6 Lights aux lights on stock X

[Nick3392]

I have a 01 X Sport and I currently have 2 Hella 500FFs on my brush guard. I recently just got a lightbar with 4 lights on it, which I havent wired yet, and I am not sure how many watts they are. I was curious whether or not my battery could handle having 6 extra lights, and if not, what do i have to do to my truck to make it handle it? I dont wanna end up killing my battery or lighting my truck on fire lol.

 

[BrianDye]

I dont have much auxillary (sp?) light experience, but I would probably reccomend doing the big 3 upgrade, (upgrading your stock battery cables to a nice, bigger size)

Then maybe a high output alternator?

It all depends on how many watts the lights are, and what all is gonna be on along with the lights

 

[Nick3392]

I dont have much auxillary (sp?) light experience, but I would probably reccomend doing the big 3 upgrade, (upgrading your stock battery cables to a nice, bigger size)

Then maybe a high output alternator?

It all depends on how many watts the lights are, and what all is gonna be on along with the lights

I believe each of the 6 lights are 55 watts though im not sure. The things that would all be on with the lights would be my cd player (10 inch sub), headlights and foglights.

And yeah, I guess ill look into doing those upgrades. thanks!

 

[BrianDye]

I think anyone should do the big 3, stock alt's can handle alot more than what most think, its the thin wires that have to power the whole car that make it seem like your not getting power lol


Got any pics though?

 

[Bill Kemp]

I would guess you have the stock 95 amp alternator. There is also a 130 amp. alternator for the X. Probably wouldnt be a bad thing to upgrade the alt. if you are going to be using all your lights and music at the same time. Hook them up and see what your alt. guage looks like and how bad lights dim when at idle.

BrianDye...What exactly are the big 3 upgrades?

 

[Nick3392]

alright cool, thanks for the help guys

 

[BrianDye]

Nick-Yea I forgot to mention that, the reg. explorers have the 95 amp alternators, but the Limited's and Eddie's had the 130 (135?) amp alt's which you could even find probably at a junkyard...then there are the high outputs you can get online for decent prices around 200$ on average they come in 200 and ive seen JUST a couple 230 amp ones...


Bill-The big 3 upgrade is upgrading the stock battery cables, from the alternator to the battery, the ground, etc and one more I believe. Its basically the fact of getting thicker gauge wiring from like a car audio shop and the right crimp ends and whatnot and replacing the stock wiring with them. You'd probably need 12 feet or so...

 

[corkey]

BrianDye...What exactly are the big 3 upgrades?
alternator, battery , and bigger wiring,

 

[BrianDye]

Haha, thats EXACTLY what I thought when I first heard the term

 

[corkey]

i made mine into a big 4, , i added 2 , 1 farad caps in line before my sub amp, cleaned it all up good,

 

[corkey]

i run 2 100 watt lights on the roof, and 2 50 watt lights on the bumper , my headlights and my stereo all at the same time,, big cables, and the 130 amp alt, , and an optima battery,, soon adding a second battery maybe,, for cold winter mornings,,

 

[hitman46mod]

I used to install high power stereos. Lights are a different item, while they do consume lots of power they are normally off. I would recommend at least an 800 or better CCA battery, a large 60A relay and a battery block. The battery will be the most expensive item, the relay should be wired in with a switch because at least in my state you can not have more than 400w of white light from more than 4 light fixtures emitted from the vehicle on a city/state road/highway at any given time. That being a given in most states. The battery block or battery tap is nothing more than a power strip you can hook acc's to. ie winch, lights, amps, anything that was not factory installed. That way you dont have several wires hooked to your pos terminal of your battery. Your ALT should have more than enough AMPs to run your added lights. 55w bulbs don't draw as many amps as a couple of 2000w amplifiers.

(EDIT) If you are running a system like Corkey then you will want a bigger ALT but the battery tap will eliminate the need to upgrade the battery cables as you are redistributing the load across the system.

 

[Bill Kemp]

Bill-The big 3 upgrade is upgrading the stock battery cables, from the alternator to the battery, the ground, etc and one more I believe. Its basically the fact of getting thicker gauge wiring from like a car audio shop and the right crimp ends and whatnot and replacing the stock wiring with them. You'd probably need 12 feet or so...

So you are suggesting someone do something and you dont know what it is?

Perhaps for some high power amps ect. you may need larger wires from the alt. to battery but for most any lights you can add to an X you sure as hell dont need larger battery cables.
Where did you get this info?

Hitman46mod, Thanks for the info. This is how I added aux elect to the battery.http://www.explorerforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=10839&ppuser=2084
This is for 2, 130 watt driving lights & 2, 100 watt fog lamps & 2 HID fog lamps. Factory stero W/sub.