[RANDOM] Fog light wire length (1 Viewer)

[Eicca]

I got these fog lights from my friend who replaced his damage multiplier with a proper ARB setup. His fog lights had a bad ground and didn't work on his truck, and he was too lazy to fix them, so he gave them to me. Only problem is he cut the wires off. All the way.

Question: I'm going to repair the lights, so how long do the wires need to be in order to reach whatever point I wire them in at, seeing as I'm bolting them on the front of my rig?

Thanks!

 

[96r50]

Umm... long enough to reach from "whatever point you wire them in at" to "the front of your rig".

Seriously, buy a 25' roll of wire and figure it out. This question has no answer.

 

[Eicca]

I just need an average or something from a fog light guru. I have less than zero experience with wiring and electrical and I have no idea where I'm going to wire them in. I will of course be learning all that in the future but I'm mostly focusing on just getting them repaired at the moment with school and all.

 

[greentruck]

I'd say the answer is to make the wire from the lamps long enough to place the junction with the wire from the switch safely under the hood. That location should be a place that is convenient to reach, high enough where it won't get regularly wet when fording and be in a place where you can fix it so that it doesn't flop around and put strain on the connection.

My guesstimate is that the wire from the lamps should be around six to eight feet long. That should allow you to route the wire inside the engine compartment to an appropriate location to join up with the wiring from the lamp switch. Make it longer than you anticipate needing, then adjust as needed by cutting and add the connectors.

 

[Eicca]

Good info. Thanks.

Hey, and I just got the idea to wire in some plugs to the fog lights too so I can pull them off easy. That'll make it a little easier.

 

[Stone]

The proper way to wire up lights is with a relay. Just buy a good quality relay like a Bosch and buy the wiring loom that it plugs into. THey don't cost much and are available pretty much everywhere.

The way I wire my lights usually is:

Pin 30 - to (+) battery (fused of course)
Pin 87 - to (+) of lights
Pin 87a - Blank (make sure nothing touches this pin/wire)
Pin 86 - You can either hook this up to (+) battery and allow your lights to work without ignition being on, or wire it to the (+) of either your low or high beams to work your aux lights in conjunction with those. Fuse this wire also for the relay coil.
Pin 85 - Run this wire through your firewall (recommend going through one of the rubber grommets, and use a split plastic loom to protect all your wires), then to the dash on/off switch, then to chassis ground.

With this method just use a non-lighted switch. HTH.

In answer to your original question...buy a spool of wire in three colours. Make sure the gauge of wire you're using to connect Pin 30 (+ supply) and Pin 87 (+ to lights) is heavy enough gauge to handle the current draw of your combined bulb wattage. The other wires can be skinny as it's just for the relay coil. Solder and heat shrink all connections.

Cheers.

 

[Lka1988]

Taylor, lemme put it this way... You're gonna need a lot more than you think.

Checker sells 10/12/14 AWG rolls of wire for like $5 apiece.

 

[Lka1988]

Oh, and x2 what Stone said. Make sure your connections are solid, and put the heat shrink on the wire BEFORE you solder it...

 

[TomH]

I wouldn't waste my time soldering. A good crimp connection will work just fine.

 

[Eicca]

So it sounds like having a little plug setup on the lights themselves will add for some flexibility WHEN I happen to screw up.

Thanks for the info guys. I should have these things fixed by next week.

 

[Brindleboxer]

Bruce,

I you put a plug on the lights you could always install the Slee auxiliary light harness and utilize the jumper wire for the application you want (either high beam on or low beam on).

Glen