ok so ive got a ton ... TON of little gadgets on my truck. its a 2000 f-150 xlt with power windows and power locks cruise aftermarket stereo 1000watt amp, nav system, fog lights, offroad lights, sirius radio, radar detector, 750watt power inverter, and cb radio. now obviously I dont plug it all in at once but ive got wires all over the place and its a pain to have to plug in and unplug stuff from the two power points in my truck. (one is actually meant for the lighter) Im making the move to a optima yellow top deep cycle battery and a I really want to fix this wiring problem, are there any kits made for this kind of problem or do i need to make something to fix it. I was thinking that I should take a 8 guage wire kit for stereo amp kits and run it inside the cab then put this power to a aux fuse box and make a switch board to run all these items (not all at once) but to where i can just flip a switch and control it all and leave the two outlets alone or open for items such as a cell phone charger, If there is a kit like this is there a good voltmeter on it so i can monitor my power use / overuse. I dont use all of these items at once but they all play a big role in my driving I drive long distances often and when I go hunting I am in remote areas where cell phones dont get service and a cb can be just about the only help around. but I wont lie ... I do like my toys and puting this switch board in my truck is one more toy. I would like to build it in a way that i could still use the car adapter all of the devices that come with one ... simply so I can transfer items such as my sirius radio to another vehicle or even my gps nav system.

 

This is a good idea. I don't know of any kits offhand, but you should be able to buy the components seperately and build it yourself. Just make sure your amp kit with the heavy wire has a large fuse right next to where it hooks to the battery +. I am assuming you are going to buy some more power ports and wire them into this new system, or I guess you could just cut the plug off and wire it direct.

 

There's the Schumacher BT-25 digital voltmeter; it is surface-mount, but it wouldn't be too hard to stick it behind a panel cutout. But maybe you can buy a proper panel-mount voltmeter for the same money. An ammeter would be helpful to monitor the current drain.

It might be smart to have a relay controlled from the accessory terminal of the ignition switch, so everything shuts off when the ignition is off. You could have a SPDT switch to manually override that, in case you want to run stuff without the ignition on.