wiring help! is this safe???

I wired 3 lights together today, all 3 go into 1 wire wich leads to the switch, the a wire from the switch to the battery, is this safe? With no relay with all 14g wire

 

it'll work.... for how long? this is the question...

 

Will I need extra wire to wire it to a relay? Will that make it a ton safer

 

when i had my light bar i had all 4 lights on the front wired to 2 different switches. (2 lights on each switch)

no relay, fuses, etc. It worked fine all the way up until I took the light bar off

probably not the "right" way to do it, but like i said it should be fine (should)






(im not liable for any fires you may run into )




edit... i did have fuses between the switchs & the battery now that i think about it.

 

I'm going to add a relay today, will that make it a ton safer and no fires?

 

You should put an inline fuse on the power lead somewhere close to the battery. Depending on how much amperage your lights draw will let you know what size fuse to put in. That way if you have a dead short somewhere the wire won't burn which could potentially start a fire....you will just blow a fuse.
It is better to use a relay when running lights. You should only use the switch to toggle the relay open and closed. If your switch is capable of handling the amperage your drawing then you can get by without the relay.

 

They are 55w lights thanks!

 

Use fuses!

 

What he said ^^

 

Would the fuse go from switch to battery?

 

You surely don't want your dash looking like that!!


With 3 55w bulbs you will be pulling about 13.75 amps. I would use a relay

 

are you set up like this:

battery------switch------light-light-light?

you really need to make sure that you switch can handle that many amps (min 15amps + you probably should have a factor of safety involved there).

Run a relay and fuse the +12v at the battery going to the relay

 

Will this fuse work?? I thout you use a inline fuse from the switch the battery?

 

Yes its lightd to switch then switch to battery..i have the oznium switch

 

Your switch needs to be rated for the amperage.

At 55w per light, 3 lights, you've got 165w / 12v = 13.75A.

As long as your switch is rated for that amperage at 12v, you don't need a relay or solenoid. That just adds complexity to the circuit.
EDIT: Here's a pretty typical switch from radioshack. Note that it's rated at 25A. So check your switch, but it's not hard to find a switch rated for that amperage. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062534

Your circuit doesn't mention a fuse. You want a fuse inline, as close as practical to the battery. 15A, obviously, a 10A will blow immediately.

14g wire may be a little light for the job. Granted, in your house 14g solid runs all over the house on 15A circuits. But for stranded wire in an automotive application, you may want to go a little heavier. I googled up a chart here (there are lots of them, but this one actually shows percentage of power loss at given length, which makes it the most helpful, IMO)

http://www.windsun.com/Hardware/Wire_Table.htm

So 8 or 10 gauge is called for, depending on the length of your run, in order to keep power loss due to internal wire resistance at 5% or less.

Hope this helps.

 

Sweet thanks! Is this type i need http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3150583

 

^^ i would cry... definately worth the extra hour to put in a fuse...i would recommend wire loom too, cant be to careful

 

Yeah, I've used those.

How are you connecting your wires, BTW?

 

I used male and female connectors so i could simply unplug it to remove my grill...i do have 2 lights going into 1 female connector though then that plugs into another female that goes to the switch

 

Im going to use thise relay...how do i connect the wires to it http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3020762