Wiring for Light Bar

[preacher35]

Thanks [MENTION=89791]preacher35[/MENTION] and [MENTION=55855]zopperman[/MENTION] for the help, and having to really 'dumb it' down for me .

Don't be ridiculous. I didn't "dumb" anything down. You know what your doing. As far as why your LED light bar is so "dim", I'm not sure. Initially, I would check that your ground has a really good connection to BARE METAL FRAME. I did not see you mention what brand of light bar that you purchased or where from, but it wouldn't hurt to ask T4R.org's resident LED LIGHT BAR EXPERT [MENTION=44862]macoyle[/MENTION] (Owner of BEAN LED INDUSTRIES) about what could be causing your "dim" LED light bar. If he doesn't know, I do not think anyone else here will know either.

 

[macoyle]

well thanks [MENTION=89791]preacher35[/MENTION] lol as far as the light being dim, there could be several reasons. Lets start with the most obvious, the 12GA wire, how long is it? like from the battery to the light, whats the length? The reason I ask is because you will lose power the longer the wire is, the less power actually gets to the light bar. Since its not installed yet, hook the light directly up to the battery and see how it looks from there first. Good luck!

 

[Travtaz997]

well thanks [MENTION=89791]preacher35[/MENTION] lol as far as the light being dim, there could be several reasons. Lets start with the most obvious, the 12GA wire, how long is it? like from the battery to the light, whats the length? The reason I ask is because you will lose power the longer the wire is, the less power actually gets to the light bar. Since its not installed yet, hook the light directly up to the battery and see how it looks from there first. Good luck!

The wire I used to test was maybe 4ft long at the most. I will connect it directly to the battery tomorrow after work. Thanks for the input [MENTION=44862]macoyle[/MENTION] !

 

[zopperman]

agreed I would test it right from the battery. I used 10G on mine - didn't realize your bar was a 41" too. I would probably use 10g. Also check grounds - use 10G for ground for the bar too.

 

[macoyle]

4 feet shouldn't be that much of a loss. make sure you have a good ground, and let us know what the results are once you hook the light up to the battery-

 

[Dpassmore]

I bought the relay kit, then wired in an ottraw switch. Mostly plug n play. The kit comes with a switch, but I plug everything up to the ottraw switch.

 

[Travtaz997]

Alrightyyyyyyyyy.

I directly connected my bar to my battery and it worked great. So I redid my ground for the relay and ground for the bar. What do you know.. I have bright light !!

All my wiring is done, so now onto fabrication of brackets.

Thank you EVERYONE for all the help. I'm hoping this thread will provide help to someone else in the future that is in the same boat as I was. Hopefully they use the search bar

 

[macoyle]

Glad we were able to help out! Congrats on the new light!

 

[Geologist]

Does anybody know which factory wire I can tap into to illuminate the AOB switches? I can't find this info anywhere. The rest of the switch wiring is straightforward, but I want to avoid tapping the wrong factory wire.

 

[BitSwitcher]

Geologist, I'm sure you're looking for someone to just tell you a wire color to tap off of, but the truth is this is really something that you ought to use a multimeter for. Even if you're not comfortable with electrical stuff, the cheapest harbor freight multimeter is perfect for this task.
Whether you're putting the switches in the dash panel or center console, there is going to be a connector nearby that you can steal illumination power from. On my '05 most of the time the illumination wire is solid green, but the only way to be certain is to put a multimeter to the wire you want to use, turn on the lights, then rotate the dimmer wheel to see if the voltage changes.

Switch illumination uses so little power, you don't have to worry about the voltage draw, but you do have to be careful not to use anything that is constantly hot for obvious reasons.

 

[Geologist]

Geologist, I'm sure you're looking for someone to just tell you a wire color to tap off of, but the truth is this is really something that you ought to use a multimeter for. Even if you're not comfortable with electrical stuff, the cheapest harbor freight multimeter is perfect for this task.
Whether you're putting the switches in the dash panel or center console, there is going to be a connector nearby that you can steal illumination power from. On my '05 most of the time the illumination wire is solid green, but the only way to be certain is to put a multimeter to the wire you want to use, turn on the lights, then rotate the dimmer wheel to see if the voltage changes.

Switch illumination uses so little power, you don't have to worry about the voltage draw, but you do have to be careful not to use anything that is constantly hot for obvious reasons.

Thanks, I'll try that. I have a decent multimeter. I was hoping for the easy answer but I'll figure it out when I get behind the dash.

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