Wiring harness
#1
03-05-2015, 11:59 AM
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 10
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
#2
03-05-2015, 12:19 PM
#3
03-05-2015, 05:36 PM
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 10
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
#5
03-05-2015, 09:54 PM
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 10
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
#7
03-05-2015, 11:12 PM
Grand Champion
And it's my hobby to add it for you. 
But rather than be phallic about it:
To the OP: For each 100W light you'll want a minimum of 12AWG copper wire to get good performance out of them. 12AWG runs about 1.6 ohms per 1000', so a ten foot run would be about .0016 ohms. 100W lamps will pull about 7.25A each with 13.8VDC applied, so the drop of that single ten foot run would be about 0.01VDC which is quite acceptable. If instead you want to run just one wire for both lights and branch it off to the individual lights, jump up to 8AWG for the feeder, and 12AWG for the branches.
BE DAMN CERTAIN to use a suitable relay to provide the power to those lights. The factory wiring is already insufficient for the stock headlights, and if you try to stuff another 14.5A through the headlight switch you're going to make smoke in short order. Don't do that.
It won't hurt to go bigger (lower gauge number, e.g. from 12AWG to 10AWG) but about all you'll get for it is a reduced bang:buck ratio.
If the lights are grounded through their mounts, remove the battery negative terminal and measure the resistance from the negative cable to the mount points. If it's much more than dead zero (with the meter properly zeroed before measuring), you'll want to work around that. One way is to hang a ground strap from the (cleaned, bared metal of the) frame behind the bumper to the (cleaned, bared metal of the) assembly to which the lights are mounted, another is to run conductors from the mount points back to battery negative. You'll want to do the same if the lights flicker when driving over bumps.
But rather than be phallic about it:
To the OP: For each 100W light you'll want a minimum of 12AWG copper wire to get good performance out of them. 12AWG runs about 1.6 ohms per 1000', so a ten foot run would be about .0016 ohms. 100W lamps will pull about 7.25A each with 13.8VDC applied, so the drop of that single ten foot run would be about 0.01VDC which is quite acceptable. If instead you want to run just one wire for both lights and branch it off to the individual lights, jump up to 8AWG for the feeder, and 12AWG for the branches.
BE DAMN CERTAIN to use a suitable relay to provide the power to those lights. The factory wiring is already insufficient for the stock headlights, and if you try to stuff another 14.5A through the headlight switch you're going to make smoke in short order. Don't do that.
It won't hurt to go bigger (lower gauge number, e.g. from 12AWG to 10AWG) but about all you'll get for it is a reduced bang:buck ratio.
If the lights are grounded through their mounts, remove the battery negative terminal and measure the resistance from the negative cable to the mount points. If it's much more than dead zero (with the meter properly zeroed before measuring), you'll want to work around that. One way is to hang a ground strap from the (cleaned, bared metal of the) frame behind the bumper to the (cleaned, bared metal of the) assembly to which the lights are mounted, another is to run conductors from the mount points back to battery negative. You'll want to do the same if the lights flicker when driving over bumps.
Trending Topics
#9
03-06-2015, 06:21 PM
Grand Champion
Oh, no, I'm with ya here. I meant me -- I added the simple written destructions in order not to be the guy who clutters things up just for giggles. This time, anyway. 
Last edited by UnregisteredUser; 03-06-2015 at 08:22 PM.
#10
03-06-2015, 08:05 PM
