Cigarette lighter/adapter on motorcycle?

Can I wire a auto parts store cigaretter lighter adapter to a motorcycle battery without destoying something somewhere that I need?

I want to power a GPS unit using existing cigarette adapter from GPS.

 

My squid cousin wired one of those in for some neon lights. No ill effects at all.

 

no different then hooking up a battery tender lead to the battery... except you'll be sucking instead of blowing

















and be sure to have an in-line fuse to protect the GPS

 

That's my worry. Fried GPS.

 

I've got a GPS and a bunch of other stuff direct wired on my streetbike. Fuse it and you'll be fine. Depending on the GPS manufacturer you may be able to buy a direct wire cord (proper spec inline fuse included) for $10 or so. If you already have the cigarette lighter adapter for the GPS there's most likely a fuse in there, but that shit gets bulky.

Cleanest way is direct wire with a fuse.

 

Something like this?

 

plus if you put it on your race bike, you can spark up a chesterfield during those long endurance races.

 

lol

Any guess on fuse to use? The link had a 7.5 amp fuse.

 

7.5 would cook any GPS.

If you've got the OEM cigarette adapter for the GPS, it most likely has an internal fuse. Try unscrewing the end of it, that's where they usually put them. If it's in there, no need for further fuses, just wire the adapter to the battery and plug in.

BTW, you can buy something similar to the linked product (sans useless fuse) at Radio Shack for about a third the cost.

 

My cube neighbor is a EE. Forgot. He thinks my handheld GPS won't pull more than 500 mA. Going to try a 1 amp fuse.

 

Or know exactly when and which way to turn.

 

be careful, as some gps units and other cig. plug-ins actually run off of 6 volts... ive seen a couple instances where someone would hardwire there nav system to the bike and end up burnin it up with too much voltage....

 

Use a 3 amp fuse if the GPS is the only thing it will ever see. That will moe than cover the draw, and 3A fuses are easy to find.

 

I've used same adapter in my truck all the time for GPS. Is that good enough?

 

as long as u are using the same supplied adapter then you should be good to go. its when people cut off the plug-in adapter and hardwire the unit directly to the vehicle is when they get issues. like i said, some plugs actually have a stepdown to convert the 12v to 6v.

 

my Garmin ZUMO is hardwired on the bike with 12 volts. I have a 12 outlet as well for radar and cell phone. No issues or drama with any of them. I did buy a marine grade 12 volt power outlet though.

 

I put a marine grade cig plug on my ST for various things, like charging my cell phone. It's a nice thing to have, I used marine grade to prevent corrosion, like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Marinco-12VRC-SeaLink-12-Volt-Receptacle/dp/B000NI1BI4