Flood Lights

[Guest RedBeard]

I'd like to ad flood lights to my 1999 - clearly there is space for them under the front grill on either side - how complicated would it be to install and what kind of switch or control would I have to put inside my truck?

[88pathoffroad]

You mean fog lights or driving lights, I presume.

 

Short and sweet...to wire in new lights, you will need to:

 

1. Mount the lights securely in their new permanent positions.

2. Attach the black wires of the new lights securely to a solid metal ground(the mounting point of the lights themselves, or any nearby grounding point), or you can run ground wires back up into the engine compartment to the battery's negative post directly. Do not ground the lights to a painted surface. If need be, scrape or wire brush the paint off.

2. Run new wiring from the lights into the engine compartment to a relay which is connected to the positive post of the battery.

3. Run a "trigger wire" from the relay into the cab of the vehicle.

4. Place a new switch inside the cab of the vehicle.

5. Run a new 12V+ ignition-on-only wire to the switch.

 

The main power lead from the battery to the relay must have an inline fuse on it of no more than 15 amps or so. Generally, a 10 amp fuse is enough for two standard 55W lights. The "trigger wire", which turns on the relay(in turn feeding power to the lights), will need to be run through your firewall or around your doorjam(you choose, but having an exposed wire in your doorjam is kind of unsightly, plus it could possibly get nicked and short out) to a switch inside the cab of your vehicle. Placement of the relay and the switch is up to you.

 

The reason you need to use a relay is: the relay feeds power directly to the lights from the battery by means of an internal electromagnetic switch. The electromagnetic switch takes very little power to turn on. The lights take a lot of amperage to turn on. If you wire the lights to be fed directly from the new switch inside your truck, the switch will heat up and generally tends to burn out or seize up, because it's internal contacts are a point of high voltage resistance. There is also the matter of voltage drop over distance. If you feed 12V into the end of a ten foot long 14 guage wire, you'll get only 11V on the other end. The resistance of the wire causes a voltage drop, which in turn will reduce the output of the lights. Using a relay allows you to offer the new lights power in a direct path from the battery, with little or no voltage drop and very little resistance.

 

You'll need to run another wire from the switch's "source" or "+ input" over to your fuse panel and attach the new wire to a blank 12V+ slot in the panel. There should be an inline fuse on the wire as well(on the switch's input wire). A small fuse(10A) will be fine. This way, the lights will only work when the ignition is in the "On" position and there's no chance you might forget to turn off your lights. The "output" or "accessory" tab of the new switch should have the relay trigger wire attached to it.

 

When people half-arse install their lights and don't use fuses or relays properly, they often end up having nice little wiring fires under their dash or inside the engine compartment. Not a good thing.

 

Here's a link that helps explain some stuff for you.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html

[John Boy]

You mean fog lights or driving lights, I presume.

 

Short and sweet...to wire in new lights, you will need to:

 

1. Mount the lights securely in their new permanent positions.

2. Attach the black wires of the new lights securely to a solid metal ground(the mounting point of the lights themselves, or any nearby grounding point), or you can run ground wires back up into the engine compartment to the battery's negative post directly. Do not ground the lights to a painted surface. If need be, scrape or wire brush the paint off.

2. Run new wiring from the lights into the engine compartment to a relay which is connected to the positive post of the battery.

3. Run a "trigger wire" from the relay into the cab of the vehicle.

4. Place a new switch inside the cab of the vehicle.

5. Run a new 12V+ ignition-on-only wire to the switch.

 

The main power lead from the battery to the relay must have an inline fuse on it of no more than 15 amps or so. Generally, a 10 amp fuse is enough for two standard 55W lights. The "trigger wire", which turns on the relay(in turn feeding power to the lights), will need to be run through your firewall or around your doorjam(you choose, but having an exposed wire in your doorjam is kind of unsightly, plus it could possibly get nicked and short out) to a switch inside the cab of your vehicle. Placement of the relay and the switch is up to you.

 

The reason you need to use a relay is: the relay feeds power directly to the lights from the battery by means of an internal electromagnetic switch. The electromagnetic switch takes very little power to turn on. The lights take a lot of amperage to turn on. If you wire the lights to be fed directly from the new switch inside your truck, the switch will heat up and generally tends to burn out or seize up, because it's internal contacts are a point of high voltage resistance. There is also the matter of voltage drop over distance. If you feed 12V into the end of a ten foot long 14 guage wire, you'll get only 11V on the other end. The resistance of the wire causes a voltage drop, which in turn will reduce the output of the lights. Using a relay allows you to offer the new lights power in a direct path from the battery, with little or no voltage drop and very little resistance.

 

You'll need to run another wire from the switch's "source" or "+ input" over to your fuse panel and attach the new wire to a blank 12V+ slot in the panel. There should be an inline fuse on the wire as well(on the switch's input wire). A small fuse(10A) will be fine. This way, the lights will only work when the ignition is in the "On" position and there's no chance you might forget to turn off your lights. The "output" or "accessory" tab of the new switch should have the relay trigger wire attached to it.

 

When people half-arse install their lights and don't use fuses or relays properly, they often end up having nice little wiring fires under their dash or inside the engine compartment. Not a good thing.

 

Here's a link that helps explain some stuff for you.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html

I don't see no relay at the side of the postive battery terminal.

[KILLVOX]

[max_stryker]

WOW aaron, NICE write up

[88pathoffroad]

I don't see no relay at the side of the postive battery terminal.

Thanks, and you have to add one yourself.