Explorer XLT? >There are a couple ways to do it– >The easiest is to run the wire down along the molding of the windshield, on >the driver’s side.  Cut the cig lighter plug part off the end, and then just >attach the ground wire to a metal part of the vehicle (usually you can just >loosen a screw and attach the wire to it), and attach the positive end to >the fused side of the radio space in the fuse box.  This will make the radar >detector come on and off with the key. >There are a couple issues with that type of setup though.  First, some of >the better radar detectors will draw too much power, blowing the radio fuse. >This forces you to use a bigger fuse, but that may put your radio at risk. >Also, the detector will turn on when you have the vehicle in ‘ACC’ position >(to just listen to the radio), and that can get annoying.  The best solution >is to use a 12V relay — run relay’s coil to the ignition fuse, and then use >a straight 12V feed for the power to the detector. >Mirage

Response:

If I did it this way do I need a fuse tap or do I just piggyback it onto a fuse thats already present? – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – >instead of going to the cig jack, i went straight to the fuse box panel >(left side of dash end next to door when door is open. Pick a accessory fuse >that had power only when truck is running. Run the wire up the windshield >header to hide. >-Roy >95 xlt 4dr 4wd xlt with valentine 1 >Anyone know a quick and easy way to hard wire my radar detector to one >of the cigarette lighter jacks in my 1995 Explorer XLT?

Response:

Sean– I’ll summarize what others have written, with some little details that might help you. Stereo and alarm shops have the taps for the fuse panel.  I’ll warn folks who use these taps that they are wonderful, handy, clean, safe, etc… but once you install one, leave it installed forever.  The part that inserts into the fuse holder with the existing fuse will spread the fingers of the socket enough that just a single tab from the fuse may not make a good connection.  So once it’s in, it’s part of the car. The wire that comes with the radar detector is smaller than the radio fuse rating will normally accomodate.  It’s good practice to put a dedicated fuse in that line.  Many lighter-plug adapters have fuses installed.  Since you are going to wire direct, you may want to add that protection back in. The wire from the fuse panel runs behind the kick panel at the parking brake, up the plastic door trim, and behind the plastic molding inside the windshield pillar.  If you don’t have the overhead console,  you can snake the wire across above the headliner to one of the sunvisor clips, where you can bring the end out to where the detector will go. The end of the cable gets thrown on top of the upper visor when the car is parked and the detector is removed. And, last but not least, while this is a fairly simple project,  the little bits that make a clean installation may not be in your parts drawers already.  You may find that the best way to go is to have the stereo/alarm installer run the wire for you.  It will take them minutes while you may spend a couple hours getting parts and routing the cable right.  Certainly worth looking into in my opinion. dr bob wrote something like: – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Anyone know a quick and easy way to hard wire my radar detector to one > of the cigarette lighter jacks in my 1995 Explorer XLT? >There are a couple ways to do it– >The easiest is to run the wire down along the molding of the windshield, on >the driver’s side.  Cut the cig lighter plug part off the end, and then just >attach the ground wire to a metal part of the vehicle (usually you can just >loosen a screw and attach the wire to it), and attach the positive end to >the fused side of the radio space in the fuse box.  This will make the radar >detector come on and off with the key. >There are a couple issues with that type of setup though.  First, some of >the better radar detectors will draw too much power, blowing the radio fuse. >This forces you to use a bigger fuse, but that may put your radio at risk. >Also, the detector will turn on when you have the vehicle in ‘ACC’ position >(to just listen to the radio), and that can get annoying.  The best solution >is to use a 12V relay — run relay’s coil to the ignition fuse, and then use >a straight 12V feed for the power to the detector. >Mirage

Response:

What I did was to mount the detector to the left side of the windshield mirror, cut the cig plug off, ran the wire behind the molding in front of and above the sunscreen, took it back out in the corner where the sunscreen is mounted with 2 screws, took the screen off and tapped into the mirror light wire in the sunscreen. Very slick  and invisible, and the detector tuns off after abt. 2-3 minutes when you leave the truck. Good luck — Tor Langvand Torlo Solutions http://torlo.dynip.com

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Anyone know a quick and easy way to hard wire my radar detector to one > of the cigarette lighter jacks in my 1995 Explorer XLT?

Response: