I have found that in most newer cars, the cigarette lighter plugs are fused
with a 15 amp fuse, and the wiring is usually 14 gage.
Remember that a cigarette lighter when heating draws lots of amps, and they
have to design the wiring and fusing to accomidate fairly heavy usage of the
burner.
This said though, most new vehicles dont even have the heater element in the
plug, and the actual plugs are called accessory outlets.
But its always good practice, as has been said, to try and avoid the
cigarette lighter plug if you intend on running more then 25 watts out of
the mobile.
When i was young and stupid, i tried running a 500 watt 13.8VDC tube CB
amplifier out of the cigarette plug, along with the 30 watt SSB radio i had,
the consequence was a very well melted plug and likely nearly a fire....i
remember the first time i keyed it down, the vehicle stalled lol.
Apparently in that particular vehicle the cigarette lighter was wired direct
to the battery or something since the huge draw should have blown a couple
fuses.
73
Colin, V A6BKX

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ed Malmgren" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 8:16 AM
Subject: Re: LDG Electronics tw2 is out


> Most times they don't recommend using the cigarette lighter for that
> purpose. The wiring is not large enough   Ed K7UC
>