Hi, folks, my name is Randy. Now, I might not be the brightest bulb in the box, but I do like to watch the lights go on an' off. On and off. On and off. Sometimes I even get a lightbulb of my own going on and I write it down so I remember it. You see, ever since my brother started carrying that karma sheet around with him, I got to thinking-since I forget things easy, maybe I should carry a sheet to write my bright ideas on.
Sometimes they don't make any sense later, like the one that said, "Bring hay for the big bird." But the one that said, "Don't be a DSPO" I remember all too well. You see, when me and Earl got the El Camino, the underdash wiring was horrible. The Dumb S*#% Previous Owner had destroyed the neat job the factory did of wiring up the car. I've found out that many of the Jeeps you guys buy secondhand are the same exact way: too many wires under the dash and a lot of the stuff still doesn't work.
Ooooh, and don't even get me started on nasty white and green wires squished onto the battery terminals.
Look, we are all guilty of some kind of wiring snafu at some point in our lives. What I am trying to say here is, if you listen to me and do what I am saying as soon as you read this, or first thing when you get your next Jeep, you can avoid ever being called a "DSPO." And we all like to add driving lights, foglights, relays for our headlights, electric air compressors, auxiliary switches, dome lighting, backup lighting, stereo components, you name it. Normally over the course of owning a Jeep, an owner will add some kind of electrical doohickeys to it.
The way to not become a DSPO is to start off right. Don't bolt 20 wires to the positive terminal of the battery. Don't piggyback 100 jumpers on your fuses. Add at least one, if not two, auxiliary fuse blocks from the beginning and you will never be called a DSPO again.
The other thing that adding an auxiliary fuse block does is it keeps you from tapping directly into your stock wiring. The stock wiring is actually pretty well done. They usually use decent wire and connectors. The part where stuff stops working is when you cut into the insulation or the connector, just so you can have your satellite radio working. Don't cut into the stock wires!
Recently, Cappa distracted Trasborg with some high-end, beer-snob beer (you know, the stuff in a bottle) and I added some fuse blocks to his newly acquired '98 Cherokee. Hey-it was for his own good! He survived his MJ burning up; we didn't want to see the same happen to his Cherokee.
I got the fuse blocks from Painless Wiring. They offer a whole bunch of them. The ones I picked have both switched and constant circuits, so Trasborg should have no reason at all to hack up the nice factory wires in this Jeep.
I stuck the "weather resistant"...
I stuck the "weather resistant" one under the hood, since water does get in there [Editor's note: PN 70207]. I like to have one inside and one outside the Jeep, as it helps to keep down the number of wires the DSO will be putting through the firewall. It looks just like it belongs there, and I doubt Trasborg has even noticed it yet. He is talking about rewiring foglights and headlights and even the electric fan. This will come in handy for all of that.
I mounted this one behind...
I mounted this one behind the driver-side kick panel. Because it is in a hardtop Jeep, I went with the cheaper, nonwaterproof unit [Editor's note: PN 70107]. In a Wrangler or something open to the elements, I'd put a waterproof one inside as well as outside. Trasborg is going on and on about a CB (10-4, good buddy!), a HAM, an aftermarket radio, extra power ports, a power inverter, and all kinds of stuff. Hopefully this keeps him happy for awhile.
Here is the back of the "weather...
Here is the back of the "weather resistant" fuse block. It is fully potted (but there is no soil; I don't get it). The company says that it very well might be waterproof, but if they claimed that and someone put it on a submarine with a screen door and water got in, in this sue-happy world they could be liable. So, it is "weather resistant." Whatever. It works really well and should be one of the first things added to any Jeep.