Cruisers Forum
Main Forum => Tips and Tricks => Topic started by: Ron Dittmer on October 16, 2015, 10:51:50 pm
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Our vacation out west this year was a "last straw" trip for me tolerating all the 12V charging plugs & wires in the way of me shifting gears. So I added two outlets in the center console. One is a standard 12V, the other is a dual USB. Now our phone & GPS can be thrown into the bin below the outlets which will keep all the wires away from the driver and off the center console, I don't know how Ford got away with such a safety issue.
I wired them up to the cigarette lighter outlet in the dash for high power fuse protection. The short gray colored cable seen just under the radio has a hidden in-line connector to unplug the center console when it needs to be removed for engine work.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/762/22047323699_d158cc6e33_c.jpg)
(https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5818/21613151283_1e03831732_c.jpg)
I bought the outlets as a set from ebay HERE (http://www.ebay.com/itm/111722410747?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT) for only $7.85 but mounted each outlet independently.
(http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/tOgAAOSwd0BVrKG0/s-l1600.jpg)
Because of the design and limited space of the center console, the outlets are located in the only possible position there. Plastic ribs in the back side of the center console there makes installing only one outlet in the middle more difficult, and the cup holders make installing three outlets impossible.
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Ron,
What a beautiful job you did with that addition. I know what you mean with all the wires up there getting in the way. It would be great if PC would make it available as an option.
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Thank you Gail for the compliment.
As always, I have fun doing these little improvement projects and sharing them with the PC family. This one in particular was one I should have done back in 2007 when we bought our PC.