So I put on my two other Hellas tonight with 100 watt bulbs in em and also did all the wires to 14 ga, 30 amp switch, 20 amp inline fuse, and used the 40 amp relay they gave me. I had em all wired up and just needed to put plastic tubing over the wires for looks and saftey but they worked and were much brighter then the other 2 55 hellas I have alread on my light bar.

But since I had the negative battery termanl post connected from seeing if the new lights were gonna work I forgot and went to re attach the excisting wires to the other switch and they all touched causing the ground wire from the switch to burn up. Scarred the **** outta me seeing smoke in my truck and while trying to set all the wires down to disconnect the battery termanl something happened with one of the 14 ga wires causing it to burn up all the up all the way to the relay.

I just took all the 14 ga out and gonna re do it all just to be safe if any got damanged from the other burnt one. And hopefully tomorrow or soon I will get it all done and no accidents!

Sorry the long post, just needed to vent and get it out there.

 

champion status.

 

Wiring just isn't your thing dude, lol.

 

Haha well once I did it the first time I understood it much better and also I got it right in one try, but this one was just a dumb mistake.

I was ready to go drive around the neighbor hood at night with my new bright lights ....until I see a cop. That will have to wait

 

Damn that sucks, I would upgrade to 10 or 12ga with the 100 watt bulbs tho, just my 2 pennies

 

I could do 10 or 12 ga. but I've seen a few guys go with the 14 so I thought I'd use that.
Maybe tomorrow I'll go back out and buy that heavier gauge because I need new connectors, shrink tube, and some electic grease.

 

Shiloh, you don't need to be an @ss to the man. He made a mistake and owned up to it.

Good luck man, hope it works out for you. I can't wait to see some new pics.

 

i suggest 12 gauge wires from the battery to the relay and from the relay to the lights, and u can run 14 to the switch. 20 amps should be in 12 wire and 15 amps should be on 14. those lights are drawing a lot of power and it could burn up the 14 wire before it blows the 20 amp fuse.

 

I hope he realized I was just playin around, after all I helped him with the original install anyway.

 

100watt bulbs draw ~8.33amps per bulb X 2= 16.66amps being drawn. 14guage wire with a 20amp fuse is sufficient enough to get the job done. You could get away running 130watt bulbs on 14guage but i don't reccomend it. 150watt bulbs and 12 guage is a must. Car wiring is different from that of a house. Standard 14guage wiring can safely run up to 30amps no issues and 12 guage can run 40amps, but you still want to fuse the line lower than the wire is rated for and slightly higher than the current that the bulbs draw.

If you short circuited the gorund and power, the fuse should have blown unless it was after the fuse? Switch seems like it should def be after the fuse. If the fuse blew, there should be no reason to change the wiring. If you have a voltmeter, measure the ohms on the open wires with them disconnected from any type of switch. There should be under 10milli ohms of resistance per foot. 15ft means there should be under 150milliOhms of resistance in the wire. Anything more than that and throw it away, but if it's reasonably close, then it's likely okay.
I have this handy wiring chart


FYI...it's best to hook the positive up first and then the negative. When you unhook anything, you begin by taking the negative off first and then the positive. In cases like checking things, i just leave the positive connected and unhook the neg. The worse thing that can happen is for the ground to arch on a grounding surface, ofcourse unless it touches the positive terminal which is obvious enough.

Just make sure you changed out the wires inside the housing because i believe they are only 18guage? You won't see those melting, they will just continue to melt and then eventually the lights just won't work.