Lights, anyone?

[XJMikey]

What are y'all running?


I'm looking at getting an HID setup from xtralights and dreaming of running 2 sets of LightForce Halogen 170's, but will probably get KC Hilites 6" apollo for budget reasons.

[XJ Wheeler]

As far as other than the headlights i have a set of Blazer 55w rectangular driving lights on the bumper and a set of Hella 500 driving lights on the a-pillars. Hope to one day go LED, but i know that one day is after someone hands me the winning ticket. :rolleyes:

[budgetxjmcknight]

Due to finance restrictions, I have a set of walmart specials for the bumper that are 55w and I also put to sets on the roof. They put out plenty of light for the $75 or so I have in them, just make sure you wire them with the correct wire size and use a heavy duty switch. The ones I bought came with 14awg wire but I used 12awg for the ones on the roof and a 30 amp switch fused link at 20 amps. 55watts at 14 volts (with the jeep running) is 3.9 amps each.

[bluedragon436]

I've got a set of Hella 500 Black Magic's that I installed on a friend's LJ... and all I got to say is they are well worth the money... and look forward to picking up a set or a few for my XJ soon I hope...

[LizardRunner]

I have Hella's for additional lighting.

[NW99XJ]

Hope to one day go LED, but i know that one day is after someone hands me the winning ticket. :rolleyes:
ditto!
I'm running TWO sets of the Blazer 55w rectangulars on the roof rack.
One set driving pattern, one set pin spot.
Pin Spots (mounted center of roof rack)
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h328/jbchill1/C8006W.jpg
Driving Beams (mounted outside of center on roof rack)
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h328/jbchill1/C8005W.jpg
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h328/jbchill1/C8006W_schematic.jpg

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/8051/parts022012003.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/28/parts022012003.jpg/)

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/9206/saddleup2b.jpg

[denverd1]

running two hellas on my hoop up front.

You fellas running relays to these or just big wiring?

[NW99XJ]

BOTH!!!!
When running anything other than LED's, they need to be fused and ran off a relay.
If anyone needs help with how to do this, let me know or feel free to check out THIS THREAD (http://www.xjtalk.com/showthread.php?t=12182) from the "Electrical & Audio Tips" section.
It has some useful information and diagrams about relays.

[denverd1]

Josh, I remember your excellent work on the podcast a few weeks ago. Talking about LEDs, halogens, fuses, relays, etc.... I've got my two hellas on a fused relay, just curious if everyone else did! :crazy:

[NW99XJ]

Josh, I remember your excellent work on the podcast a few weeks ago. Talking about LEDs, halogens, fuses, relays, etc.... I've got my two hellas on a fused relay, just curious if everyone else did! :crazy:

Good Job, and thanks for listening.
I like where your hella's are at....As soon as I get around to getting a front winch bumper on the XJ, I want to do something similar.

[denverd1]

Im wanting to add some rock lights in the LED form. any of you running light that aim down under the truck? I heard on the 4x4 podcast that the baja 1000 truck had lights aimed at the axles and driveshafts just to able to quickly diagnose problems in the dark. Thought that was pretty cool....

So you can get a box full of light from China for cheap. Any of you running LEDs yet? whats the good/bad/whatever about them? I think i've got all the forward aimed spotlights I'm ever going to need. :driving:

this caught my eye: http://www.ebay.com/itm/181089962635?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
$40 shipping. just noticed that! Maybe we should be 20 of them and combine shipping on them all.... then distribute around the US....

[Brasscatz]

I've got the 2 Blazer lights on my bumper as well. Stock headlights, fogs, and 100w A-pillar lights from snappy lights on Ebay. He has some very good prices on his lights and from what I can tell, the quality isn't too bad. They aren't KC lights, but not bad at all. I think it was Mark at Detours that told me about them. Here's his ebay store http://stores.ebay.com/Snappylights

http://i356.photobucket.com/albums/oo7/thestalliontruck/Red%20Bandit%20XJ/IMAG1365_zps538d8b1d.jpg

[cpttuna]

here's my setup.I used regular tractor light(rubber housings) from NAPA. They cost about $9.00 each. I do not believe you can get them with the rubber housing anymore. I purchased the NAPA 4509 100 watt aircraft landing light ($11.00) and changed the sealed beams. I also upgraded the lights wires. The final product was a 5"dia 100 watt driving light for about $20.00 each.

[Carves]

here's my setup.I used regular tractor light(rubber housings) from NAPA. They cost about $9.00 each. I do not believe you can get them with the rubber housing anymore. I purchased the NAPA 4509 100 watt aircraft landing light ($11.00) and changed the sealed beams. I also upgraded the lights wires. The final product was a 5"dia 100 watt driving light for about $20.00 each.


Good little light those 4" 100w sealed beams. I used to use 'em quite a bit.

Bit short on life tho and "yellow" fairly quickly.

You might find G.E. brand lenses last a little longer.

[cpttuna]

I must be lucky. They have not yellowed on me and I have not replaced any to date.

[XJMikey]

Nice setups y'all. :D

[denverd1]

Would it be a bad idea to mix LED and halogen bulb types on one harness? I'm thinking no, since there is no load resistor (blinker) to worry about....

[NW99XJ]

Would it be a bad idea to mix LED and halogen bulb types on one harness? I'm thinking no, since there is no load resistor (blinker) to worry about....

No, but you do have amperage draw, and depending on wire guage, you may run into too much voltage draw for that size of wire.
Thing about what may happen if you tried to jump start a vehicle with speaker wire.....
You also have to take into consideration the draw on the relays.
Relays need a little bit of headroom to work properly, and not burn up over time.
If you have a standard 30 or 40 amp relay, you dont want to draw much more than 20 or 30 amps thru them respectively.
You also will need to address how to protect the individual systems....
Each should be fused separately, to ensure that if there is a short, you dont loose all of your auxiliary lighting.

[denverd1]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WIRING-HARNESS-4-CATZ-HELLA-PIAA-BOSCH-KC-FOG-LIGHTS-/380199175645?hash=item5885a305dd&vxp=mtr
running the two hellas off this harness. was thinking of adding a few led based lights up front just in case

[4.3LXJ]

Just my 2 cents here on this. In theory it is possible, but I wouldn't do it. The reason it that you have a high amp draw mixed in with low amp. As stated above you would need to make sure the wire gauge is oversized so that everything would work with little or no resistance. I am not sure, but I think this would affect the LEDs more than the incessant lights. And as Josh stated, you should not exceed the 75% rule for draw on any part of your harness or switches.

[NW99XJ]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WIRING-HARNESS-4-CATZ-HELLA-PIAA-BOSCH-KC-FOG-LIGHTS-/380199175645?hash=item5885a305dd&vxp=mtr
running the two hellas off this harness. was thinking of adding a few led based lights up front just in case
http://i478.photobucket.com/albums/rr147/jbendit/CATZ%20PARTS/HARNESSNOSWITCH.jpg

Not a bad looking harness....cant speak on the quality of the relay, but it looks like it might have 12awg wire for power feed, 14awg wire for the light leads, and 16awg for the switch lead..... should be adequate....
I'm a little worried about the relay though....rated at only 20amps, that means more like 18, with a constant load of 16.... I'd do some math, figure out what your draw is going to be.
I still think its a good idea to keep things separated. (thats how I WOULD DO IT - but thats just me.)
But if your in a pinch, and dont want to wire up a new circuit, then give it a shot.
But I'd get some figures on paper before you do, just to cover yur butt.

[Mudderoy]

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-jKhSZmb2hUs/TwpjNFOeMQI/AAAAAAAABnU/3iIJWOuDMik/s879/20120107_120520.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Rc__klglYCA/Tou9HyvLPUI/AAAAAAAABeQ/pjijgYgU5XA/s879/2011-10-04+19.52.59.jpg

[NW99XJ]

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Rc__klglYCA/Tou9HyvLPUI/AAAAAAAABeQ/pjijgYgU5XA/s879/2011-10-04+19.52.59.jpg

OUCH!!!! MY EYES!!!
......I'm BLIIIND!!!!

[denverd1]

OUCH!!!! MY EYES!!!
......I'm BLIIIND!!!!

geez! and it looks like thats off to the side!

What harness are those bad boys running off of?

[denverd1]

Josh, help me out with this.
watts = amps x volts
P = I x E
55 = I x 12
55/12 = 4.58 amps PER hella 500.

2 of those is 9.16 amps
2 27w(ea) LEDs = 4.50 amps
13.66 amps total ?

[NW99XJ]

Josh, help me out with this.
watts = amps x volts
P = I x E
55 = I x 12
55/12 = 4.58 amps PER hella 500.

2 of those is 9.16 amps
2 27w(ea) LEDs = 4.50 amps
13.66 amps total ?
Your math is correct sir!
However there IS usually a slight spike in amperage draw at startup.
But I still dont see a problem with those numbers (13.66amp draw) on a 20 amp relay.
I WOULD however make sure your fuse is also a 20 amp fuse on the feed to that relay.

Disclaimer:
I know that doing it this way "will work", and you should be fine, but its not the ideal way of doing things.
We are however Jeep owners, and lots of the stuff we do to these things is not ideal. Or proper. Or moral. Or can be done with a clean conscience in most cases, and in SOME cases, probably not legal or sane.

....when you done I wanna see pics, striclty for my own guilty pleasure. :D

[budgetxjmcknight]

The blazer light I have I have had on for as long as I have had my xj, about two years. I don't have them on a relay, just fused with the correct size wire and they do great. As far as I know from doing electrical as a career, LED and halogen can run on the same switch, fuse, and relay as long as you size the wire and fuse properly. I wire stuff at work from 12 volts to 480 volt and the sizeing is still the same ac voltage or dc. Wire amp diagrams are easy to look up but as far as fusing goes, you take your total watts and divide it by the voltage= amps. 14awg is good for 15 amps, 12 good for 20, 10 good for 30 amp, so on. Fuses should be sized at 1.5 the amp load, as 18 amps, fuse needs to be 25 amp.

[denverd1]

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/4-Gang-Dual-Terminal-Block-Positive-and-Negative-Bus-Bar-for-Boats-/00/s/NTAwWDUwMA==/$(KGrHqZHJEQE88dE0wP(BPUkN4nzIw~~60_12.JPG
had ah Ahah! moment thinking about wiring up lights the other day. picked up a few relays from Radio shack and started thinking running several different relays off of one switch. so I picked up this handy little terminal. One switch will control several different relays.

[denverd1]

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/16/5uzegehy.jpg

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2

[XJ Wheeler]

Heres my setup.

1630