Light bar Works without ground magically

So I'm waiting for cali raised to call me back, just because it's at the end of the business day for them which I understand..

I finally got the 32 inch light bar setup, and I found out that it actually works without the ground connected, is this normal? How on Earth is it making a connection loop :0

I did hook up the ground after this realization, everything seems to work and I don't hear, smell, or feel any crazy Heat.

In the meantime should I refrain from using it?

 

My guess is internally they have the negative side tied to the light bar case. When you connected the light bar’s case to the Tacoma’s chassis that completed the path back to battery negative since chassis is tied to battery negative.
If you have a volt meter a simple test would be to disconnect the negative from the light bar then measure between battery positive and light bar case.
I’d wait to hear back from them to determine if that’s how it’s supposed to be wired internally before running the lights.

 

You are getting a ground from somewhere, light mount itself maybe? A circuit will not work if you have 12vdc going to it without some part going to a good ground.

 

This ^

A lot of LED companies do this including the high end companies like Baja. I recently tried to add a switched ground to act as an override for my rear light at and I found I needed to insulate my bar from my rack since it was grounding though the case.

 

that's the only thing I can imagine, but the brackets that hold it or powder coated and I figured that would have insulated them.. haha

 

What about the bolts? When you tightened them down, I’m sure metal made contact somewhere

 

See...even the best have this happen

 

well yes but I just presumed at the powder coat would prevent that, I mean I don't know what powder coat is made of so maybe that's not true :0

 

If the powder coat is an insulator
the bolts threads probably stripped paint off the mounting bracket creating the conduction path between the light bar’s metal case and the Tacoma chassis.

 

Hm I'm surprised it didn't Arc or spark :0
But I do have the ground attached now