[Elecraft] OT: 2017 Chevy Silverado 1500 power outlets

[Phil Hystad]

Gene,

Well, my Silverado is 2004, not 2017, but HD2500 Crew Cab, which is a little bigger than a 1500.

I didn’t bother with trying to use existing wiring, rather I just took my truck down to the local Car Toys dealership and told them what I wanted and they did it.  They are experts at wiring vehicles for huge amp draws from the battery due to the likes of people wanting to have some huge audio amp pushing several hundred watts of power into the speaker systems they also added to a car.

So, I had the wiring done up to handle 80 amps because at the time this was being done I was also contemplating a 500 watt amplifier (the SGC Cube).  They ran the positive and negative lines, which were about almost 1/3 inch in diameter under the frame to the crew cab (rear) area where the brought the cables up thru the floor where they placed a high-current distribution box where I could hook up my own wiring to then rig (or rigs).

I also had them create a nice pass-thru coaxial adapter for hooking up my antenna coax which ran under the frame to the back corner panel by the stake hole and up to where my Hi-Q antenna was located.  Everything waterproof of course.  And, I had them add about 6 placed ground straps between different parts of the truck frame and cab to ensure that everything was well grounded.

About $400 for the entire job or about the cost for dinner for two at the Herb Farm Restaurant in Woodinville, Washington.

There is one thing I would look into and that is the RFI you would cause to the electronics in the truck.  With a 100-watt output on my rig I could cause some of the engine check lights to flash on.  Nothing bad ever happened but the lights would often stay on until the engine was shutdown and when started again everything was fine.  This only happened on the 40 meter band though.  Must have been just the right coupling at those frequencies.

The 2017 vehicles have a lot more electronics and computers one them then the ones back in 2004 and you are likely to have some problems (possibly) and even with 100 watts or maybe even less.  A K2 at 10 watts is probably not a problem though.

73, phil, K7PEH


> On Jun 26, 2017, at 9:48 PM, Eugene Worth <erw.edl at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Sorry for the OT post … but I am thinking of using one of my Elecraft rigs in the truck … mobile applications. 
> 
> Does anyone know the amp rating of the two 12v power outlets in the Silverado 1500 for 2017?
> 
> And, if you do know, is it switched (with the ignition) or always on? 
> 
> Thanks in advance. I’ve tried on the Chevrolet.com <http://chevrolet.com/> website, and they simply list the outlets, not the amp rating. 
> 
> Nice prices now for the trucks. Thinking hard about it, but I didn’t want to run power cables from my battery to the interior of the truck if I didn’t need to.
> 
> PS: This is for a 10w K2, but it would be nice to run 50w or 100w with the K3 if it would work.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> gene
> WG7GW
> 
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> 
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to phystad at mac.com