How is your rig's accessories wired up?

TacomaJD · Dec 29, 2013

I'm about to wire up some lights (rock lights and led light bar) on my rig and have heard several different recommended ways that different people wire their stuff up on their rigs. Some use relays, some just use inline fuses, some just straight wire through a switch. Obviously I want them all on toggle/rocker switches, but curious about relays, inline fuse, or the lack thereof.

Are relays really necessary? I'm not super fluent in wiring **** up besides stereos. Inline fuse the best route? What about when wiring say 4 rock lights up? Just wire them all together and then have one main wire going to battery? Do a 2 and 2 style wiring? Or what?

Just looking for tips, recommendations, or things to avoid when wiring these sort of things up. Or if you have a link to a good read on wiring accessories. Also how you have "what" wired up and why.

I'm also gonna look into maybe building a fused auxiliary panel for accessories as well. Not sure exactly of the process, but have a good idea. Dad had one on his Corvette drag car and said he ran relays on all his **** (lights, electric fan, etc.) But I haven't talked to many others that use relays, and he's often stuck in his ways which sometimes isn't the most efficient way of doing something. So lend me your input and thanks!

:drinkers:

SomewhiteGuy · Dec 29, 2013

Switch panel with built in circuit breakers for all low draw only use relays for high draw items.

halcat · Dec 29, 2013

Hey, hey jack.listen to this. Just kidding, just bought a new rig and it's wired the best way I've ever seen. Got the big lead coming from the battery going through a disconnect switch. Leaves there and goes under the dash to a contionus duty one wire winch solenoid. That's the relay. Leaves there and goes to your panel that all your lights, heater fans, whatever. That solenoid in an 80 amp. The hot wire from your on, off ignition goes to the small wire on the solenoid, BAM, everything is on! If you have double electric fans install a separate one for them. I like it! If you don't install a relay on the big draw stuff, all the power going through the switch will burn it out real fast.

bee513 · Dec 29, 2013

i would use relays and fuses just dint waste your time with cheap relay kits from parts store (advance and others) i had problems with them after just a few rides excpecally the adjustable fan relays. make sure you use electric temp. senser in coolant. the probe through the radiator is garbage. i ran all my power wires to a power distribution post and one wire to starter. i did learn a lesson on my winch i had it going to starter one wire from battery think 1 or 2 awg winch would kill motor even at fast idle i ran big fat welding lead from batt. to winch. a separate big fat welding lead to the starter over kill is the way to got with wiring save your self the trouble on the trail

RustyC · Dec 29, 2013

I would like the lights switch on two separate switches. Rocklights on one and flood/spots on another. Get the amp draw info from you lights and go from there.
4 led rock lights should be able to run off a switch and not need a relay as they should be under 10 amps total. The flood/spot lights I would run off a 30 amp relay.
Fuse both circuits close to the power supply. I like circuit breakers or blade style fuses. They are a lot more durable than the glass style.

Most people don't have a DC amp meter to measure a circuit to be able to select the proper fuse rating. But here is "shade tree" way of finding out.
Wire up everything completely. Put a 5 amp fuse in for the rock light. Power up the circuit and see if the fuse blows. If it does step up to a 10 amp.
If it does not blow the 10 amp stop there. Same deal the flood/spot circuit.

Wiring can be overwhelming sometimes.
Fuses or circuit breakers keep fires from starting so the are good.

Switches are good for about 10 amps some switches can handle more just depends on the quality of the switch.
Relays are just big switches operated by a smaller switch.
I like disconnects on the ground side near the batteries. (All Caterpillar tractors are wired that way, not going to question their engineering)

TBItoy · Dec 29, 2013

Most everything LED pulls so little amperage, that you can wire it up with even the cheapest POS switches and it'll be fine.

If you have good ground straps between everything (body/frame/engine/battery) you can usually ground lights to the mounting bolt with a ring terminal (scrape the paint off real good)

put fuses near the battery. I've found some fuse holder pigtails that have little interlocking tabs so you can stack them. pretty handy for adding circuits.

TacomaJD · Dec 29, 2013

Excellent info here. I've also got some good info via pm and texts including some handy diagrams. Thanks!!!

The rock lights (4 of them) under my rig are incandescent bulbs. Just took them off and 2 of them work when touched to the battery and the other 2 apparently have blown bulbs, so I'm gonna take em apart and try to replace bulbs. Eventually I plan to have LED rock lights under it, but have these already so I'm gonna re-run new wiring neatened up, new switches, and run these until I buy some LED rock lights.

May end up wiring up a manual on/off for my cooling fan also.

jaydee1975 · Dec 30, 2013

ducktape...rusty ole coat hangers... little spit... old drop cords(make sure ends were pre burnt) and old mobile home light switches!! and POWER ON BROTHER!! BWAHAHAHAHA! also..... make sure drinking lots of the BEAST while installing!! :****:

TacomaJD · Dec 30, 2013

jaydee1975 said:
ducktape...rusty ole coat hangers... little spit... old drop cords(make sure ends were pre burnt) and old mobile home light switches!! and POWER ON BROTHER!! BWAHAHAHAHA! also..... make sure drinking lots of the BEAST while installing!! :****:

The Beast part will always be #1 on list of procedures for basically anything. Beast gives me an edge over normal humans.

jaydee1975 · Dec 30, 2013

Man I'm going to haft to try out the old BEAST again!! See if I can get that EDGE!! Last time I tried to gain the edge with it.... It kicked me HARD IN THE NUT!! BWAHAHAHA!!!!

TacomaJD · Dec 30, 2013

I drank about 4 cases of it last week being off work. And some Budweiser and a small assortment of craft brews. I may need to go ahead and schedule a liver transplant after New Years Eve tomorrow night lol.

grcthird · Dec 30, 2013

I used a stereo amp kit for my accessories, big wire to maxi fuse, to small fuse panel in cab, when I park the truck, I pull the big fuse until it's time to go wheel again. Not fancy or hi tech, but cheap and reliable.

TacomaJD · Dec 31, 2013

So I'm looking at relays and these have 5 wires coming off them. Not sure what the blue wire is, as the diagrams I've seen only mention black, red, yellow, and black wires. Could I use these and just disregard the blue wire?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/390461017170?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

TBItoy · Dec 31, 2013

TacomaJD said:
So I'm looking at relays and these have 5 wires coming off them. Not sure what the blue wire is, as the diagrams I've seen only mention black, red, yellow, and black wires. Could I use these and just disregard the blue wire?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/390461017170?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

Don't buy that horse ****. Those cheap Hong Kong relays suck ass and stick open or closed

If you want to be cheap, run by a junkyard and cut a oem (usually Bosch) relay and pigtail from any one of tons of vehicles.

You don't need relays for rock lights anyway. You can run 2-3 55w halogen lights on a 20amp fuse and switch no problem.

TacomaJD · Dec 31, 2013

Re: Re: Re: How is your rig's accessories wired up?

TBItoy said:
Don't buy that horse ****. Those cheap Hong Kong relays suck ass and stick open or closed

If you want to be cheap, run by a junkyard and cut a oem (usually Bosch) relay and pigtail from any one of tons of vehicles.

You don't need relays for rock lights anyway. You can run 2-3 55w halogen lights on a 20amp fuse and switch no problem.

Thanks for shooting me straight lol. I have 4 of these lights that were under truck already. May wire it 2 per switch and fuse, then the led light bar on separate fuse and switch of it's own.

TacomaJD · Dec 31, 2013

Alright dammit.....done a shitload more researching and reading. Learned a lot, I really was pretty clueless as to how all this stuff worked, but now feel like I understand most it a little better now.

So I ordered one of those battery top post terminals that has multiple distribution holes in it (to tidy up the currect glob of wires), for main power wire, winch hot wire, stereo hot wire, and THEN gonna also run a wire from it to a 6 gang fuse block. Then from there I will probably have 2 rock lights on a maybe a 20 amp relay and 20 amp fuse in the fuse block and the other 2 rock lights done the same exact way on a separate circuit.

Then comes the LED light bar on it's own relay and maybe a 10-15 amp fuse in the fuse block since it's only 4.2 amps?

And actually I believe these rock lights are 55w halogens, but haven't took them apart to see the bulb detail (nothing written on housing.) If watts = amps x volts, then 4 of my rock lights should be around 220 watts combined, 12 volt system, meaning amps equals roughly 18. So tell me if I'm correct here, I could probably run all 4 rock lights safely on 1 25-30 amp relay and 1 25-30 amp fuse and it be fine? each gang in the fuse blocks I've looked at are rated up to 30 amps each as long as you don't go over xx total amps combined fuse block rating. If I could wire them all together in parallel, obviously that would save an extra complete wiring harness and leave an extra free spot in the fuse block for future additions.

Basically just tell me if my understanding of all of this is correct, because truthfully it's just started coming together and making sense to me today how all this junk works so there's chances that I may misunderstand some things.

:drinkers:

Also for any future inquiring minds, this seems like a good vid to help understand how a relay works.

How a relay works

BUG-E J · Jan 1, 2014

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/mor-74131/overview/
Back when I cared about wiring I bought one of these for my yota buggy. worked awesome and I had it wired to where the bulb was between fuse and switch so the light would go out if fuse blew. That's a quick check thing if something stops workin.

TacomaJD · Feb 16, 2014

Re: Re: How is your rig's accessories wired up?

Just for update's sake and thread completion, 4 - 55w rock lights are finally wired up and 12 volt outlet installed and wired up also. Waiting on another 12" led light bar to come in, because a buddy kept bugging me to buy the one I had since I wouldn't be wheeling for a while. So it will be wired up when it comes in this week.

I have 2 separate circuits for the rock lights, 2 on 1 harness and 2 on another harness. Each harness has a 40 amp relay and I've got them ran through a 6 gang fuse block, each circuit for the rock lights runs through a 15 amp fuse. Fuse block looks better and is a little more tidy than having a bunch of wires hanging off the battery.

12 volt outlet is also ran through the fuse block on a 15 amp fuse just as the LED light bar will be too when I get it in.

Green lights are the push button switches for the rock lights. Green = on and red = off.

I really like the color of those 8500k bulbs, they are about the same color as the LED light bars. Need to upgrade the headlight bulbs now.

clemsonjeep · Feb 17, 2014

I've been planning to pick up all the parts I'll need to simplify my wiring and dash setup, but I haven't found a great place to get everything from. Which vendors are ya'll using to buy the toggles with rubber boots, IGN start buttons, battery switches, miniature led indicators, relays, fuse panels etc? I plan to put all of this on a single panel with the fuse panel and all of that attached to back side.

I'm a fan of snagging the relays at the salvage yard...and will probably do that, but I just don't feel like I've located a source that carries the majority of the pieces...at a reasonable cost. Places like speedwaymotors.com sell toggles for $9.99...way too high and places like surpluscenter.com sell them for less than $2 each. Let me know who ya'll have used with good results...any particular brands of switches?

TacomaJD · Feb 17, 2014

Re:

All I bought for this was 2 premade universal wiring harnesses on ebay really cheap, and the fuse block on ebay also. Bought the 12v outlet at Advance. Had to extend the universal harnesses out to reach the rock lights and bought wire from Advance.