clearance lights

Xeek · January 20, 2011

ok ill ask this here. didnt get an answer in my registry.
what wire do i use to turn aux lights on with the parking lights? green/white or brown wire?

this is for 5 13led clearance lights. would adding a relay be reccomended even tho they are low power leds?

BrianDye · January 20, 2011

Cant tell you which wire, but yes use a relay. The parking lights have enough power for the parking lights only, so adding ANYTHING, even small LEDs can really strain the wires.

Would you have a catastrophic meltdown, no, probably not; but why risk it?

Xeek · January 20, 2011

yea i was pretty sure itd be best to use one. i just know nothing about relays, only enough to wire one in from a kit.
what kind of relay should be be going for? links would be nice. and a rating for a fuse?

Sbyrne97 · January 20, 2011

adding a relay will protect your system from overload
that being said you must tap into your parking light wire from your master switch, if you can find the wire in the loom of 453286 wires u can tap there too

for the amperage, it all depends on the Led lights...assuming they only draw minimum watts, you would not need a high amp fuse, however to be safe use a 30 amp fuse
bill kemp has a link which shows the formula to calculate watts and amps, it also shows the amount of wire in feet and what guage you should use...

a relay is a very simple unit
it has two independent circuits inside...an electormagnet from one (your parking light wire +) would connect your clearance lights when your parking lights were turned on....

a relay has 4 posts 30 87 85 86

30 and 87 are for your clearnce lights
85 and 86 are your parking light + and a ground

30 draws a 12v power source direct from your battery
87 is the wire that feeds your leds

the fuse would go between 30 and the battery

FIND · January 20, 2011

person21 said:
adding a relay will protect your system from overload
that being said you must tap into your parking light wire from your master switch, if you can find the wire in the loom of 453286 wires u can tap there too
for the amperage, it all depends on the Led lights...assuming they only draw minimum watts, you would not need a high amp fuse, however to be safe use a 30 amp fuse
bill kemp has a link which shows the formula to calculate watts and amps, it also shows the amount of wire in feet and what guage you should use...

a relay is a very simple unit
it has two independent circuits inside...an electormagnet from one (your parking light wire +) would connect your clearance lights when your parking lights were turned on....

a relay has 4 posts 30 87 85 86

30 and 87 are for your clearnce lights
85 and 86 are your parking light + and a ground

30 draws a 12v power source direct from your battery
87 is the wire that feeds your leds

the fuse would go between 30 and the battery

A fuse is meant to protect the wiring. Never use a higher amperage fuse than your wiring can handle. Fuses are meant to burn out before wires burn up.

LEDs draw an incredibly small current, all 5 of those clearance lights draw less current than one of your factory marker bulbs. That being said, the factory wiring and switches are junk. Add a relay, not only do you not have to worry about the added load on a system that can barely handle the stock load, but it will stop you from having to deal with your LEDs flickering or any of that nonsense.

As far as wiring the relay.... yeah, positive lead for the parking lights goes to pin 85 then grounds to pin 86, but, pin 87 should power the LEDs and the parking lights after adding the relay. 18 gauge wire should be MORE than sufficient to run power to the parking lights (I believe that is what the factory wiring is) and 18 gauge to the clearance lights. This means that for the whole system, you can run it on a 10 amp fuse and have no worries.

Sbyrne97 · January 20, 2011

why would you need to power the parking lights, the parking light wire + is spliced into to power the electromagnet circuit, the it stays intact except for the splice piece

FIND · January 20, 2011

person21 said:
why would you need to power the parking lights, the parking light wire + is spliced into to power the electromagnet circuit, the it stays intact except for the splice piece

1: it makes your lights brighter. 2: your parking lights may actually not light after tapping the positive into the relay. Electricity will follow the path of least resistance. If you don't want to, it is up to you. Why not though? You just cut the wire, wire the 12+ end to pin 85 on the relay, and tie the other end of the freshly cut wire into in 87 along with the wire going out to the clearance lights.

Oh yeah, and I should note for anyone so there aren't any questions later. Parts stores generally sell the generic 5 pin relays, they have an extra pin in the center, 87a. Please note this is not the pin you want to use, that is the normally closed pin on the relay, you want a normally open pin (pin 87) for this application.

BigRondo · January 20, 2011

Watts divided by volts equals amps.

Bill Kemp · January 20, 2011

FIND said:
2: your parking lights may actually not light after tapping the positive into the relay. Electricity will follow the path of least resistance.

Your parking lights will work fine after tapping into the wire to run a wire from the positive lead to wherever you want.

Electricity will flow to wherever it can. In this case it will follow ALL wires from positive to the ground.

Xeek · January 20, 2011

person21, yes i do know how to wire a relay and what the pins are. i just didnt know if there were different types and ratings or not.

find, lights come with 16g wire attached, i have a 16g wiring harness made for clearance lights. and lots of different wire in a box, more 16g also. so all that should be more then enough then the 18g. the harness splices them all off down the line if that makes any difference. they are just leds tho
and you said 10amp fuse would be a good choice?

total of 65 leds(damn, didnt realize there was that many lol). package doesnt say any wattage for them tho
now when someone does tell me which wire i need to tap into lol...., is there a recommended spot to tap or can i take the easy way and peel back the conduit right behind the light socket and tap?

FIND · January 20, 2011

Bill Kemp said:
Your parking lights will work fine after tapping into the wire to run a wire from the positive lead to wherever you want.

Electricity will flow to wherever it can. In this case it will follow ALL wires from positive to the ground.

I had an escort once where I wired in relays to automatically control underglow lighting (yes I know, but this was many many years ago). Killed my parking lights by wiring them into the relay since they just grounded out at that point. Go ahead and measure the voltage drop by adding a relay in some time. I personally would rather just wire it with the parking lights powered by the relay anyways. Light switch is a hell of a resistor, you get much brighter lights by powering them on the relay. That was the main reason I was suggesting that anyways.

Sbyrne97 · January 20, 2011

wouldn't use 18 guage wire, it really depends on the length and voltage drop
Where are the lights mounted?
do you have a pic?

Best thing to do would run a 10-12 gauge wire for power all the way to where the lights are then wire them all into one, that way you don't have to run many wires, if you have a wiring diagram of the truck, you may be able to find the wire your looking for at the power distribution box. A wire from your parking lamp may be good, it only needs to switch the electromagnet and doesn't really matter where you pick up power.

Xeek · January 20, 2011

thread title: clearance lights(cab lights/roof lights)
i still need to mount the other two, but with limited daylight when i get home and the horrible pain in my knees from kneeling on the hood to do this slows me down

wires will run inside the window reinforcement area(i guess thats what it is) and down the passenger a pillar, to relay and then to aux fuse box either under seat or in the center console

can i be the first to say i have clearance lights on an explorer?

IZwack · January 20, 2011

Planning to drive under super low bridges?

:

FIND · January 20, 2011

xeek, didn't notice your last post, yeah 10 amps would be fine to give your wiring adequate protection. 16 gauge is fine for 12.5 amps over a 14 foot run, so a 10 amp fuse will provide all the protection it will ever need I don't know which wire to tap, your best bet is just to test with a circuit tester.

person21 said:
wouldn't use 18 guage wire, it really depends on the length and voltage drop
Where are the lights mounted?
do you have a pic?

18 gauge wire is enough for supplying a 10 amp circuit over a 10 foot run pretty easily. Those LEDs he is talking about draw less current than probably any incandescent bulb in his truck. It will be fine. Since the lights come with 16 gauge wire and he already made his harness out of 16 gauge anyways, it is a moot point.

Anyways, voltage drop? 16 gauge wire is approximately 4 milli-ohms per foot, so you calculate voltage drop using Ohm's law once you know the length of the wire. Nothing in his truck is far enough away that it will be a problem for something that draws as little current as those LEDs will. Over a 10 foot run using 16 gauge wire with a 10 amp load, you have a .4 volt drop.

Now, even if it were an extreme case, and each of the lights modules were 5 watts, the total system would only be drawing around 2 amps, which is probably more than twice what the system will actually draw. A 10 amp circuit can power almost 120 watts of lighting (obviously not counting voltage drop due to wiring or connectors). Using good quality LEDs you would make something like 7000 lumens of light out of that....

FIND · January 20, 2011

IZwack said:
Planning to drive under super low bridges? :

LOL

I've thought about putting them on, just for increased visibility.... then I realized they would look silly on my sploder.

Funny story though, back when I lived in North Dakota, I lived in this small town, and there was this kid that had this crappy Geo.... It had a bunch of marker lights screwed to the roof near the front for clearance lights. I guess they were probably useful for when he drives that under real cars or small children.

Xeek · January 20, 2011

izwack, lol ive seen slammed trucks with them still on. thatd serve the purpose of driving under a semi lol
but i just love the look of them, and its unique. besides sitting on 37s and whatever lift needed for them will complete the look. but thats for later, ive got an engine to build now

okie dokie i got all that down then. yes usually a person would just test the wires. but i kinda have half the stuff in my engine bay taken out right now lol. i was hoping to wire them up and when im done with the engine id see the lights then.
no-such-thing-as-a-dumb-question, could i wire them up proper and just hold the + and - wires to my battery to see them on?

FIND · January 21, 2011

yes you can.

Xeek · January 21, 2011

cool. ill try and install the other two tonight and wire em up for a pic then.

thanks for all the help. i guess ill have to wait until the trucks working again to find the right wire. since everyones seems to wire their lights to switches lol

Xeek · January 22, 2011

thanks everyone. wired em up to the battery just to see how they looked. i love em

clearance lights

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