I thought I'd go ahead and pass this along, because I'm no electrician and have a hard time figuring out schematics. So while it turns out it's pretty simple, there are a few questions I couldn't find answers to, and now that I figured it out, I might as well share my success.

First of all, I went with the PIAA 520 (5296 - ATP XTreme White Plus Halogen Lamp Kit) that I got off Amazon, and I wanted to use the very nice sealed relay and wiring setup that comes with the kit. PIAA expects you to use their push-button switch, ostensibly mounted in the cab somewhere, which requires wiring to some minimal source of power to feed the switch, and the switch kicks on the relay (that then powers the lights directly from the battery), and that lawyer-approved canned solution is all that's documented. Easy enough if you use it that way.

But in my case I just wanted them to come on with the high beams, as I drive on dark country roads a lot and don't want to have to futz with a cheesy button sticky-taped to the dash. Turn on the brights, the PIAA's come on, turn off the lights or switch back to low beams, the PIAA's turn off. So I called them, and they were super helpful. They answered the phone right away, understood exactly what I was trying to do, and gave me clear verbal instructions on how to accomplish it. Based on great customer service experience, together with a consistently high level of product quality, PIAA has made me a fan.

It turns out, yes, I had to remove the grille, and then the driver's side headlight. I Googled up a YouTube video or two on how to do it, and of course @EpicCowlick's videos were very useful as always. Short version:

1. Use a 10mm socket to remove the 4 bolts holding the grille assembly to the core support along the top.
2. Pull the top of the grille away from the engine bay enough to reach a long-handled screwdriver down and press each of the 5 metal clips holding the bottom on, starting on one side and pulling gently on the grille as you go. You'll hear and feel them as they let go.
3. Pull the grille assembly away and set it aside. My Ranch Hand Legend full replacement bumper made it a little more difficult to get at, but it wasn't bad.
4. For the headlight (in my case driver's side, but it's the same either way), there are 4 bolts holding it on, I think maybe 10mm as well I forget: one on top, two on the side (toward the radiator), and then one underneath you'll have to lay on your back on the ground to reach, and then just pull it free straight toward you, which requires a little force.

So once you've got the grille and the headlight out, you can start the fun stuff. Follow the directions on mounting the relay, wiring the power lines to the battery, and wiring in the lights themselves to the harness. See the pics below for how I decided to mount the relay. Once you've got it all mounted and wired in, you'll have to go ahead and modify the harness and tap the trigger wire into the high beam power line:

1. Cut the black and white wires off the switch connector that leads back to the relay plug. The extra floating white wire is what you would've used to power the switch itself, and it'll get thrown away along with the connector.
2. Get rid of the black wire. Just cut it back and tape it off, or throw a butt connector on one side, or whatever your preference is.
3. Use the white wire that originally ran to the switch connector, cut it to your desired length, and tap it into the high beams or whatever other mechanism you have to energize the relay.

By the way, for my 2011 F250 Super Duty, when looking at the drive'rs headlight connector with the hump on top, the HIGH BEAM is on the left, the GROUND is in the middle, and the LOW BEAM is on the right. I presume the passenger side is identical, but I didn't bother to find out

I used Posi-Tap for the first time, and I can't recommend it enough over typical taps. It worked easily and beautifully. They're not cheap, but neither is the truck, and it is such a cleaner, easier, and more durable and foolproof design than generic vampire taps. And bonus: it's easily reusable. Not that I ever intend to undo or reuse this tap, but it means testing and re-setting is simple and quick.

Here are some illustrations and the finished product. I ended up being able to make it super neat and tidy, almost undetectable under the hood. After it finally got dark I took a drive up to Bandera and found it made a WORLD of difference! So much better! Made a couple small aiming adjustments, and it's like night and day. I imagine it's likely at least as good if not better than if Ford put HIDs in these trucks from the factory, as I so often wished they would have.

 

very nice! work and article.

when I did my light bar, very similar, except I added an upfitter control (and a second relay) to enable me to still use the brights without the light bar.

 

Thanks!

Yeah, you could interrupt the high beam signal with the upfitter switch (no need for a second relay) so that the switch has to be on for the high beams to activate the lights/bar. But I don't want or need that. If my brights are on, it's to throw light, even on rare occasions where I need to signal to other drivers by flashing the high beams. I considered different options, but I just couldn't come up with any scenario where the convenience of triggering off the high beams would be problematic, so I said screw it and kept it simple.

In fact, on my Jeep TJ I used to have, I got two pairs of IPF driving lights, I think the 968's maybe, and I had a professional build me a full wiring harness and relay pack to replace all the factory headlight wiring and power both pairs of driving lights. It plugged into the factory headlight plug to trigger the relays, and then the headlights and driving lights took their power directly from the battery. I had it set up to where one pair of driving lights were on as fog lights any time the headlights were on, and in fact when you went to high beams it would leave those on and also illuminate the other pair which were aimed higher, so all six lights (2 headlights, 4 driving lights) were on. It was the best. Never had anyone complain during inspections, either.

PS Based on another thread going on at the moment, if you have the Rough Country LED light bar, it would be an identical setup to the PIAA, except you'd use the blue wire on the Rough Country harness to energize the relay, throwing the rest of the switch connector and wiring away.

 

cool.
I powered my lights direct from the battery and had a relay each for the UF and the brights.

 

Would this cause any problem when getting inspected? What I am trying to do on my truck is be able to keep the fog lights on when the high beams are activated. I installed LED lights and would love to be able to keep them running with my high beams. I am thinking I need a different relay but if anyone has any experience with this I'd appreciate it any tips.

 

The way I did it? No, it shouldn't. Certainly not in Texas. But you'd have to consult your own state inspection criteria to know for sure, and then maybe choose your inspection station wisely if there's some doubt

I've seen at least a handful of threads on here about doing exactly that. Just not sure about '11+ models. There are a number of ways to make it happen, but honestly, all that hassle is why I said screw it and just added additional lighting. Makes it easy, keeps it legal, and I'm good to go. Just remember, if you've replaced your fogs with LEDs, which it sounds like, you don't have to power them off the factory harness. You could use a relay and tap them into whatever else instead (like I did for the high beams triggering the driving lights relay).