My friends bought me some back up lights last night. So I going to hook em up last night but i got to thinking. Should i run a relay with em?

Im going to use them for backup lights and I just want to run a switch in the cab so i can turn em off and on when i like and not when its in reverse.

Heres a pic of the wiring that came with them. I know i need to buy more wiring and a switch.
.

 

for sure a relay!!

Go to Best Buy or any car stereo/alarm shop. I would run 10ga. wire (again.....car stereo shop). Go to MOM and Pop type place and go to the back. Installer probably sell the stuff for lunch money out the back door.

Good diagram here on how to wire:
http://www.kchilites.com/faq/instruc...517_backup.pdf

If that pic is over your head then just do this:

Small toggle switch....one side to ground other side goes to 86
Battery wire WITH INLINE FUSE to 30 AND 85 ( again i would think that 10ga. would be ideal)
your backup light power wire go to 87
87a can remain open.

Something like this:


If it was me I would run a relay per light.....but I have a bunch laying around. Probably overkill but no reason not too.

 

I just hooked up my offroad lights to a switch that runs directly off the battery, no issues.

I would like to point out that you'll probably want to buy either a switch that has a light in it or install some sort of light to let you know when the back up lights are on. That way you don't forget and go zipping down the highway with the backups on.

 

Thanks for the tips.

 

always run a relay when you have aux lights there cheap you dont wanna take the chances of a fire do you ?

 

when in doubt relay...

for several reasons:

1) i find it give brighter lights
2) Safer
3) its the right way of doing it.

 

Ya'll make it sound like hooking up a relay is easy. I can tell you honestly that I know next to nothing about wiring so a relay is a foreign entity to me.

 

looks easy to me

CLICKY

 

they are easy...... relays are just another swithc... but instead of all the current going through the cheap switch in your dash, that just controls the big switch designed to hold the draw of lights.

pin 30 = straight to your battery. (larger the wire the better) use RED wire
pin 87 = wire to the + side of your lights (some relays have 2 87 pins.. one for each light, otherwise just use the one and splice the wire... again larger wire the better) use RED wire
pin 86 = goes to your switch. use White or Blue wire
pin 85 = ground. use Black wire


on the swithc you will have the wire (i usually use white or blue) that is coming from the relay pin 86. that will go to the center pin of the swtich. you will also need to hook up a lead to the batter (full time) or to the ign. (only hot when truck is on,... i tap into the ign wire of my stereo). you will also need to ground the switch.


on the lights, you will ahve the lead(s) coming from the 87 pin(s) of the relay. this goes direct to the + side of the light. ground the neg. side out to the body.



when you flip the switch in the dash, a small amount of electricity (this is why its ok to tap into the 16g. stereo ign wire) goes through the switch to the relay. when the relay detects the signal it then flips its internal switch linking 30 (large gauge wire direct from battery) and 87 (wires running to the lights) creating a short link through large wire direct from the battery to the light. when you flip the switch off in the dash, the connection is broken and the lights turn off...

because of the larger gauge, and less splices, and just better connection, the lights are brighter.. your getting more electricity to them.... because you're not trying to pull all 55w through the small wire connecting your running lights or ign wire to the stereo, your not going to melt wires which create fires...

 

Hey thanks for the pics and such.

 

The one thing I would do, is wire up the lights totally independant of the factory wiring. That way you don't cause any problems moving old wiring around, and you can turn your lights on whenever you want.

You will have to run two power wires from the battery, one for the relay and one for the switch. Make sure both of these are fused.

 

Yea Jay im not going to hook them in to any part of the factory wiring.

So what gauge wire should i get?
ive got some 14, could i use that for the switch?
what about the relay and such?
Should i throw out the wiring that came with the lights?

 

I like to wire my lights myself, that way I know its right.

14 gauge is plenty. If you can, get some 16 gauge wiring for your switch, its eaiser to route into the cab than the 14 gauge. The bigger wire will work, but its overkill.

I usually wire the relay and lights up with 14 or bigger, then the switch gets 16 gauge.

 

Alright so put the relay under the hood on the firewall and run all the wires on the frame? Then run the switch wire through the grommet by the a pillar?

How would you run the wires?

 

Or just run the relay switch off of the reverse lights. That way it has to be in reverse for them to be on.

 

I was going to do that but i want to be able to turn em on with out being in reverse or the truck on. Like when camping or whatnot.

 

I was just going to say the same thing, lol


Or as an option, you could also do something similar to how I wired up the fan control box for my electric fan, and use a 3 position switch

Up - Over-ride on
Middle - Over-ride off
Down - Fully auto, with reverse lights


but then the wiring gets just a tad bit more complicated; but then again, I love wiring

 

That would be so sweet but im not that skilled haha.