12v Outlet/Cigarette Lighter Installation
By ShortShots
Having a 12v outlet available on any long trip can really come in handy. Whether you want to keep a phone charged for emergencies
or use a GPS, you’re going to need to wire in a cigarette lighter or 12v outlet.
The first thing you need is to buy the outlet. I went to AutoZone and bought one of the $8 universal types. There are several options,
long knob, short knob, illuminated ring around the barrel, and several OEM options (GM, etc.). I also decided to pick up an inline fuse
holder while I was at the parts store. There were two options. One was for large size fuses like the 30 amp main fuse on the V Star, the
other was for standard size fuses, 24A max. This is the one I picked up, cost was $5 and some change and I used a 15A fuse.
Here’s the fuse holder packaging next to the wired up lighter, I used ¼” spade connectors covered with heat shrink to connect some
shorter pieces of wire I had sitting around, ring connectors for the ends that would be connected to the battery.
The next step is to remove the seats, battery box cover and storage compartment cover for access to the area underneath. After
removing those parts, I drilled a 5/16” hole to feed the wires and ¼” connectors through the top of the storage compartment. I decided
on this spot for the hole placement because it shouldn’t get wet if riding in the rain. As you can see from the plastic surrounding the
shock, dirty water has splashed in there at some point. The higher and further forward this hole goes, the better.
After the hole is drilled, I routed the wires through the hole and then connected them to the lighter and used heat shrink on the
connections.
Next, I bent the ground wire tab on the barrel back to a vertical position and pulled the wires back up to keep the lighter off of the
floor of the storage compartment and to keep it from flopping around inside.
To hold the wiring in place and to help keep the lighter at the top of the compartment, I went zip tie crazy. There’s a nice little channel
that runs around the perimeter of the cross-member that supports the bottom of the seat and the wiring fits into it perfectly.
After this picture, I added another zip tie around the wires just above the hole in the storage compartment just to be sure the wires
couldn’t loosen from vibrations and hitting hard bumps on the road. You can see that I just routed the wires on the underside of the
frame into the battery compartment. All that’s left is to connect the ring terminals to the battery and you have 12v charging and a
cigarette lighter!
Negative terminal
Positive terminal