Disco II - rear 12v power outlet

[Christophe Noel]

There's a fridge in my near future and I've noticed my rear 12v power outlet in the cargo area is not wired "hot." It's only supplying power when the vehicle is running. I assume that's not only normal, but not optimal for powering a fridge so my Klondike bars don't get soupy.

What Rover-magic do I need to invoke to get that power source to supply power with the rig turned off?

 

[Rovertrader]

do a search on D-web, it is a simple process of changing the configuration of the wires at the plug- nothing extra to 'run' or change if memory serves me.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

I was interested in this info also, but searching Dweb can be painful. I just looked it up in the Rave CD. Looks like what you need is a simple mod inside the engine comparement fuse box.

Find connector C0574 inside the fuse box. I'm not sure how to access that sitting here, I'm guessing you have to take the top off the box, unscrew the base and lift it up so you can see the underside?

On pin 6, you should see a white with green stripe wire. You need to cut that wire, and then simply feed it power direct from the battery TO THE CHASSIS SIDE of the wire, NOT the into the connector itself. That wire works it's way through the harness and powers the rear cigarette lighter and only the rear cigarette lighter. CONFIRM YOU HAVE THE CORRECT WIRE BEFORE ATTACHING BATTERY POWER TO IT.

If you feed the battery power onto the connector side, you'll be bypassing the Auxilliary Circuits Relay and all your aux circuits will be powered up permanently, and your rear socket will be dead. That's not what you want to do.

After cutting the white/green wire, I'd so something to secure the stub wire sticking out of the connector. Shrink wrap or electrical tape.

If you want to do something similiar with the front cigarette lighter, it's not as easy as that circuit takes power from the same relay and brings it into the cabin before branching off into a bunch of other circuits. It would be just as easy to rewire that cigarette lighter directly.

The main problem is one of those branches goes into the BCU. I'm not sure of the effect of leaving this powered permanently.

 

[Christophe Noel]

Hmm...."cut the green/white wire" is always what you're supposed to do when defusing a TV or movie bomb, so I'll give it a shot. Maybe I should have a digital timer counting down while I do this.

I'll take a look at this and see how badly I can screw up my Rover.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Not the blue wire, not the blue wire!

Seriously, that's what I got out of the wiring diagram, haven't tried it myself yet, so YMMV, I take no responsibility, etc. etc.

Just test it out before getting too far.

 

[FourByLand]

Haha. MacGruber!!!



No, seriously just ran a power wire from your "hot" ignition to your 12v socket and you're done.

Hide the wire behind the panels and under the floor trim. Not hard and can be done in 20 min.

 

[Brian McVickers]

I recommend running a larger guage set of wires direct up to the power source. Either direct to the battery or a power block connected to the battery.
The 12V plug in the back of the DII has small wires and although it will power your fridge it most likely will not provide enough power to allow your fridge to perform as it should.

At least that is the issue I found with my DII.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Yeah, I guess that's another way to do it. I figured it would be fine to keep using the existing wire. It's rated at 15A. You had problems with voltage drop?

 

[Brian McVickers]

Yep, and the plug gets really hot!

Same if I plug it into the front outlet on the center con.

 

[Christophe Noel]

Thanks fellers. I get the feeling this is simple enough if I can't get it done I'm going to have to turn in my man card. Stay tuned for my future post on how to treat an electrical burn.

 

[Brian McVickers]

If you decide to hard wire it keep in mind that there is a rubber grommet passing through the firewall just under the glove box. It's perfect for wires and can accommodate a few more than are already occupying its space.

Brian

 

[LandyAndy]

Another option is to take the OEM 12V socket out & replace with a marine spec one like this :

http://www.marinco.com/product/sealink-deluxe-12-volt-receptacle

Although it's says 15A on the product spec sheet.... it's seems a bit more robust and has the added bonus of the matching plugs locking into the socket for extra vibration protection. Am going to get a couple of plugs & I might swap out the OEM Engel plug out to one. Only downside with that is you can't use the Engel 'temperature' fuses, just a standard 10A in the marine plug.

I'm also going to add a second at the rear near the back door for powering a shower etc., all powered from a seperate fuse box below the steering column.

 

[Brian McVickers]

I would think the issue on that rear most plug is not the plug itself but the wiring running to it being under-sized.

 

[lwg]

Just like Brian I decided to just rerun a wire. To keep me from having to do this over and over as I change configurations I just ran one larger wire to a 6 position fusebox that I placed behind the toy bins. Off of that I powered my HAM radio, stock 12V socket and added two more 12V sockets for grins. It took a little more time up front but saved tons of time in the end.

 

[overlander]

Most fridges run under 5A, so I'm not understanding why the 15A rated line on that rear accessory socket is getting hot. What kind of fridge are you guys using that experienced that? My ARB should be running under 2A once cooled.

For the new line routing from the front, what specific routing was used? I want to put a constant plug in my wife's D so she can run my fridge when needed, and would appreciate the lessons learned on routing.