If he was to go to this extent, why not just use upfitter #1, which has a relay, tie to the pass through wires that lead to the fuse box area and then go under the truck to the bed. Alternately, you can pick up a hot from the 7 way wires already in the back of the truck....

 

Are the upfitter switches always hot? Thought they went off with ignition.

 

They are off with ignition. The relays on the 2011's are under the dash, so that is why I would like this.

 

I'm a pretty simple guy when it comes to electricals, even the 12 volt kind. So, I was hoping to plug a cord into the power outlet in the rear under-seat storage box and lead it into the bed. Nothing more complicated than that.

 

If you're looking at something that simple, I have a Ham radio antenna at the front of my bed, just behind the front driver's side stake hole. I ran my antenna cable in the front stake hole, back into the bed, and through the driver's side front grommet hole at the front bottom of the bed. From there, I passed it through the cab vent behind the rear seat. That vent opens and closes with only a very lightweight cloth of some kind. It basically lifts open with a breath. The coax connector was a tight fit through there, but it went. From there, it goes directly under my rear seat where I have my radio.

I tried to use that 12V plug for the radio, but it draws way too much power and melted the plug. I ended up wiring the radio directly to the battery, which I should have done in the first place. I'm slow sometimes, but I do learn.

 

OK, now that I can envision doing without harm.
Thanks

 

I have not yet finalize my wiring plan too as my 5th wheel wiring kit will arrive from Ford tomorrow. I already have 6 LED strips installed ($18 for pair of strips) under the Bakflip rails. It runs on small battery for now and looks good.

Yes you are right, the trailer connection will not give power until ignition is on. And I do not really want to wiring thru the cab. So here is my plan:

LED lights will connect to running lights on trailer wiring with its own switch and inline 1 amp fuse. I have changed the time out from 20 to 180 seconds in driver console window which should be plenty. If lights go out in 3 mins and I still need lights, I can press unlock button on remote again.

The 12V cigarette socket will connect to trailer's 12volt. I can live if it does not have power when key is out. Cooler will work while traveling. I will use 10 amp inline fuse.

This way I don't have to "touch" F350 wires. Only the 5th wheel wiring kit will be modified to provide two more grounds and one 12v dc and one running lights before hooking up to the truck.

The wires are tucked away behind Bedrug carpeting.

 

edjunior - I have a 2012 f350 and am trying to get a coax cable through the vent that you mentioned in your post. Did you need to remove the rear fabric that is on the back of the cab to gain access to that vent? Just wondering how you got to it. Thanks
Steve

 

Steve - yes, I had to remove the fabric. It just kinda pops out. Just be careful when popping it out, you could ruin the tabs (or whatever they're called). But it's pretty simple. Then there's a vent "cutout" that the coax comes through the fabric. Pretty nice of them to do all that actually.

 

Thanks Ed, I will give it a shot.
Steve

 

I just came across this thread. Interesting read-through.

I just ran a run of LMR-240Ultra from the top of my cap (Leer 180 with a Thule rack) through the drivers side vent hole. Actually, it is going to be removed as soon as I get to un-packing from Field Day.

The trick to passing a PL-259 through the vent is to hold the flap open and get the PL-259 to tilt IN to the opening. This is the hardest part. I've tried using a fish tape to no avail. The best route I came up with is with a string believe it or not. I tie the string on to the coax behind the connector then throw a half hitch in over the center pin. It takes some work, and a small flat blade screwdriver to position it further, but it will go.

Back to the original question of passing a wire from the rear of the cab to the bed (and the question is out-dated by several months but I will throw my 2 cents worth in, if it is worth that much):

1. Don't come off the cigarette plug unless all you are going to run is a cell phone charger.

2. Come off the battery for anything more than a cell phone charger.

3. FUSE the wire off the battery - close to the battery!!!!

I have my bed wired up with all kinds of things. I used some scrap cable from work for my bed wiring. It is 2x 18 gauge twisted pairs (CAN HI, CAN LOW, +12v, and ground (black), along with a cable ground - bare). The 18 gauge wire can not take any sizable current the length of the run - maybe around 25-30' all said and done. It is good for lights only, but I do have a PowerPole port run off it also that I can use for accessories. I keep a cigar plug on it for my phone chargers when I am camping, and frankly that is all I am comfortable running off it even though the supply fuse is 10 amps (for all the wires, not just the PowerPole port).

The number one problem when it comes to running devices with lengthening DC wiring is voltage drop. Fusing for overload (too much current) for safety is a given, but a lot of people don't pay any attention to voltage. I say this because even if your battery(ies) are over 13 volts if you go to pull a 5-8 amp load through 18 gauge wire that is 30' long you sure won't have 13 volts at the device, much less 12 volts.

My power inverter has a low voltage cut off at 11 volts. I run 10 gauge wire to it most of the time. At rest the voltage is a hair under 13 volts. If I try to run a power tool off of it in that configuration the inverter cuts off. There isn't enough voltage left to push the current through. I have a 2x parallel run of 10 gauge wire I use with heavy duty battery clamps for the higher current devices - which requires popping the hood to run.

There is a post over in the 6.7 forum I have with my radio install (do a search with my username and ham radio) if it would help anyone regarding Ham radio installations. These are FANTASTIC trucks for radio - when I am out in the open country the 6.7 is amazingly quiet on the bands. The hard part is finding quiet spots - away from power lines especially - to notice

 

No reason to avoid the upfitter switches. #1 and #2 are rated to supply 30A each.

 

If it were me, id run it off an upfitter switch, use the existing pass through wires that go into the firewall, then you can tap off those and run to your bed, up your front stake pocket and out the hole in the side of the pocket. The reasons for this would be:

Fused System (a must have in my opinion)
Cleanliness of install,( I like my truck to look stock on the inside, and stock on the outside, but not be stock. )\
ease of installation (i really cant think of a much easier way of doing it, except maybe dropping it though the grommets under the sill covers, that would be equally easy.)
I would use the stake pockets because they would be 1, easy to do, and 2. convenient when needed. Think air mattresses, coolers, air compressors, led lanterns, etc etc etc.
The ability to turn the system off and on on the fly Without getting out of the truck (like if you wanted to use it for an electric cooler, and you want your "pop" cold when you arrive at the campground, you could flip it on like 45 minutes before you got there, and that's just 1 of about 100 examples i could use that for.)

 

I highlighted key points....


Upfitter switches, 30A enough said.

18 gauge wire is only good for things that use very low amperage. if you use your upfitter switches you are good to 30amps, i would run a pretty nice wire back from the switches to eliminate (or lessen actually) DC voltage drop, 18 gauge at 30' of wire pulling 20 amps will yield

Voltage Drop = 11.52
Voltage at Load = 0.4800000000000004




No heres the numbers ran at 14G wire.

Voltage Drop = 4.50
Voltage at Load = 7.5



Now to be more realistic lets say that you are running basic camping tools etc in your rig, lets run the numbers for far less amperes, say 10 amps max.



Heres 14g wire at 10 amps 30' long

Voltage Drop = 1.50
Voltage at Load = 10.5


and here it is with 18g wire
Voltage Drop = 3.84
Voltage at Load = 8.16




No lets pull 5 amps and see the drop.


14g wire
Voltage Drop = 0.75
Voltage at Load = 11.25


18g wire
Voltage Drop = 1.92
Voltage at Load = 10.08


all of these figures are assuming you are at 12v exactly, you can figure on 13.5 with the rig running, but you always lose a bit on your connectors and switches etc, so thats why i just ran the numbers at 12v.



But the only way to tell for sure is to test under load, so load it up, and put your volt meter on it, i would bet you lose a pretty good chunk, but it wont be terrible either. Like i say, it depends 100% on what you are pulling for a load, you will never pull 30 amps out of a ciggy lighter unless you are trying to jump start something with it, but then again, you will probably never see 10amp, so if you use the appropriate upfitter switch, put it to 10a and forget about it, the fuse is just there to save your bacon in the event of a serious short.

 

Since I no longer have upfitters can someone test this:

Pull 30 amps from an upfitter and measure the unloaded and loaded voltage at the connection point? (not the load, where the supply wire to the load is connected to the Upfitter wiring)