DIY: Wiring after-market lights

Just out of curiosity, how would I get the wires to the roof (where my light bar will be)... Also, great thread, very useful, it'll come in handy when I'm installing my light bar sometime later this week...

 

I would Probably go through the dash, up an A pillar behind the plastic, tucked underneath the headliner, and through a discreetly drilled (and repainted for rust), grommetted, and silicone sealed hole near or in the roof rack tracks, in a spot where water would tend to flow away from or be otherwise protected.

That's just off the top of my head, but if I were doing it I would do some digging using the search function here first; to see what others have done.

 

I did something like this a while back when installing heated grips on a motorcycle. A diagram help me understand the need for a relay based on wire size and feed length. I did another diagram from this great write up. Let me know if there any issues and I'll pull it down.

Thanks for taking the time to put this together.

 

yeah i think i may need more stuff than what my kit came with

 

I was looking into doing bed and hood lights on separate switches so correct me if i'm wrong. I do a fuse tap into a fuse that has constant power because i want to be able to turn these on even with the truck off. after the tap i run the wire to the two switches. after the switches it goes to the relay? That part i don't really get cause you have another fuse again why? after that part it goes to the lights ?

 

a relay uses a low power switched current to energize a high current circuit. Both need to be fused to protect against shorts since they are really separate circuits. The fuse protects the wire. The lights have heavy gage wire rated for the current and a fuse that matches the draw of the lights. The switch controls a lower current so it has a lower power fuse.

 

I didn't use a relay. Went with a inline fuse and went to both switches then switched to lights then ground on both the switches and the lights. Low led so they don't need all the extra stuff.
Posted on YouTube if you search Tacoma mods

 

As long as the wire and switches are rated for the current and protected by the correct fuse you're gtg. A relay is only necessary for currents higher than the switch can handle.

 

So I’m wanting to have fog lights installed on my 2013 tacoma and no one knows how to do it so we are doing a lot of Tacoma world reading! Thank god for that! Lol Anyway which would be the best fuse to tap into in the engine bay fuse box? TIA!

 

I have a 2013 sport 4door I want to mount 2 lights to my front runner foo fighters rack. What is the best way to run the wire harness, do I need to drill a hole in the roof? Tacoma World I need some tips!

 

I have a 96 Taco that i have wired a set of KC lights to my high beams for when I'm off roading, but i just installed a pair of LED headlights and now the output on the high beam wire is not strong enough to turn on the relay for the KC lights. I thought it was a faulty wire or plug but i put the old headlights back in and it worked fine. Any suggestions on how to make this work???

 

Your truck has ground switched headlights. This means that both the low beam filament and high beam filament share a common 12V+. Your low beams come on when your low beams are grounded, your high beams come on when your high beams are grounded.

If you wired your KC lights to your high beam circuit, you are most likely back feeding power into your headlights. Next time you turn on your high beams, look and see if both your low beams and high beams come on at the same time, they most likely do. Incandescent bulbs don't really care which way power is applied (polarity). LEDs act like diodes and only allow power to travel in one direction.

You need to fix your wiring due to the fact that your stock system is ground switched. There are plenty of wiring diagrams if you just google "ground switched high beam"

 

copy that. Thank you for the info. I will look it up now.

 

Little off topic but I disconnected battery terminals while running wires . Didn’t finish and reconnected batter terminal I have 2008 tacoma pre runner I noticed the idle of my truck was off for like 10 min guessing the on board computer had to re learn the idle speed ? Any steps I need to take to make sure it’s correct

 

I ordered a wiring harness off Amazon has to relay built in and the fuse all together just got to run positive from the switch to some kind of power source . It says 25 amp on the switch where I’m confused is it’s telling me to run the switch to the battery . I want to tie it in to the fuse box but it’s all small fuses and there’s a 30 amp and a 20 amp . Now the fuse that’s on the harness is that the one for the switch and is it as simple as putting the power wire off the switch to anything that has power in the fuse box I’ve got the relay ran from the battery so I’ll post pic tomorrow what I’m dealing with and maybe y’all can tell me how to run power for the switch

 

Please lay out the harness so we can see the wire labels and how they run.

 

I have a pic of the fuse box will post more when I get off work

 

Fuse at poc bottom center supplies the main light bar current, fuse to switch supplies only switch led current(illumination~10-50mA)) and relay activation current (~100mA).

 

Should I use a micro fuse tap I noticed I have small fuses but the picture you have looks like a reg fuse tap ?