Power source suggestions? I'm all ears
 

Howdy all. Last night I read an old thread about the Stebel Nautilus air horns and by the grace of Amazon, it arrives tomorrow. :D And with COVID on the brain (ie, I'm bored), last night I started wiring.

Before I ask this question, you should know that I didn't build the car, so I'm not sure exactly what wires were used and not, but the builder did do a phenomenal job notating right on the wiring diagrams, so i'm pretty confident.

Question: I'm thinking I'll put the horn relay at the horn to minimize wiring.
(this vid shows the horn I ordered and wiring necessary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK9lB1hH-8w )

So since the horn DK Green and Black wires get plugged into the relay, if I run a 14ga wire off a power source capable of delivering 18 amps, this seems to be the simplest way to wire the thing up with the least amount of wiring. So last night I ran one power wire from the horn, inside the factory harness, all the way inside the car.

GET TO THE QUESTION ALREADY!

I'm debating tapping into the unused heater BRN-HEATER wire coming off of the 20amp fuse in the panel which is switched power, or tapping the heavy battery wire coming up on the passenger side from the battery, which is constant of course. I will put an in-line 20amp fuse. (I think there are two red power wires coming in on the passenger side. I think one feeds the fuse block and looks like 8ga or something very thick, and one is thinner which I assume feeds toe ignition switch. Am I OK tapping the thinner one?)

Is it better to have constant power to the horn at the risk of having an always hot power wire, or is it better to have switched power to the horn and know that wire is dead when the key is off.
(I located that heater wire above drivers right knee, verified it's the right wire by pulling the fuse, and I don't THINK it's used for anything else.)

I'm inclined to go with the constant power, ALSO ASSUMING that tapping into the main feed wire is not a problem.

Thoughts? Other suggestions on pulling power from? I'm all ears.

Attachment 35130

If you want the horn to remain "hot" even with key off, there's the option of
adding a battery cut-off switch in trunk next to the battery. This way there's always
the ability for full battery isolation where all circuits are cold. It's also a nice safeguard
against any known/unknown parasitic draw that can kill a battery during storage. It
also allows for less reliance on a battery tender.


Just remember that the cut-off needs to handle peak current demand so get a good one.
Flaming River's "Big Switch" is $125. Pricey but hey, buy once cry once.

Here's a link to said good one:

https://www.flamingriver.com/index.p...0006/FR1044LED

That was fun! I decided to run it hot and of course I have an easily accessible in-line fuse if I needed to pull it. The power wire is totally inside the factory harness anyway. Nice and safe.

https://youtu.be/ebneUuevMI8

And for your listening pleasure I thought I'd see if you can hear the horn over the engine...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wy5qgf77i9...ormal.m4a?dl=0

Hey, that sounds much better on the recording. Not even too loud! LOL

I used my cell phone's native recording app and just placed the phone on the center console.

You really don't need a fancy isolating switch. In fact, the simpler the better. An old fashioned big copper knife switch handles hundreds of amps and is really easy to visually check. And it pretty much never breaks.

http://38.134.118.239/knife001.jpg

That strikes me as very dangerous since it's pretty easy to drop a tool or somehow make electrical contact.

In my jeep I installed this HD circuit breaker for the winch so that power is off whenever not in use.

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/modi...nstall-260339/

Ehhh, I don't know... calling out dangerous on a Cobra is like calling out stink on a pig.:cool:

LOL. Fair enough. :LOL:

If you're using the Knife switch you may want to pick one of these Lucas Harness Smoke Replacement tools. Great for the originality crowd.

Lucas - Prince of Darkness - Lucas Electrical Humor Jokes

You know, the wiring on my Cobra is far and away of higher quality than on my daily drivers. This weekend I spent several hours chasing down, and finally finding, a faulty ground that is relatively notorious in the Jeep world. One headlight had gone out on me, and showed no ground feed at the light. When I ran a quick supplemental ground to the headlight, the dashboard brake light would stay on! When I ran a supplemental ground to the brake fluid sensor switch, I got the brake light to behave normally. Obviously my bandaid fixes were not the final solution and there was a sneaky ground issue somewhere. When I finally found the answer on a Jeep forum it was a faulty ground in a nine-wire ground bundle to the frame that fails invisibly up from the crimp. From the outside it looked absolutely fine and you couldn't wiggle it to produce any tell-tale effects. But when you cut it open, the connections would literally crumble in your hand.%/

Troubleshooting is fun and your wiring skills are good. I'm just giving you hard time is all.

No worries.;) The thread on the Jeep forum that solved my problem was literally titled "Are you trying to diagnose bizarre electrical activity? This is your answer." Seriously. There were guys on there saying that when they used their turn signal that the doors would unlock, if they tried to unlock the doors the wipers would start, all sorts of absolutely bizarre stuff. Never underestimate what a bad ground can do, especially in modern cars.:LOL:

There are two different paths you can take with a cut-off switch. The easiest and least expensive is a simple on/off switch unit. (I have one for sale in the for sale section) this will be the easiest to install with both wiring and location. It will only disconnect the battery for maintenance, hence locating in trunk (near battery) is the norm. It will “ NOT” Shut off a running car because the cars Wiring harness will just look to the alternator for power and continue to run And switching this switch off with the engine running can cause a dangerous surge and damage electrical components. But for isolation it works just fine. If you want something that will safely shutdown a running car, go to the Pegasus Website (#4430) and purchase their unit. A lot more wiring is involved and locating it has limitations due to all the wiring involved. But it will shutdown a running car safely. Most cars just use the isolation switch. Easy as pie...
Blas

What year Jeep?

2013 and the ground bundle is known as the G110. It is nine separate wires all crimped to one eyelet that is bolted to the frame on the passenger side of the car adjacent to the engine.

Can we see a photo of this ground terminal arrangement please Pat?

Here is a guy named Pittsburgh Pap that did a 17 minute video on the exact Jeep ground problem. It's actually a pretty good vid.