Triumph TR4A Cigar Lighter and auxiliary power
Before stripping the whole car down we had fitted a heated windscreen. I was using the car in winter and it proved an invaluable asset as with a hood a lot of moisture was in the cockpit causing it to steam up - even with just body heat being present. This led to the need to fit an auxiliary switch panel. I was never happy with it so a better solution is required. On this page you will see our final solution but I have included a few solutions from other that feature on the TR Register Forum. If you are not a member of the TR Register then join now - it's an amazing resource and full of friendly advice.
Here are some of the Cigar lighter and Aux power solutions from others.
USB hidden in glove boxThe downside to this is dragging the cables for your devices through the same gap around the glove box door or even having to leave the box open.
This works well but you kiss goodbye to the original switch that was there. In this case I think it is the windscreen washer pump.
On the right, a neat job well hidden but not so sure how accessable? |
You may have a spare connector so won't need to 'splice' the radio feed. The dash mounted ignition switch which has auxiliary connectors shown at '4' above. Radio connected to red and 12v socket to blue. The auxiliary connector is quite handy - turning the key anti-clockwise to 11 o'clock turns on anything connected to 4 without full ignition.
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"I'm going to put one of these where the ashtray currently is. Slightly wider by a 10mm but will be more use." "Android phones used for navigation need a lot of amps so you have a chance with the 2.1A USB socket to at least stop the phone from discharging when using Waze or Google maps.
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"The housing is plastic. So I guess in theory one of these could be used with a positive-ground system by maintaining complete isolation of the socket? I think the problem is when you plug something in that has a metal case that is expecting a negative ground. Things go swimmingly well right up to the point where that case touches bare metal."
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Our solution
So here is our solution. We have gone for a USB/12V/Charge read out auxiliary socket set. We bought 2 on eBay for about £12. We bought 2 so we could take the mounting bracket off one to have 2 on the installation. One each side of the card glovebox to give it some strength. The pictures are not great but you get the idea. The voltage meter and the blue LED provide the light inside the cubby box. No need for an additional light.
