Cigarette power port re-wiring...

[Swifty1638]

I wired my cigarette thingy up the other day, to plug a power converter into it, to run my laptop off of it. But, the power thingy said overload..I think it's due to it not getting sufficient power from the cigarette thing (wtf is it's real name?) I wanna know..can I re-wire this thing off of the battery, with like a 30 amp fuse there, and run it to a switch, then to a ground. That way, it's not hot all the time, unless my switch is on, and then it will provide sufficient power for the converter? I know the converter is good..it's my dad's, used for his laptop on all of our trips, so I bet money it's the cigarette lighter thingy. What gauge wire would you recommend I run to it? 14 gauge? 12 gauge?

-A. Swift

[Alpine TSi]

I ran 10 gauge from my battery and fused it at 20 amps, I wouldn't worry about putting a switch on it as if your converter is decent it should have a switch already. Plus it is never really that good to break a thick gauge wire for the purposes of a switch, if anything use a relay to do it. I wouldn't run anything less than 10 gauge as the wire length would be too long for that amperage on 12 or 14 gauge.