I seem to find myself doing alot of night driving and in my area that can mean through alot of VERY dark back country roads, so tonight I bought a set of halogen fog lamps that are 12v 55w and Iam not the best with wiring so I thought i'd check with you guys first. The kit provides a wiring harnes for the system with a built in fuse and its own toggel switch but my question is what would be a good 12volt power source for the system? The wiring diagram shows the wire connected directly to the + post of the battery, something ive never seen done before, usually people I know just wrap the wire behind a fuse in the fuse box, doesnt seem like the best idea either. Thanks for the help
I think your ok with wiring it to the battery directly since it has a built in fuse and switch. just my , though
I've installed several sets of those in friends cars and stuff. The power wires should already have a round crimp on end on it. Just put it under the battery side of the starter solenoid.
ture i have too. but it sounded like the harness he had only had a fuse which i thought was odd. but maybe it does
A little black plastic box with 4 wires going to it. It has an electromagnet inside that opens a switch when you apply power to it. If it dosen't have one, go to an auto parts store and get a 30 amp universal horn relay.
Here you go, basic electricity 101. A 55w light will draw around 4.5 amps, so 2 of them will be around 9 amps. I don't know what size wire came in the kit but probably 14ga which is good for 15 amps. So theoretically, it will work fine without a relay. But....all wire has some resistance and the more current you put through a wire the more the wire will heat up. Now it will get warm, but not enough to worry about. What does happen is, as wire heats, it will start oxidizing. As oxidizing progresses, the resistance of the wire will increase. As the resistance of the wire increases, the more voltage the wire will drop, the more voltage the wire drops, the hotter it gets. the hotter it gets, the more it oxidizes. So you get a circle going until something fails. Being the lights only draw about 60% of the rating of the wire, it will take an awful long time for this to happen. Add the fact that you will run it through a toggle switch, it too will have the same characteristics as wire, all metal does. The idea is to keep wire that will draw high current on as short of a run as possible, with the least amount of interruptions (switches). This is where relays come in. A relay is designed to control high current with very low current. A relay is nothing more than a switch which is energized magnetically. Electromagnetically to be specific. you put 12v on a small coil of wire, it produces a magnetic field which pulls in the switch. The coil circuit is what you hook your switch to that you mount under the dash to turn the lights on. The coil side will draw probably less than 1/10 of an amp. You mount the relay up near the lights so your 9 amp circuit only goes from the solenoid (where Jamie suggested) to the relay, and then to the lights. Another killer on high current circuits is connectors. I personally solder all connections. If you cant solder, Use uninsulated connectors and a professional type crimper. Those insulated type connectors and flat pinch type crimpers are junk in my opinion. Actually if you cut off the insulation and use the professional crimpers, that will work much better than leaving the insulation on. You can always wrap electrical tape around the base of the connector once its crimped or for a more professional look, use heat shrink tubing.
i vote for a "relay". thanks dennis, that was a little much for the brain this early but i think i got it . ...frank...
Dennis, that was very well written. It was comprehensive and simplistic at the same time. Very, very good write up.
wow, thanks. Iam not too expierences with "custom" wiring, really helped me understand it a little better.
