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Originally posted by Georgeair:

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Are you insisting upon using the existing fusebox for some reason?

Only due to ease of access. Wrenching the plastic bits of the trim around mirror/lights gives me heartburn/concern about snapping a piece of $5 plastic that will cost me $400 to replace. Tapping wire under dash is challenging without disassembling a lot of trip pieces as well - there is a complete cover over pretty much everything. A far cry from being able to lay on my back in a '93 Suburban and have my way with any one of a number of wires.

You owe it to yourself to at least look up at the overhead console and identify how it's held together. On my Subaru, it's two screws hidden inside the sungless storage compartment that held the console to the ceiling.

Behind the console was plenty of room to hide the voltage adapters and inline fuses for everything. I used the power line off of the mirror because that is clearly switched.

It also makes running the the lines to the dash cam really short and easy to hide--no need to run the cord behind the pillar trim to go down to the fuse box, or across the top of the headliner/windshield. Drop the camera right down behind the mirror so you've got a nice, high, center vantage point for the camera.

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You owe it to yourself to at least look up at the overhead console and identify how it's held together. On my Subaru, it's two screws hidden inside the sungless storage compartment that held the console to the ceiling.

Good point, and I will tonight.

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Originally posted by Excam_Man:

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Originally posted by sns3guppy:
If all you're doing is tapping off one contact to the fuse as in the picture above, you're bypassing the utility of the existing fuse.

False.

One side will be a direct battery connection.
The other side will be protected by the installed fuse.

You could always use the battery side and install an inline fuse.

No, not false.

Professional, long time (several decades) mechanic. Not false at all.

You could do the shadetree redneck mechanic thing and tap off a fuse, but that would be unprofessional and stupid. Or you could tap into the wire. If it's on a circuit it's already got a circuit breaker on it; cut the wire and splice into that if you're looking to add an additional circuit protection, if it's the circuit that you're already using. If you're attempting to add a new circuit, take the existing hot wire, splice, and put the inline fuse in the new wire to whatever you're powering. Then run to ground.

This assumes, of course, that one is bright enough to figure out which wire is hot. If not, then one has no business doing the project in the first place.

As for sticking wires inside the overhead console...don't. Put the fuses where you can get to them without having to dismantle the car. As you already have a junction or fuse box, put the fuse near there. It makes no sense to be stringing fuses out throughout the rest of the electrical system.