Need help from the wiring gurus

Apologies if this information is covered elsewhere...I couldn't find a lot of this by searching.

Ordered a Prinsu rack and went with their 30" LED light bar to go with it (Merry Christmas to me!). I notice that the light bar comes with the wires pig-tailed but no hardware to hook it up, if I'm reading it right, so I am exploring my options to get it done.

After searching around here I believe I'd like to run the wires down the driver's side windshield rain gutter as others have done, and then into the engine compartment. I'd prefer a relay setup that hooks into a switch that I'd love to have in one of the blanks in my dash, something like this one, preferably.

Being in the middle of a bathroom renovation project, I'd love to have someone else do this for me, so I stopped by the local truck modding joint the other day and they quoted me a "solid 1-2 hours" at $125/hour to do it, and I'd be bringing the switch in with me.

That seemed a little steep to me, so I am now considering tackling it myself. Not trying to be a cheapskate, but sheesh, up to $250? The trouble is I'm a definite novice on this, so I'm looking for some help from those of you here to see if I still want to attempt it. Thus far I've installed the LED bed lights, but those went straight to hot battery power, not to a relay.

So far the biggest questions I have are:

1. What size wire will I need?
2. Given that this is probably the last extra lighting I will add, I don't need a relay setup with expansion possibilities, so is there a product that would work best for this application?
3. How difficult will it be to access the back of the dash to get that switch in there?
4. How difficult will it be to get the wires from the switch into the engine compartment?

I'm reasonably handy, but I'd like to avoid any hack-job mishaps that I may fall into that could potentially arrive at warranty arguments, since I've only had the truck 3 months after purchasing it new.

Any thoughts out there?

 

The type of install you are doing is pretty easy. I would recomend getting a wiring harness for the light. I have seen them for $15 on some of the sites selling the lights. This should include the relay, but if not they are only around $5.
The relay will have 4 prongs on the back. Constant on, switched +, ground, and power to your lights. You mount that and hook the correct wires from the harness up to the relay, snake the wires into the cab through the firewall and to the panel were you hook them up to the switch.
I would not pay someon e $250 to install it. I installed aux. lights on my bike. They came with no wiring at all and I was able to easily build a wiring harness in a few hours taking my time. I don't have a ton of electrical expierence, but understand the concept of it and took my time.

 

I am doing a similar project myself. My biggest problem right now is running a wire form the engine to the dash. Is there a hole or some way to get through the fire wall? Any help would be nice! Thanks

 

Go through the rubber grommet that is behind battery

 

Okay, that shouldn't be to hard. Does it just pull off?

 

Ya more or less squeeze and pull man handle it!

 

I used 10 gauge wire. I installed my light on my Back Rack. Ran 10 gauge from light to relay, from relay to + on battery (fused) and ground wires from light and relay.

 

Then used 12 gauge from on off switch to relay and from relay to auxiliary fuse block