I'm not even positive this would be the best option, but my goal is to prepare for adding things down the road such as maybe power windows/locks, electric cooling fan, overhead console, or whatever else comes to mind. I've been looking at Painless Wiring as they have this. Where would you get an ignition source for the ignition part of the block? The power and ground would be simple enough, but can you simply splice a factory ignition-hot wire to run extra circuits?

Spice it into almost any circuit that is turned on with the ignition accessory power. I think there are a couple extra around the radio ( don't use the radio as it might cause noise ) but any of the lights like the ash try light, glove box light etc will supply enough juice to flip the relay and turn on the big juice.

I'm not a big fan of splice crimps, most of the time I pull the connector apart and solder in a new wire.

Run a tap off the ignition to a relay and have the main circuit go from battery through the relay. That way you don't have to worry so much about the extra juice being pulled through the ignition circuit. Just make the main line going from the battery through the relay hefty enough to handle the load. Be sure to give it a proper main fuse.

You solder a new wire to the existing one then replace whatever connector it was you took apart?

I believe he's referring to vampire taps. I'm not a big fan of those either. Eventually, they can work their way loose or even deteriorate the wire into which they are tapping.

Soldering is definitely much better.

Vampire taps <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/barf.gif" alt="" /> If you have to use them after the crimp wrap them real tight in electrical tape.

I have that block. The big wire runs direct to the battery (comes with a breaker). Half of the slots are constant hot and the others are IGN ON hot. The IGN ON are switched to hot via a 3 amp circuit to your IGN wire and activated by the relay you see attached to the block. So to answer your question - what you get is all you need.

...man alive - inflation <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> I know I didnt pay that much when I bought it a few years ago. It was about half that.

got that fuse block at a local auto parts store. If I did it right I put a fusible link at the battery on the main supply feed. The rear block feeds my aux 12v cig, backup lights, rear cargo lights and amp. room for more. One in the engine bay too powering lights

I think that is the more expensive weatherproof version. I never thought about 2 fuse blocks, but do you have relays for those? I guess since it comes with a relay wiring it should work with any ignition source, right? Sounds like it won't be that complicated after all.

Just edited my post above but yeah, just find a wire that's only hot when the key is turned and tap into it with the thin (3amp) wire.

For what its worth - the "weatherproof" version is simply that rubber cover you see in the pic and a resin fill on the back of the block (that subsuquently cracked when I installed it) covering up the connections.

Some pics of mine here.

If you do get that unit make sure you protect the leads on that breaker as you see in the last pic (I used some of that paint-on rubber stuff). Before I did that I touched it with a wrench that was touching a grounded part of the truck and there was quite a spark.