Must it be so hard? My Micro Fuse Battle

I'm installing front-facing and rear-facing dash cameras into the Explorer.  First challenge?  Find the God-forsaken fuse panel.  Had to use YouTube to locate.  It's up under the parking brake, on the left or driver's side of the vehicle.  And I mean WAY UP THERE.  Had to practically dismantle the lower dash to access it.  Bad design Ford!

Next, I pull the fuse, and to what do my wondering eyes should appear but this thing called a Micro3 fuse.  Have never seen one before.  Okay.  No big deal, except my power adaptor fits into the ATO or regular blade fuse type.  Great.  I am not getting power out of that adaptor.

So I do some research.  Turns out that the Micro fuses use a common power strip (the middle one) and can protect two different circuits - the outside blades.  Sounds pretty ingenious and saves space.  I'm on board.  Just wish I would have known that information FIRST.

Micro3 fuses - note the 3 blades


Way back in the day, when we walked 5 miles to school uphill both ways, we had round, glass fuses - that much to everyone's liking, were EASY to access and replace.  I've even heard told that a .22 caliber bullet could be used to stuff in there in a pinch.  Be sure to use an EMPTY shell though.  There's a Darwin Award Winner that used a live round.  Fool.

Glass tube auto fuses.  My kids have no idea what these are.


Then we switched to ATO blade fuses.  Nice at first, but eventually started getting put in harder and harder to reach places.  And today, we now have the Micro3, Micro2, and etc. blade fuses.

Regular, or ATO, blade auto fuses



I ordered an adaptor for $8 to plug into the Micro fuse panel on my 2018 Ford Explorer Sport.  My advice to you?  Check your fuse panel BEFORE attempting any sort of electrical installation.  What should have been an hour long job is taking more like 3.  One more trip under the dash...I hope...

An $8 power adaptor that I can wire into my dash cams



A size comparison of blade fuse types.
Critical to check before jumping into a project now!



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