wiring lights
Thread Starter
|
New User
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 14
Likes: 0
wiring lights
I'm all about lights on my trucks, I just recently had a ford ranger that had 5 100watt light mounted on the top of my roof with a light bar. I got them all working but the wiring wasn't very tight, I have wired many lights before but with all that power running to the lights I fried many wires and fuses. In the end I had wired them all individually and it took forever but they did work. I just bought a 98 f-150 and I want to put them on. Any tips on what to use, Fuse size, switches wires sizes?
thanks
thanks
Moderator
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 56,965
Likes: 2,725
From: Virginia
5 times 100 watts equals 500 watts.
500 watts divided by 12 volts equals 42 amps.
You would definitely need to split this circuit. Usually the easiest and cheapest circuit to run is 30 amps. Two 30 amp circuits should do it. One will have three lights running at 25 amps, and the other will have two lamps running at about 17 amps. I would use the circuit below, only wire two of them. It's for foglamps, but the principle is the same. Instead of deriving the switch voltage from the low beam circuit, you could use a hot in run wire or a hot all the time wire. The trigger circuit and the switch(labeled foglamp switch) can be very small, since the relays are carrying all the lighting load.
500 watts divided by 12 volts equals 42 amps.
You would definitely need to split this circuit. Usually the easiest and cheapest circuit to run is 30 amps. Two 30 amp circuits should do it. One will have three lights running at 25 amps, and the other will have two lamps running at about 17 amps. I would use the circuit below, only wire two of them. It's for foglamps, but the principle is the same. Instead of deriving the switch voltage from the low beam circuit, you could use a hot in run wire or a hot all the time wire. The trigger circuit and the switch(labeled foglamp switch) can be very small, since the relays are carrying all the lighting load.
