Just pulled off my old PlasmaGlow fire and ice led light bar, to replace it with the new firestorm bar, as the old fire and ice had stopped working and the new bar looks cool.

Imagine myHORROR when I found thatALL the original plasmaglow wiring leading into the light bar, were all burned out!!! [/align]The Fire and ice description, certainly fitted[:@]
So much so, that ALL the plastic insulation was melted and burned and twisted.
Please bear in mind, that I was a qualified electrical technician and used only the best quality materials to solder the plasmaglow wires into my truck harness and I sealed them all, with heat shrink tubing that contains the epoxy stuff to stop water ingress etc.
I also wrapped all the joints in self amalgamating tape to exclude all moisture etc and wrapped it all up with the corrugated conduit that protects our truck harness.
None of the soldered joints were "dry joints", with the solder flowing freely around and into the joints, so a high resistance joint causing a heat build up, just wasn't possible.
I'm horrified about this as, I risked a big electrical fire in my truck just for the sake of some lights, that seemed to "look cool".
None of the joints or the wires in the truck harness were burned or damaged at all. ONLY the black thin plasmaglow wires leading into the light bar.
It appears to me that the gauge of the wires supplied with the bar, do not appear to be man enough for the job????? [sm=confused06.gif]

Either that, or there was an internal short circuit in the light bar itself???


This isn't the first instance that I have read of these light bars catching fire/burning and put it down to possible instalation errors.
Has anyone out there had a similar problem with these bars???
I'm not at present, fitting the Firestorm bar, as I'm most concerned about all this.
I'm e-mailing PlasmaGlow for their input on this and will post their reply.
Pictures to follow.

Al.[/align]

 

That sucks!!! My buddy just installed the fire and ice about 2 weeks ago but it isn't hard wired in yet. I will pass this on to him.

 

Hmm. thats some good info. My "fire and ice" just came in yesterday, I'll have to keep an eye on it. The wiring on my old "line of fire" is fine, just had a few l.e.d's burn out on one end.

 

Here's some pics.
In the first pic you can see the end of the light bar melted.[]
The next picshow's the burned up pieces of wiring, found in the corrugated split protection conduit I used. [:@]
Makes you think doesn't it???[/align]

 

That sucks. I have the same light bar on my truck. So far I have not had any problems. I guess I need to keep an eye on it now.

 

you might consider running the next one through a relay. the amp draw was obviously more then the wiring harness could handle, or you had a dead short. either way a relay will insulate your trucks harness from aftermarket add ons. These can be found at almost any auto parts store and are cheap insurance

 

Yup Horseapples, a relay isa consideration.
I would still err on the side of a fuse however.
A relay will still supply a large amount of current, dependant on the relay loading max operating figure, therefore allowingburning up thedevices ownsupply harness, which in my fire and light bar was in excess of 2 feet long.
It wouldstillas you say, isolate the vehicle harness, but the mod with it's own harness, would still be at risk of fire.
A fuse would go open circuit when it's load was exceeded as in a short, if the correct fuse was installed. The fuse would or should be, rated at the maximum device load and the wiring/harness gauge, should also reflect this max load figure.
This would stop a harness from heating up/burning.
It makes you think, that even withthe smallest of electrical add on's, people must think about what could happen.........?????
It's all scary!
Al.

 

I don't know if a relay would help in this case, since it appears that the wiring connected to the light bar was too small of a gauge. A relay would protect the wiring leading between the switch and the relay itself, but probably wouldn't prevent this. It sounds like they need to recalculate their current draw and use the correct gauge wire!

 

That was my whole point, i guess i wasnt clear as to what I meant, to me, protecting the factory harness was of utmost importance

 

Although a relay would isolate the factory harness, it would still supply whatever it's current rating is, into a short circuit. That could be potentially 10,15,20 or 30 amps, which are the usual prefered relay values, in the automotive industry.
That would burn up any wiring harness, supplying the "add on mod".
I have even seen relay contacts shorted together because a massive current draw due to a short circuit virtually welded them together, therfore providing virtually unlimited current.
That situation would still compromise the factory wiring.
A fuse is I believe,the better option, in that it can't keep supplying current, as it has exceeded it's rating and gone open circuit.
A short circuit on this light bar, appears to have causeda current drain in excess of the wiring harness, provided by PlasmaGlow.
The fault is, that PlasmaGlow did not design any failsafe into this bar that I can see, such as a fuse system,to take into account such a situation occuring.
The new FireStorm bar needs a dedicated 12v dc source to make it work, which should be fused.
The Fire and Ice bar runs directly from the tail and indicator lights and gets it's dc supply from them.
The OEM tail light fuses etc didn't blow to protect the lighting circuit, as the light bar harness melted and went open circuit, before the rating of the light circuit fuses (15 amp I think), as the gauge of wiring is so small on the bar.
These aremy own theory's but the upshot is, it's potentially dangerous to fit stuff like this even though all the instructions and high quality materials were used, to fit the bar?????[:@]
Al.