Waterproofing external cigarette socket and GPS while in use

[Wombat]

Hi All,

So I have a car GPS + charger and trying to use what I have/bang for buck/affordability, I bought and installed a Tusk Cigarette socket. It came with a thick heavy duty rubber cap which is great protection against rain/dust. It works great with the car GPS and charger cable... until I realized that the car GPS is not waterproof, so I figured clear plastic bag over that, problem solved. I was thinking of doing the same with the socket but since it's secure directly to the handle, I couldn't get a plastic bag completely around both the gps and the socket to make sure it's all nice and dry.
My question is that if I have the GPS cable plugged into the socket, will rain still get into the socket and cause a short? or is there no current going through metal spring of the charger cable part and the metal internal cylinder of the socket? Does anyone have sugguestions to make it waterproof or just duct/electrical tape? around the socket/charger cable?

 

[Ludolf]

Hmm, would be curious to know myself as I have similar setup. I wanted to experiment once just by putting some simple plastic supermarket bag around cigarette socket and the plug, securing it with couple of rubbers. For GPS there is no worries in my case as it is tucked securely in waterproof housing.

 

[Wombat]

I've done the plastic super market bag wrap + twist tie as a temp fix while riding actually. I wouldn't recommend it since there was still a bit of narrow space between the handlebar - the socket - charger cable that I wasn't able to cover with the bag. I was worried I didn't have as tight of a seal that I just ended up tossing my GPS in the frunk and capping the socket. I was trying to think of other alternatives to waterproof the setup... Something else I was thinking of was that if nothing exists, maybe find a rubber sheet used for something else (not sure from what yet), cut a tight hole the exact size of the charger cable, slip it over the cable, rubber band it and plug the charger in the socket (tying/plastic bagging the bottom). I'm not sure how well that will work since a slit will most likely have to be created for the handle bar/along the sides so you could wrap the rubber sheet...

 

[dduelin]

Would it be possible to buy a second power cable and cut off the male end and wire it directly to the harness or battery and do away with the cig lighter altogether? Then a bag or other purpose made waterproof box would solve the GPS protection problem? I know that some power cables have a transformer built into them to step down the power from 12 volts to the 5 or so that the GPS actually uses so make sure of the operating voltage of the unit before wiring it directly to the motorcycle power supply.

 

[L.B.S.]

Would it be possible to buy a second power cable and cut off the male end and wire it directly to the harness or battery and do away with the cig lighter altogether? Then a bag or other purpose made waterproof box would solve the GPS protection problem? I know that some power cables have a transformer built into them to step down the power from 12 volts to the 5 or so that the GPS actually uses so make sure of the operating voltage of the unit before wiring it directly to the motorcycle power supply.

This

A "hardwired" dedicated GPS cable is the way to go, I think.

I also just have a "car" GPS-an old Nuvi 765T, which is most assuredly un water friendly, lol

With my BMW, I bought a second cable off Ebay for like 10.00 dollars, with the proper fitting for the Nuvi, and then soldered the wires to a harness pigtail I installed on the beemer.

This left my seperate 12v powersocket/SAE pigtail coming off the battery, to be strictly a power source for inside my tankbag-nice and weather resistant.

 

[ziggie]

I plug mine into battery tender cable.leave lighter end in the frunk.also have a zipper gps case.amazon for 20.

 

[Wombat]

So a question for those who have a hard wire for the GPS, do you leave the cable hanging out from the air intake? or you tuck it somewhere else when not in use? Ie if I'm not using the GPS, how do you weatherproof the usb end?

Speaking of battery tenders, I have a ctek battery status eyelet hanging out my air intake. I just found this Ctek Indicator extension on Amazon and was thinking that it might be possible to cut up the extension to get the male end and wiring up a garmin charger to it and that will work with the battery tender cable. Is that similar to what you did ziggie or am I over complicating things?

 

[bamamate]

I have phone in an x-mount, dual UBS socket, radar detector on Ram magnetic mount, and a cig socket mounted on the handlebars and have ridden through some pretty good rain with them covered by ziplock sandwich bags with no problems. Everything has staid nice and dry. I just put the bag over it making sure to cover the windward side good and then snug the ziplock up to hold it on. I keep a few bags in the frunk.

 

[happy]

I once used to play with RC cars.
You can buy a small bag of BALLOONS

1. Cut out one end slip the joint through the balloon.
2. Cable-tie (or rubberband) both ends with the waterproof part inside the balloon.

Hope this helps.

 

[VE258]

big fan of CTEK chargers, i have both smallest one and biggest

CTEK 93-56-865 US 0.8 Black 12V Battery Charger : Amazon.com : Automotive

connected this to the battery to charge it

Amazon.com: CTEK 93-56-382 Black Comfort Indicator Eyelet: Automotive

and you can also connect this into same connector. i like their universal connector idea.

Amazon.com: CTEK 56-573 Comfort Connect Cig Socket: Automotive

and then connect GPS or whatever to it. there is a plenty of room to run the GPS cable from the frunk without cutting anything to the handle bar area