I am trying to safely wire up some additional lights on my '97 F-150. Where is a good place to take power from without blowing fuses. I want to wire them up so they only have power with the parking lights. I'd like to tap power from the fuse block and use the fuse for the dash lites. I remember seeing a product that you could tap into a existing fuse. Anyone ever see this? Any suggestions?

thanks,
Jason

 

Yes I've seen it. They are commonly used at car audio type places. Any shop that does car stereo, two way radios, etc. should be able to turn you on to some. Remember when you install them that they can go on either end of the fuse. On one end they will feed directly from the fuseblock and the fuse will not protect the circuit. The other end will use the fuse to protect the circuit, but it will share the fuse with the original circuit the fuse was intended for. In other words if you add 5 amps to a 10 amp fuse that's already running 5 amps you are likely to blow a fuse. If you install a larger fuse to prevent this, you may melt something before the fuse blows. I would suggest installing the tap on the hot side of the fuse, and then putting an inline fuse on the new circuit to protect it. I hope you never have to go through it, but electrical fires suck.
There are also taps that can tap off of wire (tap-splice) but I wouldn't recommend them for anything but light load. (radar detector, etc.)
I know of a company named Del City Wire that carries this stuff but I don't have any of their contact info here with me.

 

The determining factor is what kind of lights and what wattage are they? If they are small indicator or decorative lights, you will probably be ok, but if they are driving lights of some kind, you will need a relay circuit. I have a few diagrams if you need to use a relay.

 

I agree with Franklin2 about the relay. When I was much younger I spliced a set of driving lights into my hi-beam wiring. Worked great until the heat built up and a circuit breaker in the headlight switch tripped. Super bright lights for 30 seconds, blackness for a minute. Since then I have learned alot about relays. They are still plentiful in the salvage yards, and you can get a good one in the parts store for $10. Some people can be easily confused by the relays but just think of them as an electrically powered switch that connects your load to a power wire. Put voltage and a ground on two small wires and the relay connects the two big wires internally.

 

Thanks for the help guys. The lights I was planning on adding were just decorative lights so I think I can get away with just tapping off the parking lights.