driving lamp wiring

[drum655]

can i use the factory fog light wiring to put new 55 watt driving lights on my new bumper? or do i need to run all new wiring?

[keptin]

Yes you can use the stock fog wiring for two 55watt lamps....just dont use more then 55watts or two lamps and you will be fine.

....the only downside to this is that you will only be able to use them while the low beams are on....not a great thing while off-roading.....I suggest for a clean look you find yourself a DII cruise control switch and pigtail for the switch to wire up some lights...

....you can find them new for $22 at expeditionexchange.com, or buy them used for around $5.

[drum655]

is there no way to bypass that relay that turns off the fogs with high beams? it seems like there has got to be a way!

[keptin]

yes there is a way...Im not sure what it is. You need a relay in there....but you can bypass the part that leads to either the ECU or Hi-Low beam switches or something.

When I rewire I just plan to string it all out again leading to a cruise control switch....another problem is that with the fog switch you cant use it while the car isnt running......which is sometimes nice when you are looking at maps or something, etc.

[drum655]

awesome...well if you figure out "this way" to do it please let me know!!! i am sure its pretty simple, just figuring it out is tough. and tht also may bypass the ignition where i could run them with the key off!

[FelixLockhart]

If you want the front lights to come on at any time, why not just run new wires? Then you'd have the proper gauge for something bigger than 55w in the future. Plus, by the time you bypass the ignition circuit and the headlight circuit, you might as well run new wire anyway, since it will probably involve running a wire from the foglight circuit to a 12v+ source anyway.

[Adam in NYC USA]

Originally Posted by FelixLockhart

If you want the front lights to come on at any time, why not just run new wires? Then you'd have the proper gauge for something bigger than 55w in the future. Plus, by the time you bypass the ignition circuit and the headlight circuit, you might as well run new wire anyway, since it will probably involve running a wire from the foglight circuit to a 12v+ source anyway.

APC sells an inexpensive wiring harness kit you can use for most driving and offroad lights. It runs for about $11-15. It comes in a blister pack with a wired fob with a green-red led setup. I put the fob onto and over the LED used for the alarm system.

I routed the wire to run my Hella lights direct and can use them with the car off.

[texasrover]

If it were me (and it was one time) I would run those lamps directly off the battery (fused). Have a relay tied with your bright lights that switched them on when ever you pulled your high beams. I did this with the Hella I am running and left the PIAA lights hooked to the fogs. No point running those PIAAs when I have the high beams on.

If you need those extra running lights, might as well be running high beams too. Besides, it looks pretty cool when you flash someone coming the other direction, who has forgotten to turn off their brights. LOL

[texasrover]

BTW... if you run straight from the battery and use a relay switch to activate the light with the high beams... you dont have to bother running wires into the cab. Everythign stays up front behind the grill.

[keptin]

hey texasrover....what lights are you using? (are you the one with the Hella-LR 5k's?) And where exactly did you rig the wire from the relay to.....your highbeams, but where specifically? any pics?

....What I want to do is have a switch that lets me either have the aux. lights turn on when the highbeams do, but also be able to manually keep them on.

[texasrover]

Josh,

Yes, those are the Hella 5Ks.

I ran those directly from the positive terminal of the battery with an inline fuse. I ran the ground to the frame (I guess you can run that ground back to the battery if you wanted). Hey, I guess you can ground it to the same ground your head lights are hooked to. They dont care.

If you look behind the headlights and have a voltmeter... touch off those wires to the headlight socket (if I recall it was a brown wire) with the brights on. It should go hot with brights on and off while brights off (((it is a small wire))). I picked up a 30 amp relay from Napa for a few bucks spliced it off that wire and crossed it with the wires to the Hellas. The power on that wire to the high beams is not pulling any more juice... it simple switches that relay to close the circuit for the Hellas tied to the battery. Each time I turn on the brights it automatically turns on the Hellas. Obviously, unless I manually unhook them, they will always come on at the same time as the high beams.

I was okay with this. because it saved me from any major wiring. The battery is right up front and so are those lights. I ran all the wires inside those plastic flex hoses (name???). It protects those wires and looks better than having naked wires hanging down.

You only need one relay and only have to worry about splicing off one side for the high beams.

It takes very little wiring this way. Very little!

I suspect I will do this in the future for rear facing lights. If I ever get off my butt and get a safari rack. I will splice a relay off the rear fogs. They will run with brights on. (I think??? ) Be nice to flash someone driving too close. j/k

[texasrover]

Originally Posted by keptin

....What I want to do is have a switch that lets me either have the aux. lights turn on when the highbeams do, but also be able to manually keep them on.

I see your point. Do you have rear fogs? If I am not mistaken those will stay on even with the high beams on... You can trace that hot wire back the the relay for the rear fogs... run you another relay to activate you added aux lights. This way, you have aux with high or low.

That would put you back into digging around in the cab but would save you from having to mod you dash or add switches on top of switches.

[texasrover]

Josh,

I dont have any pics of the wiring.... I will try to take some this evening.

[texasrover]

Josh,

The other day we were talking about beam quality and brightness... this got me thinking. I have lots of 1 and 2 million candle power spot lights sitting around. All of them run off 12v power. Why not take them apart and reseal that spot lamp into a new container such as milled piece of PVC and paint it with Hercules or under carriage coating. I could make it look like regular lighting and have a monster spot lights sitting up there instead...

ahhh maybe I am just BSing myself. I may give it try for the hell of it.

[keptin]

That 7mil candlepower spot idea sounds cool, though I wonder if it would suck the batt. dry in a short time.

Anyhow.....thanks, I will do that and wire it to my highbeams partially.

I want to do like what they did on the ECR DII install where they had a 3 way switch before the relay. One position was ON with high beams, one was ON, and one was OFF. I plan to do the same to a rear light (on a roof rack) eventually, where one will be ON with reverse lights, ON, and OFF.