Hello all,
I'm now on my 3rd wrangler, and my 1st Jk. On every wrangler I own, I've always installed a tuffy center console lockbox. Love the tuffy, it's always kept my valuable secure, but as someone with severe ADD, I always remember to unlock it after I've begun driving down the road, and my key is in the ignition. (Either that or I forget to lock it when I leave the vehicle.)
Last weekend I got tired of this. I found a new door lock actuator on Amazon for $5. Bought it and mounted it under the lid of my lockbox. Drilled a hole in the locking arm, and had the actuator installed in literally 4 minutes.
I then wired it to a momentary switch on my dash. Voila, problem solved. Now I just leave the box locked all the time. When I need access, I press the switch and it pops open like a trunk release. The dash switch BTW, is wired into the ignition circuit so it won't actuate when the key isn't on.
My original plan was to use a DPDT switch, so I could lock and unlock the lid by reversing polarity on the actuator. While the unlock works flawlessly, as long as the return spring is installed in the tuffy lock mechanism, there isn't any practical purpose to using the lock side. I tried removing the spring, and played around with it, but I found that it just worked better to leave it in. For those who wish to do this, a SPST momentary switch is just fine.
So far I've been using this for a month with no issues. Ironically I emailed Tuffy asking if they made something like this. I would have paid $80 for a Tuffy solenoid lock. They responded they didn't want to do this, as they were concerned about quality control and cost.
Total cost was $28. Switch and cover from OTRATTW, actuator from Amazon, wire from my garage.
Anyway just thought I'd share for those who want to try this out.
I'm now on my 3rd wrangler, and my 1st Jk. On every wrangler I own, I've always installed a tuffy center console lockbox. Love the tuffy, it's always kept my valuable secure, but as someone with severe ADD, I always remember to unlock it after I've begun driving down the road, and my key is in the ignition. (Either that or I forget to lock it when I leave the vehicle.)
Last weekend I got tired of this. I found a new door lock actuator on Amazon for $5. Bought it and mounted it under the lid of my lockbox. Drilled a hole in the locking arm, and had the actuator installed in literally 4 minutes.
I then wired it to a momentary switch on my dash. Voila, problem solved. Now I just leave the box locked all the time. When I need access, I press the switch and it pops open like a trunk release. The dash switch BTW, is wired into the ignition circuit so it won't actuate when the key isn't on.
My original plan was to use a DPDT switch, so I could lock and unlock the lid by reversing polarity on the actuator. While the unlock works flawlessly, as long as the return spring is installed in the tuffy lock mechanism, there isn't any practical purpose to using the lock side. I tried removing the spring, and played around with it, but I found that it just worked better to leave it in. For those who wish to do this, a SPST momentary switch is just fine.
So far I've been using this for a month with no issues. Ironically I emailed Tuffy asking if they made something like this. I would have paid $80 for a Tuffy solenoid lock. They responded they didn't want to do this, as they were concerned about quality control and cost.
Total cost was $28. Switch and cover from OTRATTW, actuator from Amazon, wire from my garage.
Anyway just thought I'd share for those who want to try this out.