Wiring Question

[Paraphoe]

Question for you guys. Here goes. My old stock fogs in the lower valence are LONG gone. I have two aftermarket fog lights on my rig in the license plate hole - they used to be on either side of the plate that I no longer have because I live in PA now. Additionally, they never did much anyway.

So, I've decided to remove them and add 3 KC 26 series driving lights across the whole plate hole as running lights to supplement my headlights.

Now here's the wiring stuff - bear with me, I'm not the best at this. The two aftermarket fogs are wired directly to the old stock fog lights wiring - that is, power and ground connected right to the old power and ground stock wires via bullet connectors. I intend to wire the KCs up the same way.

Now, that's all well and good, but how should I go about wiring up the third light? Can I just tap right into the power and ground on either the right or left light? Will that be too much for the wires or cause weaker light output? What would be the best/most efficient way to go about this?

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[bdmaash]

I would use the original foglight wire to control a relay that is switching the battery to the fog light. Use a 12/14 guage wire, there are probably so many connections through the existing setup, and you lose voltage drops
relay help at the12volt.com

 

[Paraphoe]

So you're saying use one of the stock fog wires to power a relay, and then power all 3 new lights off of said relay?

 

[Bill Kemp]

The stock fog light wires were for 37 watt bulbs. You know Ford isnt going to oversize the wires. They use the smallest they can.
The brightness (due to voltage loss from small wires) of a 55 watt light using the Ford wires compared to a harness & relay is noticiable. Turn on the lights you have now and run one thru the Ford wires and one straight off the battery & you will see what I mean.
If you want bright lights just use the Ford wires to power the relay for the new lights.
And, yes. A 30 amp relay will be fine for 3 lights. You could probably get by with a 15 amp relay but for $2. why bother with the small one.

 

[Paraphoe]

OK, so disregard the old ford wiring, run power and ground straight off the battery to a 30 amp relay, and then wire the 3 lights to the relay?

 

[CAHUNTERMAN]

I would use the stock fog light ground and +12 and wire them to the relay coil. Then run a 12AWG wire from your battery (fused at the battery end) to the relay and then to the lights. That way the stock fog light switch will trigger the relay but the lights will be powered from the battery through the relay. The grounds for the lights can go right to the ground on the battery.

ops, just noticed bdmaash had the exact same idea.

 

[Paraphoe]

Two power wires are going into the relay? I apologize for the stupid questions, but I don't understand this stuff well at all, like what "fused at the battery end" means.

 

[fixxxer]

This is a simple circuit except in your case, instead of connecting a SPST switch to the fusebox, you will use the existing + wire from your foglight's harness to connect to terminal 85 on the relay so you can still use the factory switch to turn them off and on.

 

[Bill Kemp]

^^Hay fixxxer, nice diagram & pic.^^

Paraphoe, that is what we all mean. Hook it up like that and you will be happy....

 

[fixxxer]

Thanks Bill, I can only take credit for finding them for Paraphoe.

 

[Paraphoe]

Ok, so mine would look like this then:

 

[CAHUNTERMAN]

That's it. Should be a nice set-up.

 

[Paraphoe]

Thanks guys, appreciate all the help. I'm gonna try to get to this tomorrow. I hope I can finish it, but I doubt it.

 

[Sandy]

My 2 cents... not much though.

Grounding, you mentioned running a the ground wire to the relay, yes in error but not completely wrong.
Consider running a ground wire, the same gauge as the power wire, from the three lights back to the battery.

One of the biggest problems with electrical installations is the ground path back to the battery. If this path has to run through rusted, bolted joints, through greasy connections, it will not allow the full power of the battery to reach the lights and in turn not allow the lights to run at their brightest and may even shorten the life of the bulb.

It is an extra wire that a lot of people do not put in they just use the frame or the body and think there is a good connection.

Luck,

 

[Paraphoe]

This sh*t makes my head spin.

Another question...what the best way to split the 12 awg wire coming from the relay to the three lights into 3 separate wires?

 

[Sandy]

Another question...what the best way to split the 12 awg wire coming from the relay to the three lights into 3 separate wires?

Bring the initial load wire (12-ga min) from pin 87 on the relay to the first light, then use jumpers to each light in turn. Solder the connection if possible and DON'T forget to use Heat Shrink with Glue in it to seal the connection; make sure the connections are clean before sliding the heat shrink over the solder joint.

If you intend to run the separate ground back to the battery, use the same wire gauge for the ground as the power, connected the same way.

there is nothing magical or mysterious about electrics in a car, yes the computer stuff is something else but the basic wiring is straight forward.

Luck,

 

[Sandy]

Paraphoe,

How's the lighting project going ?

 

[Paraphoe]

Sandy,

Sorry about the lack of response. It took way longer than I anticipated to free up the time to do this. It's finally all done...weather just wouldn't cooperate, and I ended up sucking it up and drilling, mounting, and wiring them a week and a half ago in the driving snow.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2102393&postcount=13


Thanks for all of the help with the wiring diagrams, guys. It all worked out very well.

 

[Sandy]

Paraphoe,

That's different, I like the look.

ltr

 

[little x]

That looks nice. Just so you know: in most states it is illegal to have more then 4 headlight bulbs on at any one time. You should check your state's laws if you plan on using those on the roads. You have a lot of lights. I bet that's nice on back roads and open trails. Even with my 200 amp alt I couldn't do that because I spend too much time in the first 500 RPM's after idol. I need another battery first.