Wiring Off Road Lights

[Detonate]

Ok, well I've been told it's going to cost me $100 per light to have my lights wired which is bull****.

So where can I go to get DETAILED information about wiring my lights.

I have 4 on the roof and and 4 in the back.

All I have is the lights. No "relays" whatever the hell those are, or any other knowledge of wiring lights.

I have 3 switches I bought from Radio shack, but that's it.

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North Texas Hummer Team Member

2003 Red H2 equipped with Tough Country Heavy Duty Armor Series Front End with Winch, Rear Bumper, Brush Guard, and Roof Rack.

[Cranky Steve]

Nice, that's the way to go for sure. Did you also use a fuse between the battery abd the relay contact for the power to the lights?

I always fuse both the power to the relay and to whatever device the relay is controlling.

Since my truck is so old, I added a separate 40 amp fuse block for auxilery items under the hood, simular to the set up on late model cars and trucks. Makes it easy to add lights and what not.

[Navigator]

But that would have cost me more than five bucks!

[cinci]

If you pull the plastic cover off of the fuse box under the front hood, you will also have to remove the rear hood snubber block support, there are several accessory wiring posts that are hot and fused to attach accessories to. This makes a cleaner install than attaching everything to the battery.

[cinci]

Steve,

I went Paragons way and only used a fuse between the battery and the relay. The current has to come through that fuse to reach a shorted wire to the lights. But I may be wrong .

[Cranky Steve]

Yo D, something like this for each pair of lights.



A great source of parts for Automotive electrical is http://www.waytekwire.com

Relay:
http://order.waytekwire.com/CGI-BIN/LANSAWEB?WEBEVENT+L078C10366E83A11683C8722+M37+ENG



Relay Connector:
http://order.waytekwire.com/CGI-BIN/LANSAWEB?WEBEVENT+L078C11396D53717E1258922+M37+ENG



Loose Conectors:
http://order.waytekwire.com/CGI-BIN/LANSAWEB?WEBEVENT+L078C11396D53717E1258922+M37+ENG

[cinci]

This second picture is a close up of the device where you can see the two fuses and the wire for the second circuit. I used one for the trigger to my fog lights in the bumper as well as the lights on the Gobi rack. This circuit is switched so when I turn the ignition off it turns off the lights. Thus preventing me from accidentally leaving them on.

[PARAGON]

Steve, I agree to be as safe as possible in wiring but I think the 2 fuses are redundant. The only time the fuse to the lights will be hot is if the fuse from the battery is hot. If there is a short anywhere the fuse to the battery will fail as it should.

Not arguing with your wiring, its just to me it doesn't seem necessary to add the second fuse in the circuit.

[Cranky Steve]

David, Is the add in fuse from Autozone you used for powering a relay or is that the power directly to the lights through a switch(s)?

[cinci]

Det,

I finished wiring the lights for my front bumper yesterday and found a couple of things at the Auto Zone that made life very easy. These were jumpers to create an extra circuit from any fuse in your fuse box. They plug into an existing fuse socket and you plug that fuse into them. They then have a socket for another fuse and a wire with a crimp connector for another circuit. This is the easiest way I have found to attach to switched power from the inside fuse box.

In the pictures below the first picture is of the entire fuse box with two of these devices installed. Look for the red wire in the upper right hand corner and the lower right hand corner. This is what they look like when they are installed. They provide for a neat solution and fuse protection for your circuit.

[Cranky Steve]

Trust me when I tell you not to do it any other way. Without a fuse on each device, a short will likely result in a fire. You do the math .....

$.25 fuse, 50k H2 .....

[Cranky Steve]

Your fine, to clarify, I like to use 2 fuses, one for the power that turns thr relay on and off, maybe a 2 amp or less fuse. And one on the load that he relay controls, IE lights or whatever, with a fuse rated to match the load + a taste.

My aux fuse block comes off the battery and is fed via a Fusable link with a 40 amp fuse to an 8ga wire to the block. I only use those fuses for the lights or whatever. The relays are fused from the main fues panel auxillerys, either on all the time or just when the key is on, depending on the device.

I also like to use a lot of the plastic like corregated wire cover on everything.

Here is some great shots of Crash's work, he does it right! He swapped a Chevy 4.3 v6 into his 83 Toyota truck, and had to to build a custom wiring harness for it.

[DennisAJC]

That's a tidey job!


Jim,

I don't know if it's the same thing, when I wired my XTC roof rack lights, it only came with 1 relay per bar(1 for the back and 1 for the front). I have about a dozen relays left over from awhile ago still new. PM me if you want em.

This dollar/hour amount per light sounds like a scam.

Here they'll charge to install the whole set for $115 plus parts. Not per light.

I installed all my toys not because it's cheaper, but I don't trust em.

[cinci]

Steve,

It sounds like we are on the same page . I use the corregated wire cover on everything outside of the cab and electical tape, to create a harness, inside the cab.

[cinci]

Steve,

I used this for the power to the relay, which then pulled power from the battery for the lights.

[Hummer Man]

Detonate, Phil D has it all right! I did 2 or 3 post for this MID-YEAR (SUMMER) look for them I give detailed instructions on wire size, Amp draw, What acessory line to pull power from ETC.

[Detonate]

That is probably a very informative post. However, I don't know **** about wiring lights.

Which means:
I don't know what a relay is, which one to buy, or where I should look to buy one.

I know what a Positive supply from the battery is, but I don't know how I'll get it to the relay, or if I need to run one per relay, or how or what fuse to use.

I certainly don't know how to take a feed of a fuse or where that would plug into.

Not to sure about how to ground a light from the switch feed either.

So basically I can understand what you are saying, but I have no idea how to put it all together.

Know I know how my wife feels when I talk computer to her.

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North Texas Hummer Team Member

2003 Red H2 equipped with Tough Country Heavy Duty Armor Series Front End with Winch, Rear Bumper, Brush Guard, and Roof Rack.

[Detonate]

Ok, well I've been told it's going to cost me $100 per light to have my lights wired which is bull****.

So where can I go to get DETAILED information about wiring my lights.

I have 4 on the roof and and 4 in the back.

All I have is the lights. No "relays" whatever the hell those are, or any other knowledge of wiring lights.

I have 3 switches I bought from Radio shack, but that's it.

------------------------------
North Texas Hummer Team Member

2003 Red H2 equipped with Tough Country Heavy Duty Armor Series Front End with Winch, Rear Bumper, Brush Guard, and Roof Rack.

[Detonate]

Thanks for the offer, but I already got some switches from Radio shack. It's the relays that I don't have.

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North Texas Hummer Team Member

2003 Red H2 equipped with Tough Country Heavy Duty Armor Series Front End with Winch, Rear Bumper, Brush Guard, and Roof Rack.

[H2Girl]

Any decent alarm shop should be able to wire it up for you at a much better price.