Fuse Taps

[mattnz]

Has anyone here used these before? Any particular issue with VR4s?

[CANDEE]

What exactly are you talking about?

[wintertidenz]

You mean one of these?

http://www.jaycar.co.nz/productView.asp?ID=SF5125

Personally I'd rather run a separate fused wire from the battery, than take a feed from something else.

[mattnz]

Sorry, forgot to put in the link :)

That's what I was looking at. Running a separate wire from the battery seems like a lot of work compared to just taking 12V from the interior fuse box.

[Nick Mann]

How much power do you need?
If it is less than one amp for some led lighting then the interior fuse box should be fine. If it is a powerful amplifier then straight from the battery is the only sensible solution.

[CANDEE]

For an amp you should run is separately to the cars power... its not that hard in a vr to run the wire. Try doing it on a CF4 Torneo...

[mattnz]

It's for a USB charger, so I suspect that it will be fine, providing a suitable fuse is found. I do have a separate fused wire from the battery for my sub amp, I don't know why it's been assumed that I plan on tapping the fusebox for a power amp or george foreman grill :P

Although I'm a bit disappointed I didn't know about them when installing the gauges.

[Nick Mann]

Why not splice in to another circuit? The cigarette lighter and head unit circuits are both convenient for dash area stuff, choice would depend on current requirements I guess. I have used those for my couple of bits and bobs in the past. Most circuits have some headroom from a current point of view, so providing the fuse on that circuit is appropriate it shouldn't be a big deal?

[mattnz]

From what I can see, putting in a fuse tap is effectively splicing into another circuit, but has the advantage of being easily removable (as well as not relying so heavily on my soldering skills haha)