El Cheapo Volt Gauge

[jlayne]

So does anyone have a reason why one of those cigarette lighter volt meters would be unaccurate to use in a superduty... I'm trying to get around all of my idiot gauges ford put in -mad

figured it would be handy for checking on my GPR and other electronic stuff

 

[ChrisMartinTX]

i'm not sure how accurate it would be... i know its not any load or anything but i know there is a lot of voltage drop in the factory stuff. my deck has a voltage meter built into it and it is usally at least a volt off of what my AIC says. i have not run any fat wire or anything to my deck but i blame small wires for this. surely someone on here has one and an AIC and would be able to give you a better answer. if you aren't looking so much for accuracy and more just for the ranges like the giant drop from glow plugs it should do fine i'd assume. don't know if you have gauges or not but autometer has short sweeps in every line i think.

 

[jlayne]

thanks chris.. yeah i'm putting in the following automter gauges (hopefully this weekend) fuel pressure in a column pod and oil pressure, oil temp, and water temp in the 3 pod underdash... my problem is i have ran out of places to stick gauges becasue i allready have the normal 3 on the pillar

the giant drop is mostly what i'm looking for but i still want it to be as accurate as possible... i might get out the DVOM and see if i can tell any difference from the cigarette lighter to the battery... you brought up something i didn't think about with the voltage drop

just curious what are you calling a "Deck" please excuse my ignorance

 

[ChrisMartinTX]

oh sorry was talking about my cd player... you always have the overhead pod . wish i could have used the one i ordered but i just couldn't make it look right on my body style. dieselperformanceparts.com has 2,3 & 4 overhead pods. i can't figure out where i want my other gauges... i have boost, pyro, water on the pillar and would like oil temp, oil pressure and voltage somewhere. just wish i could get the 1.5 inchers of those. i know autometer would make them for a price but they aren't that important to me.

 

[JimmyDee]

So does anyone have a reason why one of those cigarette lighter volt meters would be unaccurate to use in a superduty..

It is a digital volt meter and is probably accurate to a 1/10 of a volt or better and will be as accurate as anything you would ever have need for. I think it would be a little unhandy to look at plugged into the lighter port but for what you want it for, probably will be just fine.
Jim

 

[jlayne]

thanks fellas

chris, i was worried about the overhead pod looking right as well.. to me it looks out of place... have you thought about one of those dash pods that mount over the radio, those look pretty good in the OBS trucks

 

[ChrisMartinTX]

yea i have considered one of those. they used to bug me but the more i "rice-out" and do other things i prolly would have laughed at myself for in high school the more i like them. bean has a steering column pod now for us obs guys but i still wanna see some more pics. plus i don't wanna have to mess with it to get into my dash.