wiring alot of aux lights

hi, im a volunteer fire fighter and i do some off roading also. I have several switches im about to mount and wire into my truck. what would be an easy way to have a place where all the wires are tied in together and then only 2 wires ran to each switch to make things easy? just like a centralized spot for all the wires to come together because all my emergency lights will be wired to one switch, thanks!

m.reed.1@me.com

 

I am a volly as well. No money for any cool lights. We are permitted to have a bunch anyway. If you are going to have one switch but a ton of wires, you could mount it on the center console somewhere where there isn't other wiring. How do you plan on getting them all on one switch?

 

look into an additional fuse block

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wc...151_10001_17418_-1____ProductDisplayErrorView

 

Link didn't work....


OP, you can install an add-a-circuit to the underdash fuse box and run that "hot" to all of the switches.
Run the output of the switches to a relay box under the hood.
Each switch goes to pin 85 of it's own relay.
Pin 86 of each relay goes to ground.

Run a heavy gauge wire and fuse from the battery to pin 30 on each relay. Wire and fuse size should be sufficient to support all of your Aux lights.
Pin 87 of each relay goes to each light, same gauge wire as from the fuse to pin 30.

If these are high-draw lights like halogen or HID off-road lights, then you might want to split the feeds using something like the BlueSea junction box. A heavy wire and marine circuit breaker feed the box, and each output from the box has it's own fuse. That will allow you to use the smallest wire required for each sub-system without risking a burnout because of the large fuse needed for larger lights.

 

they are all low draw led's. i wasnt thinking about going to the fuse box. only to the fuse box for power. i thought i had seen somewhere someone had it set up where all of his hot wires for his lights and all the grounds came into a centralized place and then just branched off in one hot and one ground for each switch he needed to use. right now i just have them all ran in together and wire nutted and leading a hot to the switch and one out to ground. i just dont want a ton of wires coming into my cab if i can figure out some way to narrow it down to 1 wire coming into the cab per switch. i am a neat freak but not to technical with the fuse box or relays.

 

well.. most switches require a ground, but what you could do is run the ground and power wire or whatever wires that come to the switch, then just put one of those wire shrink covers on it, so it looks like one wire and its nice and clean.. you could technically wrap all the wires from your switches in the stuff then its just one mega wire for all your switches haha

Also if you have lots of wires.. instead of hooking them all up to your battery, I would look into a fuse block as well, its an affordable way to keep all your wiring nice and tidy and it looks cool too.

 

yeah im looking into a fuse box to mount somewhere, im one of these crayon rednecks i have to draw it out and look at a diagram and see how it works. im not too into fuse boxes or whatnot, all my stuff is just straight wired into 2 switches right now. just looking for something more professional. any idea how i can run all my hot/ground wires from my lights to a new fuse box and run a switch from that?

 

Fixed that for you