Hello. I’ve read through the manual and I didn’t see a recommended location to wire the power wires. I see on the radio it requires 13.8v. I don’t think the wires feeding inside the dash to the power socket are enough as they’re 12.4ish volts. Do I just wire directly to the battery as its 13.8-14.1v?
That radio is a 50 watt radio if I remember correctly. It needs to get power directly from the battery. Most of the wiring in today’s vehicles won’t handle TX at 50 watts. It would probably be ok at the lower power levels but the last thing you want to do is melt wiring/cause a fire.
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Basically - car batteries are 13.8V - that’s their open circuit voltage, so is what everyone quotes, but you’ll get a range of voltages if you measure the cigarette lighter, or other points - and it goes up and down over quite a bit of range. The radio manual states 13.8V plus or minis 15%. So - ipokebadgers’s comment is the important thing. The manual tells you the fuse is 15A, and the supply must supply at least 20A. Your vehicle manual will tell you if the fuse box has a spare way with appropriate fuse. Or, you wire direct to the Battery. This means connecting directly to the battery terminals and it needs a fuse as close to the battery as you can manage - car accessorie outlets sell all this stuff. Also read the car manual as a few contain dire warnings about fitting radio kit close to the computer. Here on the UK. years ago we had a Jaguar - the XJS, which I fitted a work radio to for the boss. When he pressed the transmit button, it was as if he had floored the throttle - quite scary. The manual sais something like WARNING Strong RF fields can cause uncommanded operation of the electronic ignition system.