Technically, I did this on my '08 Sierra, but... meh.... they're all the same.
Got tired of every time I left my dash cam plugged in, then if I didn't drive for a couple days - I'd find a nice dead battery (usually over winter). Needless to say, this became something on the 'must do' list! Umm.. the list I made 2 years ago.
Sorry, no pics - it just seemed too easy.
Decided to find the easiest route that would cause the least modifying (which means it can also be reversed easily too if something went wrong!).
Took out the "Cig" fuse.
Ripped apart another fuse, to use its legs.
Soldered 2 long'ish wires onto the legs.
Found a switched power circuit also in the fuse box. Used one of those fuse-tap things to pull a line out.
Attached a ground wire to... well... a ground! Ha ha
Grabbed a relay, and an inline fuse from one of my bins.
Routed a wire from one "former-cig-fuse" leg to the relay pin 87.
Other "former-cig-fuse" leg wire soldered to the inline fuse holder.
Other side of the fuse holder goes to relay pin 30.
Ground wire goes to relay pin 86.
Newly tapped switch power wire goes to the final pin 85.
That's it! Now, when you flip on the key, the switched circuit turns on the relay which essentially "puts the fuse back in".
If things go south and a wire breaks, relay fails, etc - just pull the former-fuse leads out and stick your original fuse back in (that you left taped under the cover, right???).
Got tired of every time I left my dash cam plugged in, then if I didn't drive for a couple days - I'd find a nice dead battery (usually over winter). Needless to say, this became something on the 'must do' list! Umm.. the list I made 2 years ago.
Sorry, no pics - it just seemed too easy.
Decided to find the easiest route that would cause the least modifying (which means it can also be reversed easily too if something went wrong!).
Took out the "Cig" fuse.
Ripped apart another fuse, to use its legs.
Soldered 2 long'ish wires onto the legs.
Found a switched power circuit also in the fuse box. Used one of those fuse-tap things to pull a line out.
Attached a ground wire to... well... a ground! Ha ha
Grabbed a relay, and an inline fuse from one of my bins.
Routed a wire from one "former-cig-fuse" leg to the relay pin 87.
Other "former-cig-fuse" leg wire soldered to the inline fuse holder.
Other side of the fuse holder goes to relay pin 30.
Ground wire goes to relay pin 86.
Newly tapped switch power wire goes to the final pin 85.
That's it! Now, when you flip on the key, the switched circuit turns on the relay which essentially "puts the fuse back in".
If things go south and a wire breaks, relay fails, etc - just pull the former-fuse leads out and stick your original fuse back in (that you left taped under the cover, right???).