Welll, it finally happened. I was heading out in my 58 Suburban with my son to pick up a lawn tractor yesterday. I plugged my GPS into the aftermarket cig lighter/power outlet I had installed. There was a spark and a cloud of smoke from under the dash. I quick shut the truck off, popped the hood and yanked the battery cable.
Investigation showed that the power outlet somehow shorted to the dash and overloaded the wire. Evidently I insatlled the ligther with no fuse. I disconnected the lighter and cut out the offending wire. Although it was smoked, the wire actually remained intact with no exposed wires. After a good check of everything else, I fired the truck back up and proceeded on a 50 mile road trip with no issues.
Two very important lessons learned:
1. Put a fuse on everything you install in your truck. I still can't believe I made that stupid/rookie mistake.
2. I need to get a fire extinguisher for my truck. I would hate to have to stand by and watch my truck go up in flames becuase I couldn't extinguish a small fire before it grew out of control.
I still can't believe I didn't put a fuse on that wire!!!!!!!
