So I was on the fence about hot to direct wire my Valentine w/ blendmount. I have read countless posts about the a mirror tap or directly wire to the fuse box. My past BMW's have all had power readily available in the head liner so I just tapped into a power source and was good to go. The F150 with its passenger foot well makes it very attractive not to mention the number of "unused" fuses for power sources. So I finally decided forget the mirror tap and wire it up. Well I am very happy that I did. From start to finish, maybe it took 30 min. The direct wire kit (Directwire Kit) from amazon had fuse taps for every size of fuse types they make included so you can choose exatly what fuse you want to choose since ford had two different sizes in the box. The only "difficult" part was finding the switched fuse (#37) instead of always hot.
As for running the cable, it was very simple. My 2019 802A has a plastic box behind the mirror which provided easy access to the headliner as well as a clean way for the cord to exit and connect to the detector. I simply slid the cord behind the ceiling liner and around to the A-Pillar. Next is i just pulled off the rubber door seal from the top of the A-Pillar down to the bottom of the door. This gave me easy access to run the cord from the headliner all the way down into the fuse box. Once the cord is tucked away simply replace the door seal and your almost done. Just put the tap in fuse #37 and connected the ground to a bolt right next to the box.
If your looking to direct wire your radar detector or camera, don't be afraid to direct wire to the fuse box because you may think it is complicated...
As for running the cable, it was very simple. My 2019 802A has a plastic box behind the mirror which provided easy access to the headliner as well as a clean way for the cord to exit and connect to the detector. I simply slid the cord behind the ceiling liner and around to the A-Pillar. Next is i just pulled off the rubber door seal from the top of the A-Pillar down to the bottom of the door. This gave me easy access to run the cord from the headliner all the way down into the fuse box. Once the cord is tucked away simply replace the door seal and your almost done. Just put the tap in fuse #37 and connected the ground to a bolt right next to the box.
If your looking to direct wire your radar detector or camera, don't be afraid to direct wire to the fuse box because you may think it is complicated...
