Wiring lights to come on with brights.

Got some lights wired up today.. plugged fog lights into factory harness, the bar on its own switch.. but The others are a flood/driving combo that I would like to somehow wire to come on with the bright lights.. would it work to power then direct to battery with a relay powered off of whatever wire feeds the bright lights? Also looking to do an any time fog light mod. Thanks

 

I wired a relay triggered by the high beam to turn on my lights as your asking, works perfect.

more you could wire them to a switch and the high beams like in the post below.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/off-road-lights-on-with-high-beams-w-toggle-switch.468799/

 

Terrible reference, the OP in that thread is running a wimpy switch (3A max) to the added lights instead of using the relay.

 

Agreed, but an idea nonetheless. Higher amp switches are out there, which would make it a safe option if it’s the direction someone wanted to go.

 

3 options...
Switch can intercept signal feed to relay.

 

some of this is a little confusing to me.. But i think option A was what i was originally considering.. Lotta numbers and stuff i dont know what anything means. my idea was to have them come on automatically with the brights.. but thought it might be neat to have them switched also, but i dont know why i would need them switched either. But in my head it seems like it would backfeed the bright circuit if i switched it.. but maybe not..

 

A relay has numbered pins. 86 & 85 are the pins that handle the coil side of the relay.(switch) These pin handle a "signal" which means a low current power input. The wire size used for these pins is typical 18 gauge or much smaller. 30 and 87 handle the high current, wires there are typical 16 to 10 gauge, larger wires means a larger relay also. In most cases pin 30 handles the fused power going in and 87 relays the power to the accessory (lamps, horn, etc.) The Tacoma has many relays which have the fuse after the relay, not the typical before the relay. This is the case of the headlights. One large fuse to the relay then one fuse per lamp. If a fuse to the lamp does its job, then you only loose one lamp, not both.

Since you need a "signal" to the relay of the added lights to activate in parallel to the headlights, in this case HIGH beam, you tap into that wire of the high beam circuit.
Choice A has a connector that mates to the vehicle harness going to the headlamps and another connector mating to the headlight. The wires connecting these would have an additional wire to be sent to the added accessory relay input pin side to activate it.
Choice B has an add-a-fuse to the fuse of the high beam circuit (2 choices, left or right) that would also be sent to the added accessory relay input pin.
If you where to add a switch to disactivate the parallel ON with High Beams feature of the added lights, it would be on this wire feeding the relay.
Now, choice C, has the added relay splitting the input current to pins 30 & 86, one side (30) would have the proper sized wire to handle the amps of the accessory (lamps) attached to pin 87. The other wire needs to be a smaller gauge, as mentioned before, to pin 86. This set up has the ground (pin 85, in this case) joined to the same wire in the light switch at the steering wheel that provides a ground to activate the high beams. And yes the lights on the Tacoma are ground "activated." I came up with the idea of the T awhile back and @kmorgan3 can provide you the T that would mate to this connector (C11). So only one wire needs to enter the cab to this connection. If you need/require an ON/OFF switch, this wire would also be the one intercepted between relay and the C11 T harness, placing the switch on the dash conveniently. Switch can be On/OFF or ON/OFF/On

 

T to the headlight H4 connector with a 20 gauge wire towards the accessory relay input.(86)

 

Here's the C11 T:

This one has all circuits T'd.