High quality cigarette lighter plugs and sockets?

[steven1955]

High quality cigarette lighter plugs and sockets? Is there any such thing?

I'd like to find high quality cigarette lighter plugs and sockets rated for a real 10 amps.

The sockets I have purchased were cheap and get warm. I need a cigarette lighter Y with one male plug and two female sockets, and I have melted one of these Ys.

I really prefer to not change away from cigarette lighter plugs and sockets to some better type of plug.

The story:

We travel with two Engel 12VDC refrigerators, and they have cords with what are high quality cigarette lighter plugs.

My current (no pun intended) arrangement is that I have two fused cords running directly from the T4R's battery with female cigarette lighter sockets.

When driving one cord powers the two Engels through a cigarette lighter Y connector, each drawing about 2 to 2.5 amps when running. The other cord charges a Rockpals 520 Watt hour lithium battery power pack, which draws between 5 and 8 amps.

At night I move the cords around so that the lithium power pack runs the two fridges. The power pack has an integral cigarette lighter socket, and I plug the Y connector into the pack and the two Engel plugs are plugged into the Y's two sockets. The pack will run the two Engels for 8-12 hours depending on ambient temperature.

There are no problems with the Engel cigarette lighter plugs. The lithium power pack's socket is OK, and supposedly rated at 10 amps. All my problems lie with the sockets and Y connectors I have been able to find.

 

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High quality cigarette lighter plugs and sockets? Is there any such thing?

I'd like to find high quality cigarette lighter plugs and sockets rated for a real 10 amps.

The sockets I have purchased were cheap and get warm. I need a cigarette lighter Y with one male plug and two female sockets, and I have melted one of these Ys.

I really prefer to not change away from cigarette lighter plugs and sockets to some better type of plug.

The story:

We travel with two Engel 12VDC refrigerators, and they have cords with what are high quality cigarette lighter plugs.

My current (no pun intended) arrangement is that I have two fused cords running directly from the T4R's battery with female cigarette lighter sockets.

When driving one cord powers the two Engels through a cigarette lighter Y connector, each drawing about 2 to 2.5 amps when running. The other cord charges a Rockpals 520 Watt hour lithium battery power pack, which draws between 5 and 8 amps.

At night I move the cords around so that the lithium power pack runs the two fridges. The power pack has an integral cigarette lighter socket, and I plug the Y connector into the pack and the two Engel plugs are plugged into the Y's two sockets. The pack will run the two Engels for 8-12 hours depending on ambient temperature.

There are no problems with the Engel cigarette lighter plugs. The lithium power pack's socket is OK, and supposedly rated at 10 amps. All my problems lie with the sockets and Y connectors I have been able to find.

I bought the OEM Toyota “smoker’s kit”. It replaces the storage cubby next to the shifter and gives you two lighter sockets. The installation was very simple. All the necessary wiring was under the console. The empty socket is 10A, but I don’t know the rating of the socket with the lighter in it. Hopefully 10A also. There’s a new one on eBay right now for $60. I forget where I bought mine last year.

I don’t use it for anything heavy duty, just to charge an iPhone/iPod/iPad and my aftermarket TPMS readout.

 

[steven1955]

I bought the OEM Toyota “smoker’s kit”. It replaces the storage cubby next to the shifter and gives you two lighter sockets. The installation was very simple. All the necessary wiring was under the console. The empty socket is 10A, but I don’t know the rating of the socket with the lighter in it. Hopefully 10A also. There’s a new one on eBay right now for $60. I forget where I bought mine last year.

I don’t use it for anything heavy duty, just to charge an iPhone/iPod/iPad and my aftermarket TPMS readout.

I found that the factory wiring had too much voltage drop, so I ran two 12 gauge wires from the batteries. With the Toyota factory wiring a single Engel refrigerator was OK, but when two were running at the same time you could hear the compressors slow or strain a bit.

There are two problem areas with my set up.

1.) The only cigarette lighter sockets I could find to go on the end of my 12 gauge wires are very light duty and get warm even though one runs 5 amps and the other 8 amps.

2.). I need a Y with a single cigarette lighter male plug and two female sockets. The ones I have been able to buy are light duty one have 18 or 16 gauge wire. The get warm to the touch and I've had one melt.

So what I need is a source of high quality 10 amp rated cigarette lighter plugs (male) and sockets (female). Both need to fit on the end of a cable, not in a hole in a bulkhead or panel.

 

[Buggynut]

I bought the OEM Toyota “smoker’s kit”. It replaces the storage cubby next to the shifter and gives you two lighter sockets. The installation was very simple. All the necessary wiring was under the console. The empty socket is 10A, but I don’t know the rating of the socket with the lighter in it. Hopefully 10A also. There’s a new one on eBay right now for $60. I forget where I bought mine last year.

I don’t use it for anything heavy duty, just to charge an iPhone/iPod/iPad and my aftermarket TPMS readout.

Could you post a picture of this setup?

 

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Could you post a picture of this setup?

Here are two pics, one off this forum.

You can google “4th gen 4runner smokers kit” and find a lot of photos.

 

[Prudii]

Here are two pics, one off this forum.

You can google “4th gen 4runner smokers kit” and find a lot of photos.

Do you know where the single plug version of this can be bought? The one with the larger compartment.

 

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I found that the factory wiring had too much voltage drop, so I ran two 12 gauge wires from the batteries. With the Toyota factory wiring a single Engel refrigerator was OK, but when two were running at the same time you could hear the compressors slow or strain a bit.

There are two problem areas with my set up.

1.) The only cigarette lighter sockets I could find to go on the end of my 12 gauge wires are very light duty and get warm even though one runs 5 amps and the other 8 amps.

2.). I need a Y with a single cigarette lighter male plug and two female sockets. The ones I have been able to buy are light duty one have 18 or 16 gauge wire. The get warm to the touch and I've had one melt.

So what I need is a source of high quality 10 amp rated cigarette lighter plugs (male) and sockets (female). Both need to fit on the end of a cable, not in a hole in a bulkhead or panel.

I just found a pic online, and it’s a warning on the socket without the lighter. 10A is the total rating for both outlets, not 10A per outlet.

 

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Do you know where the single plug version of this can be bought? The one with the larger compartment.

Probably from the parts department at the dealer.

The single plug version won’t have a lighter. You would have to buy that separately, and the lid won’t close with the lighter installed.