Wiring up auxiliary lights.

[The Griff]

Ok, another thread that has probably been said elsewhere.

How do I go about wiring up lights on an overhead light bar?

I was at the junkyard the other day and saw and old Dodge with an aluminum light bar that clamps onto the drip rails with 2 aux. lights and 2 orange strobe lights. I asked what they want for it, the lady said 5 bucks, SOLD

The strobe lights came off real easy, the old aux lights needed more persuasion, in the form of a sawzall.

I put $35 worth of new flood lights on it, and throw it on the Blazer, then I realized I don't really know how I should wire them up.

Wire them in a series, with a relay? Would that work?

I also have an itch to wire them up with the brights, but I have a feeling that would be harder.

I also think I should go back and get two more flood lights and put them on the bumper, since it already has holes where some used to be.

 

[4xcrazy]

Not sure about where you live, but when I was living in Arizona, I had the two lights that are currently on my bumper mounted to a light bar at first, and had them wired up to the high beams power wired feeding through a relay.

I had them on once heading to the lake, and even though it wasn't a heavily traveled road, I had them on and tried to shut them off as quickly as I could when I saw headlights, well, it didn't work, those headlights happened to be a sheriffs vehicle. He did stop me, checked everything out and informed me that was not the best way to wire them if I had ever intended on using the high beams for on road use, as it is illegal to have any lights mounted above the headlight illuminated while driving "on road"

I ended up mounting them to the bumper, but not because of that reason, I bought a new light bar and they have their own separate switches.

use relays, whatever you do.

 

[skyhigh4by]

Ive heard of many areas being law that you have to have covers over the lights when your on the road and yes use relays. There are lots of drawings/schematics if you do a google search. I wired my fans, and heated o2 by following really diagrams I found online.

 

[The Griff]

The reason I thought about wiring them up to the high beams because I rarely use them as it is, not like every other asshat on the road, who turn on the brights and their fog lights on as soon as the sun goes behind a cloud.

Hell these "daytime driving lights" AKA headlights that never go off drive me up a wall too.


I do conveniently have a spot for switches though, the plate that covers where the radio would usually live has two rectangular holes in it, where it's pretty obvious switches used to be.

 

[4xcrazy]

When you have enough people pulling out on front of you, and you realize it may because they really didn't see you, maybe due to a dark colored paint job or something, you'll learn to like those daytime running headlights.

I used to have people pulling out in front of me quite a bit with my old '89 Camaro, it was gun metal gray in color, apparently hid well in the shadows.

The high beam thing, eh, I personally just like having more control on just how many lights I can turn on or off.

 

[4xcrazy]

10 forward facing, 2 side lights, 5 rear facing, plus the two 4x6 ones mounted on the bumper.

8 of the forward facing have 100 watt bulbs 3 switches, sides are 55w each have their own switch, rears are 55w/2 switches then the one switch for the bumper lights which are 100 watt each as well.

And then the wiring hack to make all four headlights kick on when you turn the high beams on.

More light than available power at the moment.

I actually built my own little relay block for all of those.

 

[Fordum]

Many years ago, on my old truck, I had a pair of 100w halogens on the front bumper.
I do a lot of driving in the woods, and I wanted to make it daylight when I saw something in the road ahead.
I used a heavy duty relay to supply power to them, and ran the power to the relay coil off the high beam switch with a toggle in series.

If the toggle switch was off, the driving lights stayed off. When I turned on the toggle switch, the driving lights went off and on with the high beams.

The reason I did it that way, was so that if I met someone on the road, clicking the dimmer killed both the high beams and the driving lights.
But there are lots of other ways to wire them.

I'm going to be adding some lights to the truck in a couple of months, and will probably wire them that way again.
But, I am through with halogens. They beat regular sealed beams by a mile, but the new LEDs beat the halogens like the halogens beat sealed beams.

More light, less heat, and Way less current drain.

 

[The Griff]

I'm basically doing It for the same reason, these woods are dark, and I need to change that.

Just out of curiosity, what is the penalty for not running a big enough relay, or no relay?

Also, do any of you know how interior panels go on if you never had them?
Like the plastic pieces for the A-pillar and on top of the windshield? I guess this as a good a time of any to hide the CB wiring, and this wiring would have to take the same route.

 

[Fordum]

Can't help you much with the interior stuff, I run Fords.........

As for no relay, it depends on what you use for power. If you run a dedicated switch from the battery through a fuse then to the lights, you might get a shortened switch life, and possibly some diminished amount of light.

If you run a heavy enough switch and wire, then its not a problem. But the relay usually makes it easier and often cheaper depending on how much current you are drawing.
If you are going to have a couple hundred watts, then you need to run some fairly heavy wire.
With a relay, you would still need the heavy wire, just not as much of it, and it might be able to be slightly less heavy.

If you are coming off the light switch for power, such as through the dimmer, then its probably not going to work.
The wire is designed for regular headlight load, and will be too small for the added lights.
Plus, almost certainly the automatic circuit breaker is going to start tripping causing all your lights to flash on and off.

Relays are cheap and easy, not much reason not to use one.

 

[Metrodps]

Also, do any of you know how interior panels go on if you never had them?
Like the plastic pieces for the A-pillar and on top of the windshield? I guess this as a good a time of any to hide the CB wiring, and this wiring would have to take the same route.

I can see about taking pictures of the little holes on Monday or Tuesday when I take the trim parts up to paint shop. There are just little screws that hold the trim on.

My K5 the cb wire was a roof mount over the dome light. Ran in and the light was notched then silicone was used to hold coax. It then ran under the seal lip down the side and under seat.

And J when are you coming to run the wiring for the 9 lights and relays?

 

[The Griff]

Yeah, my CB wiring looks like the 7 levels of hell, but it works fine.

I planned on cleaning it up after a while, but it's been a year and a half and it still looks like ass.
Electrical tape, pigtails, zipties, and most of it is just wrapped around the visor, I've got probably 4 feet of coax balled around the visor just because I don't want to cut it.
I'll get pictures of my rat's nest for you guys tomorrow.


Also, could I tap into another hot wire for these lights? like how the CB runs off the radio fuse? (That's all that fuse does in that truck, never had a factory radio.)

 

[4xcrazy]

Only way I would tap into another low power hot wire would be a trigger power for the relays. Don't try to run full power for the lights through any truck fuse box circuitry.

I did that to an old Datsun way back in the teen years, before I knew any batter, it ended up melting the fuse box after awhile and that was just with a couple of 55watt fog/driving lights.

 

[Fordum]

And J when are you coming to run the wiring for the 9 lights and relays?

Bout the best I could do right now, would be to draw up a schematic. If I can help with that, let me know.
One day soon, when I finish getting my finances straight though, I am going to travel around visiting folks I have met here.
Helping with what I can, and generally annoying the heck out everybody........

Probably need to get my hip fixed first though. Most of the time these days, I have to point and let other folks do the work.
And you cannot imagine how frustrating that is.

 

[The Griff]

$35 worth of lights on a $5 aluminum bar. And my lovely CB wiring rat's nest.

 

[Metrodps]

Most of the time these days, I have to point and let other folks do the work.
And you cannot imagine how frustrating that is.

Yes Yes I do!

I am using the wiring diagram from KcHilites to do mine

http://support.kchilites.com/index.php?app=core&module=attach§ion=attach&attach_id=4

 

[The Griff]

Ok, well I decided against the light rack, so I threw them on the bumper, and wired them into the hi-beams.
I'd say it worked out ok.

Low beams top
High beams bottom