Hello. I recently purchased a CB and I need to connect it to a "+13.8VCD". Does anyone have any suggests of which wire I should splice it into? The manual suggests the accessory contact in the fuse box, but I was thinking of the power wire going to the cig. lighter. This would be in a 94 Explorer XLT. Thanks for the help.
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CB Power?
- Thread starter Adrian1
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yob_yeknom
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In all honesty, you'd probably be better off running the power directly to the battery. The less common connections the CB radio has with the electronics of the Explorer, the better the chances that they won't cause interference. Just something to think about before you wire it up.
If you decide to stick with the cigarette lighter power wire, that will work. Just make sure you place the proper rated fuse for the CB radio in the wiring, after the lighter, but before the CB.
If you decide to stick with the cigarette lighter power wire, that will work. Just make sure you place the proper rated fuse for the CB radio in the wiring, after the lighter, but before the CB.
Martinjmpr
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Okay, this is going to seem really cheesy, but bear with me! 
On my Ranger, I just bought a 12v power plug with two leads coming off it, and connected the positive and negative cables to the corresponding leads on the plug.
Now, when I want to use the CB (which isn't often), I just plug it into either the cigarette lighter or the auxiliary power point. Not pretty, but (a) it kept me from having to mess with the wiring, and (b) I can remove the CB in a second, leaving just the bracket under the glove box (see my Ranger page for photos of how I mounted the CB on my dual-airbag equipped Ranger.)
Like I said, it may be kind of cheesy
, but it works, and you can do it in about 10 minutes without making any modifications to the truck.
Martin
On my Ranger, I just bought a 12v power plug with two leads coming off it, and connected the positive and negative cables to the corresponding leads on the plug.
Now, when I want to use the CB (which isn't often), I just plug it into either the cigarette lighter or the auxiliary power point. Not pretty, but (a) it kept me from having to mess with the wiring, and (b) I can remove the CB in a second, leaving just the bracket under the glove box (see my Ranger page for photos of how I mounted the CB on my dual-airbag equipped Ranger.)
Like I said, it may be kind of cheesy
, but it works, and you can do it in about 10 minutes without making any modifications to the truck.Martin
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A little off topic but, how far is the radius of a CB? Can you talk to people on the next state over or is it only like people within 5 miles of you
Martinjmpr
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By law you can only talk to people 155 miles away (seriously!), but you would have to have a really good antenna and some kind of unusual atmospheric conditions to get anywhere near that.
In reality, 5 miles if you're very lucky. CBs are most handy when traveling with a group of other 4x4s so you can talk to each other on the trail. Nowadays, I suppose small FRS radios could serve the same purpose. One nice thing about CB, though, is that there is channel 9, which is monitored by many Highway Patrols as an emergency channel, so it could help you out to be able to "holler for help" if you're somewhere out of cell phone range.
My CB also has a 10-channel weather band radio that I can use in many areas to get immediate weather information, which is the real reason I have it.
Martin
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