Forum;

I am posting this here so that 122 owners can learn and benefit from Michael Basel's recent electrical fire/horror experience (see posting on 544 Forum: Cigaret lighter )

If you are going to use your cigarette lighter as an on-board 12V power source, and with GPS, phone, computer, audio, there are plenty of power hungry things out there which need to come along for the ride, I recommend adding an in-line fuse.

Original equipment Lighters are not fused, and directly connected to battery power...this means that if anything fails and shorts in the ancient fixture, a LOT of energy is available...plenty to meltdown the harness, as poor Michael found out...if you are going to use the ancient device, I highly recommend limiting the amount of energy available with an inexpensive in-line fuse...3A should do it for most electronic loads, but check the device ratings to be certain. The original wire gauge is around 18-16...which is OK for anything up to 8 or so Amps intermittent duty.

Cheers from Connecticut!