Batboard

Spare places in ATC automotive fuse blocks appear to be great places to add extra circuits, such as for radio and similar installations...until one starts looking for the special female spade terminals used in Ford, Chrysler, etc. fuse blocks.
Several years ago, these were commonly sold in automotive parts stores in bags of 25 or so. The "new generation" of parts counter folk have not a clue what I am talking about. I even remember seeing in some radio-related literature (Tessco, Motorola Shop Supplies?) a kit containing appropriate terminals for the "big three's" fuse blocks.
Does anyone have a current source for these things? Even the vehicle manufacturer's dealer would be O.K.
Thanks, guys (and girls).

Contact the guys that build this police harness. They use OEM type boxes in their MNStar harness.


http://www.mnstar.com

Wow! Great stuff. Didn't know this sort of thing was out there.

a word of warning on the mnstar system.
while it's a good, very safe setup(every circuit has it's own ground), it is designed for installation in police cars that will have in addition to typical warning equipment every option known to man such as weight scales, video cameras, 2 radars, mdt, light and radio chargers, etc. as a result it is actually over-featured, very cumbersome to install and hide, entirely too many different styles of plugs which add to the bulk, confusing wiring and schematics, and expensive too, minimum $800.
i got it for my tahoe, and even though i have a lot of stuff installed as a slick-top unmarked first responder vehicle, it had too many left-over/unused circuits that added to the confusion and bulk to make it worthwile, and i'm talking 3 strobe pacs for frnt and rr, hdlite flasher, grill lite flasher, dashlite, magnet rooflite, mirrorlite, 2 spectras, an ava, scanner, lantern charger, radio pocket charger, smartsiren, signalmaster arrowbar, 4 rr window ambers, have i left anything out? the only thing i don't have is a lightbar.
my point? right idea-somewhat unsatisfactory result. even with this list of equipment, the mnstar was overkill and over priced, and i installed it myself, if you have it installed by the dealler you're looking at an easy 1 grand. i have been in contact with the company owner (very friendly and excellent customer service and support) and suggested a scaled-down version that would be more modular instead of everything but the kitchen sink built-in for the average application and he was receptive, so that setup may be available sometime

I built my own harnesses for the suburban and it they came out just as nice as the MNstar system.

You're right.The MNStar is overkill. Designed by the Texas Highway Patrol for their fleet, these units stayed with their design.
They are tough to install at first, but after a few, they are really nice. For a small department or personal use, they aren't a good idea.
For a large city, it's great. They standardize the entire fleet and make new car transfers easy. With their bulkhead connectors, changing a lightbar or entire console is a snap. You can pre-wire a lightbar, console and equipment, truck unit and such and keep spares for a large fleet. When a siren goes bad, change out the entire console in minutes and do a bench repair while the car is in service with the spare in place. It's plug-n-play.

One problem is that most radio shop installers can't read the automotive-stlye schematics and get lost on the configuration. I spent many hours on the phone with "techs" that were installing a radio or a strobe pack on an MNStar equipped car that got totally lost.

I'm getting ready to do an '04 Vic with another one next week, so if anyone's in the area that wants to see one, feel free to stop by.

You'll "MF" the first one you install for sure!

Yeah, car schematics suck. Then again, not being a BIG car guy, I often think they make things more complicated than they need to be.

I'm sure there's a reason, but that Mnstar at least looks like it standardises things for the stuff cops use. That's an improvement.