Ken the electrical guy Q n A

Installed those on my 2010 short bed . Ended up installing 4 . Here's a pic of 4 so you can get a idea how bright it is . Ran wire from front to oznium flush mount water proof switch .(orange light in pic) .

 

Forgot to quote @Grossomotto

 

Awesome, did you tap into anything or add fuse/run wire?

 

I got small fuse box by battery and powered from there . Ran wires to back .

 

Hey dude! You got it

Can you link me what solar unit you have? I’ll have a better idea if I can read the build sheet on it.

There’s a multitude of ways to go about this but the simplest would be what I call a 1 / 2 switch. Many marine companies make these. It allows you to control circuits in the exact way you described via a manual switch. They are normally very robust and can be a bit large in physical size. However it’s very simple and easy to install and use.

I may have more options for you but I’ll need to know about ur unit first

 

Hey guys if anyone is interested in seeing what I do at work I try to add some neat electrical stuff to my story on Instagram

@y0taken

 

Ok since you guys know what your talking about, maybe you wouldn’t mind helping me with my current problem. I am not very knowledgeable with the electrical system.

I just received an Auxbeam 8 gang switch panel. I have 3 sets of lights I want to run on it. They are currently hooked up individually and each have rocker switches that was attached to the harness with inline fuse and their own relays.

Now I have connected them all to the Auxbeam fuse box with the existing relay and inline fuse, however, nothing is working.

Auxbeam instructions suck and tell me to run straight (+) (-) from fuse box to light. Is this right? Won’t I burn out my lights without a relay?

 

With an Auxbeam you don’t need to use a relay. As a matter of fact you really don’t need to run a relay for anything that pulls less than 20
Amps. There are many switches readily available that can carry a 20
Amp load without issue.

As long as your lights don’t draw more current than the respective fuse/channel allows you can just connect your light directly to the aux beam and ground the light in an appropriate ground locations.

when it comes to grounding. If you don’t know, just ground it to the battery or existing factory ground point. In the case of Aux beam they provide a ground bus that’s a viable options of course as long as you ground your main ground wire to the battery

 

Hey Ken,
Quick question, any recommendations for flexible solar panel brands?

 

Nice work. Do you have 4 circuit breakers on the same buss? I'm probably missing something.
Edit #1 Nevermind, figured it out. Too early, need more coffee.
Edit #2 Those standoffs on the spark plug cables are EPIC! Nice job.
Zim

 

I know this is an old post but I’ll add what I did on my similar setup.

instead of 2 relays, I have a single relay with a switch in the cab. Nothing abnormal. But, the switch is only active when the high beams are on.

I have an add-a-fuse added to the factory high beam fuse location. This wire then runs into the cab, to the input side of the switch. Then the output side of the switch runs back to the relay for my lights. So the highs can be on or off. And the switch can be on or off. But the switch just doesn’t receive power unless the highs are triggered.

hopefully that makes sense. The wiring was super simple, especially compared to 2 relays.

 

Nothing that I've used myself and have hands on experience with bud sorry. I do have two Renogy 100 watt rigid panels and their controller and it works very well for my needs.

 

lol coffee is always the answer

Thank you vey much for the compliments. Its just some of the stuff I've done in the last week. Most of the time I don't get completely free range to do what I want so I have to work within my customers budget. It's kind of fun to try to figure out neat solutions. The standoffs need to be polished/finished but I think when I get them all purrrdy and exactly the same they will be kinda neat. Thanks again buddy

 

Found this awesome thread. I'm about to install some (2x) BD LP9s on my 2nd gen Tacoma. Planning to install them up on the front bumper, and use the BD wire harness with relay and switch, connected directly to my battery. I'm not so good with electronics, and this is my first real wiring job. Is it ok to connect these things directly to the battery?

 

hey buddy. If your going to use their supplied wiring harness just follow their instructions and you’ll be fine. They include a relay and fuse built into their harness so you’re all set. If you get stuck or have any questions feel free to follow up here or dm me on IG for a faster reply

 

I am too cheap to buy a SwitchPros system. I have a 12-circuit blue sea panel on a powertray in the engine bay. I need to mount 4 more relays somewhere, where is the best place to put them?

 

In the engine bay close to or on the power tray. You can grab 2 out of the 4 wires you’ll need to use a relay with a very short run . From there it’s just relay output to accessory and relay ground or 12v trigger to energize the relay coil. If you want to minimize wires running in the interior trigger the relays on the ground side with an Ethernet cable. Cut the end off and strip the outer most insulation off the cable. There’s around 8 conductors individually isolated inside. A razor blade works well for this but be careful not to cut the wires under the outer shielding. If you do just cut it off and recut. It’s kind of a finesse thing so expect to take a few times at first. This will allow you to trigger 8 relays off the same single cable. Do not hook anything else up to these wires. They are very small and are dedicated relay triggers only. You can get ground for the input of your switches from a bolt in the sheet metal support that the dash and everything else bolts to. Shouldn’t really matter where. Do not use a self tapping or sheet metal screw. Use a ring terminal and find a bolt or through bolt it with a nut. If you want to run illuminated switches this won’t work but if you just want standard on off switches then you can do it this way and it’s very neat and easy.

if you want illuminated switches let me know and I can tell you how I go about that too

 

Thanks. I am really just asking where people mount relays, wondering if they are screwing them to the firewall with sheet metal screws. I can buy another relay tree like the one I am using now, and mount it on the front side of the power tray, or I guess I could bolt them to the power tray itself - can you mount relays horizontally?



Maybe I should replace the Blue Sea panel with two of these:

https://www.amazon.ca/OLS-Economica...d-search-10&pf_rd_t=BROWSE&pf_rd_i=9163872011

 

gotcha

yeah I think you’ll have to imagen the wires and everything to really get the best idea for wire organization and routing. People mount relays everywhere dude and in every orientation.

 

Ken, the extra 4plug trailer harness has power (with lights on) so I'm using that. Put in a switch and the two LEDs, going to get more wire to run.