HOW TO INSTALL FOG LIGHTS

I went to Walmart and purchased a set of Hella 500FF lights. They have 2 different kinds of 500's. The 500 regulars which is a Fog light style beam and the 500FF which is a "free Form" and has a clear lens which is used as a Driving light.

Now, they give you all the wiring, the relay, wire nuts, rocker switch..etc that you need for the install.


This is great if you want the lights to only come on with your high beams, but if you want a completely separate switch that is isolated all by itself, your going to need to cut the factory ends off and do a little revising as well as purchase an additional rocker switch to handle the direct load.
Now: You can either use a relay or not. If you choose NOT to use a relay, then you'll need to purchase a rocker switch capable of handling the high current demands the lights require. A relay would pull very small current and would allow complete use of the Hella harness. For that you would follow the Hellas directions and instead of hooking the wire to the highbeams, hook it up to the lows or parking lights and this allows you to use the rocker switch as long as the parking lights or headlights are on. Using their wiring, you only have the 55w bulb option unless you replace all of the wiring they privide. There's an easier way.
Direct way:
They give plenty of wire to run to the dash, so you can cut that and use the red/black/yellow wires or you can choose to use all new wiring as I did because I needed to upgrade for more powerful bulbs.
Another thing is that they give you 55watt bulbs. These are the same wattage as your headlights, so unless you like having 4 headlights I would really suggest throwing those out and picking up some 100watt bulbs. You could even get 130watt or 150watt bulbs, but I chose to get the 100watt bulbs as that is what my local auto parts store carried.




For the wiring, If you plan on keeping the 55w bulbs, you can use the measly 16ga or 18ga wire that they give with the lights. I cannot remember which gauge it is, but it's thin. However, I went overkill and used 12ga. wire in case I ever wanted to upgrade to the 130watt or 150 watt bulbs. A rule of thumb to figure what size(gauge) wire needed is to figure out the amps or current that it will draw. amps=(bulb wattagex2)/volts. In this case you can figure on 13volts for the car. So a 100watt set of bulbs in the above equation will draw 100x2=200w 200w/13v=15.5 amps You always want to round up when possible. In order to determine which gauge wire will be suitable, you need to figure out the length in which the wires will be. The longer the wire the thicker it will need to be because of added resistance. I won't get all technical so I'll make it really easy. If the above math is used, figure on most cars using less than 10ft of wire for each strand. If you run 100watt bulbs for a pair of lights, you can use 14guage wire effectively and using a maximum 20amp fuse. If you want to use 130watt or 150watt bulbs you will need to use 12ga wire and a 30amp fuse so you do not exceed the amount of current in which the wire can handle. This is how wire insulation melts and fires happen. I pulled out all of the wires inside the housings and ran 12ga for everything! It is very important to maintain the same wire gauge for everything. You should never crimp a 12ga wire to a 16ga wire unless the circuit only requires the use of a 16ga wire! 14ga is a bit easier to work with for this sorta thing, so again if you plan on keeping and using 100w bulbs, then just use 14ga. It's much cheaper too.
For the actual wiring, if you want to use your headlights or high beams for a switched fog light set-up I suggest following the directions that are supplied with the lights. If you want to have a completely isolated set-up that operates on it's own behalf and only on a rocker switch that you control, follow these steps. First before anything, if you are changing the wire gauge or bulbs, you should work with the lights on a bench prior to installing them.

I mounted the rocker switch on the underside of the dash. Luckily the 06-08 Rams have a 1-1/2"x2" pop -out piece that makes life easy for mounting.


I used my dremel to cut a hole big enough for my rocker switch that I purchased at the auto parts store. I chose an LED one so it's lit when they are on(just the tiny bulb, not the whole face is lit). You need to make sure the switch can handle the load of the power supplied. In this case, I purchased a 30amp switch. It should be marked on the side. Hella only supplied a 10amp switch with the 55w bulbs since the relay was actually carrying all the power, so that switch went into the wire collection in my garage..lol You want a switch that meets or exceeds the fuse rating in which you will be using. The rocker switch will have 3 prongs: 1 for Ground, 1 for Power(battery), and 1 for Switched power(to lights) These prongs are close together so I recommend using insulated connectors. You will need to run the ground wire from the switch as short as possible while still having enough room to work. The switch needs it's own ground as well as the lights.

The Power was ran into a separate fuse holder that holds my 30amp fuse holder in which I used a 20amp for the time being since I installed 100watt bulbs

I actually installed 2 fuse holders for the lights. I installed the largest possible fuse for the line near the battery(30A) and then a slightly smaller fuse in the cab suitable to handle the current of the lights. This pops the smaller of the 2 first which is inside the cab and easy to get to. The one near the battery(which should never ever blow using double fuses), otherwise the line from the battery to the inside of cab can get chafed and short to ground and cause problems. I installed 30A by the battery and 20A inside the cab(100w bulbs x2 draw max of 17A)
The fuse panel under the hood has a bolt conveniently located right up front, so a ring terminal should be used that is large enough to slide over the bolt.


The Switched power from the rocker switch goes directly to the hot lead on the lights. In this case the blue wire. If you are confused and have taken the lights apart and stripped all the wiring off, it will be the white wire from the bulb. I used all Black wire for a clean appearance because I didn't feel the need to run bulky wire loom.

I ziptied the wires any place possible to avoid any wire chaffing to the insulation. I also soldered all of my connections and put a small dab of dielectric grease over the solder before I slid the heat shrink tubing and heated it up. I ran the switched power wire from the rocker switch all the way to the passenger side light which runs directly past the driver light and slid the heat shrink over the wire before I soldered. Then I simply stripped the insulation at the driver light and wrapped the driver light wire around the power wire and soldered it. This way there are no breaks in the wire and less connections that are available to any corrosion. I grounded the bulbs right to the frame of the truck with a self tapper. They were grounded individually from each other. You could even ground them to the mounting hardware since it would be mounted to metal, but I figured it would be a hassle for later alignment. Make the wires short as possible, but allow enough room for the light to pivot without pulling on the wire. I actually was able to tuck a few inches back into the housing to make the wire as short as possible and still have room for any adjustments later on. I even put dieletric grease over the grounded terminals and tried to work it up inside the back of the terminal. Dielectric grease is your best friend for future prevention of corrosion. I love the stuff. I apply it to any connections possible every spring.


As for mounting the lights. It was super easy for me. I have a 2008 Dodge Ram and there's a perfect spot behind the grill. It has the frame rail for the radiator support running right if front of everything. The Hella's are very shallow and it allows plenty of room for clearance. Many aren't sure how to evenly center the light to one another. If you forget everything else about the vehicle and focus in the center of the vehicle it will make things very easy. You can always go off of the hood latch and measure outwards respectively on each side if need be. However, I noticed that on the frame support there were plastic push screws that held wiring that protruded through the bottom side of the rail and it was perfectly spaced. I simply drilled my holes directly over the top of them on the top side of the mold.

It was a matter of minutes before my lights were bolted on. You should always use a smaller bit for a starter hole and then work your way up to a larger bit skipping a few sizes in between. I own a cordless drill and it is the perfect match for anything automotive related.
For alignment. I chose to align my driving lights to the height of my high beams. I used a flat ground and pulled facing a wall and backing up about 30ft. Luckily for me it was a brick wall which made life easier for precise adjustment. I chose high beam height because it's straight ahead and these lights are pencil beams. The further they travel the higher in the sky they will go, so you may need to do a little experimenting to see what's best for your likings. Guys with a 2" leveling kit on the front of their rams will need a few adjustments because if you match them against a wall to your high beams, these lights will be pointing up in the trees going down the road. Were not out bird watching, so make sure you adjust accordingly. My lights were initially too high even at their lowest possible setting because the housing was touching the frame bolt and not allowing the light swivel downwards enough for proper adjustment. I used my handy little Dremel and ground down the plastic housing just enough so the light could get where I wanted it.

Notice the angle after I ground out a small amount where the light was touching the mounting hardware.

At first I measured the distance of the light to be 25 or so inches apart and made that same measurement on the wall, but at night down the road it was a little too close together, so I made them 35" apart on the wall as best as I could see, these suckers are BRIGHT! The widening of the beams made a big diff. Again, this is something you need to experiment on. It was very hard to distinguish between the high beams and the Hella's as the Hella's simply drown out any other factory light source.


Good luck with the install. If you ever have any doubts about wiring or fuses always size up the wire(lower the gauge rating the thicker the wire) and always use the smallest fuse possible. This can be determined by the match equation given above.


Ram3rdGen