Hello Fellow JK Freaks!

Proud new owner of an '08 Sahara and really happy to have found this place! Looking forward to hanging out with all of you as the addiction to all things jeep continues.

Here's my question. I bought a hood mount light bar that holds two KC lights. The mounting of the lights and bar is very straight forward and I have no problems here. The question is regarding the wiring hook up. I did not get any instructions with the lights, assumingly because I bought them separately. I picked up a light wiring kit at AutoZone and am wondering if I have the right one.

My search online has shown me that you can hook up lights with and without a relay. You can also hook up the power source either from tappingdirectly into the battery OR tapping into the fuse box.

My lights are each 55W (only two being hooked up). Do I need a relay? Is a relay for high wattage output? Even if I dont need it, will it hurt anything if I install it anyway? Last, as for the power hook up....what is the preferred way...direct to battery or via fuse box? Ive read some folks advising against battery hook up.

MANY THANKS!!!!!!

bubba

 

The "best" way that I think, is how I did mine. I used 2 relays for a total of 5 switches, but it is the best way for me, and you should only need one. Take power from the smoking package "cig lighter" +(pos) to the switch, then to the relay, and out the other end for the Ground. The other +(pos) from the battery direct to the relay, then continues to the lights. Make sure to put a fuse as close to the lights as possible. If that is not clear enough, I'm sure other questions will be answered pretty quick too.
This makes sure that they only run when the key is on the Acc/Run position, gives you a switch, and won't burn out the switch.

 

thanks zoom. finished the install and came out great. i wound up not using a relay and the lights look and work awesome. only thing is i think i need to get new switsch because although its working fine the little l.e.d light doesnt come on.

 

Rock,

thanks for the input. Im going to check the grounds. For the switch ground I attached it to a chassis bolt. The light did work intermittently. When I first installed it, it lit up. But on subsequent times it did not. Thanks again. Heading out to check things now.

bubba

 

The grounds seemed to be connected fine. I tried swapping out the switch and the new switch lit right up. Guess it was bad. Again, many thanks for the advice!

 

Sorry... but.. the fuse goes AS CLOSE TO THE POWER SOURCE AS POSSIBLE.

If you buy any wiring harness made for offroad lights the fuse will be within the first 6" of the power wire. Putting the fuse 8' away at the lights can and will cause a fire if there is a short between the power connection and the fuse.

Also, you should always use a relay when running auxillary lights. There are a few reasons for this:

1. You will have a shorter wire run from the power source to the lights.
-The shorter the wire run, the less resistance in the wiring. Less resistance in the wiring means more light.
-Also, the shorter wire run will mean less places for the wiring to come into contact with sharp edges causing shorts.

2. When running your rellay power from the switch to the rellay you can use a much smaller wire. 18ga wire is perfect for rellays You can fit a whole lot more 18ga. wires through a small hole in the firewall then a 12 or 14 ga. I've found that you can buy 16-22ga wires already loomed together in different colors. Makes wiring lots of lights much easier.

3. Blowing switches: I know that the switches you buy say 15-30amp rated. But, you will have an immense amount of heat at the switch if you run the light power through it. This will cause it to fail. I've seen them melt. If you run only rellay power through it they won't get warm at all.

4. The rellay will protect your lights: If for some reason you get a power surge due to a short between the fuse and the lights sometimes high power setups will blow the fuse so fast due to the size of the wiring and the amperage it can carry that the fuse holder will melt and make a direct contact. The rellay will blow in this case and be a second level of protection from blowing the lights or causing a fire.

There are a few companies that sell complete wiring kits. They make this all very easy. Any good set of lights will come with one.

Now as to power hook up. Direct to the battery is just fine as long as the in line fuse is very close to the battery. An Aux. fuse box does make things much easier when you start running more than 1 or 2 accessories. You can pick up a marine aux fuse box at any marine store. They are good because they can handle the weather/moisture/heat/salt/mud/etc.

Sorry this has been so wordy... but. I've seen way too many under hood fires due to bad wiring.

Last: Buy a tube of Silicone Di-electric grease. This stuff will be your new best friend in an offroad vehicle. Every electical connection should have this stuff in it. When you clip your plugs to the lights. Fill um up. When you insert your fuse. Put a dab on each prong. Every place you make an electrical connection use it. (but connectors/crimp connectors especially) The really good crimp connectors come with not only this gease in them already but also heat shrink tubing attached as well. After your done with your lights. And you have some free time. Take every connector apart that you can get your fingers on and put a little silicone di-electric grease in them. Make sure that you only get it on one clip at a time. The grease does conduct electricity. You don't want to create a short in a connector that has multiple wires in it. I would HIGHLY recomend doing the spark plug wires as well. That $5.00 tube of stuff will go a long way towards waterproofing your jeep's electrical system.

 

Dream, thank you for the thorough reply! My set up does indeed have the fuse close to the battery so I think I am okay here. As for the relay, I am just confused about this element. The lights I hooked up are two 55W 2"X6" KC hilites mounted to a bar on the hood. Due to the wattage, is it safe not to have a relay? I can easily pick up a relay but just wondering if I truly need one for my particular setup. Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

It's not that what you have is unsafe if it's done correctly. It just isn't the best way to do it. I think I gave you the main reasons for why you want to use a rellay. The autozone light harnesses are not great. And if you use your lights.. .I mean really use them... hours at a time. You WILL have some type of wiring failure at some point. The harness you purchased most likely only uses 16-18 ga wire. For the lenght of wiring your running at that wattage you need at least a 14. If you have KC's I'm surprised they didn't come with the KC wiring kit. If it didn't, you should purchase it. It is one of the best pre-made wiring kits I have seen. Very simple to install. And I can garantee that you will get more light out of your lights afterwards. Your small wires combined with the extra long lenght of wire are creating an imense amount of resistance. This resistance results in a voltage drop. With the correct setup you could easily see the difference. If you would like to see this for yourself. Take a voltage meter to the battery directly while the truck is running and the lights are on. then measure the voltage at the lights. There will be less at the lights. That is becuase the wiring is absorbing some of the power. Power loss is transfered to HEAT. Given enough time you will feel the heat along the wiring. Especially at the switch. That heat will eventually cause a failure at some point. Add that weaking of your wiring from the heat to a little chaffing of the power wire running through the fire wall... and you have just found out how people have fires under the hood.

 

well said! Im picking up the KC wiring kit! I was suprised that the lights did not come with the wiring. I ordered them from Quadratec and actually emailed them to let them know that they should include some mention of the wiring kit NOT being included. Got a reply from them and they said they would forward to the web team to correct. Thanks again!

 

Which part number did you buy??? I just looked at kc's site. the 26 series lights all have wiring harneses included. Make sure you weren't supposed to get them from the get go. Unless you bought them individually. Then you wouldn't have gotten the harness.

Home > 26 Series > All Season Kit > 2x6 All Season System
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# 516



SKU: 516
PRICE: 158.44

2x6 All Season System
# 516 Description 55w H3 Halogen System (pair)
3 sets of interchangeable Lexan Fog and Driving lenses
Black composite housings
Complete wiring harness with switch and relay



If you did buy individually then you want this:

Home > Accessories > Wiring > Add on Wiring Harness # 6316
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with 40amp Relay




The only thing that I do to modify these harnesses is for the switch itself. I grab power from the cig plug on the left which is ignition power. Key off lights off. I also have so many lights that I don't use thier harness for the switch at all. I run a multi-wire loom from the dash switches out to my rellays. If your going to have a normal amount of accessories you should have no problem using thier green wire out from the dash to the rellays.