LED Light Bars

I'm running a 21.5" light bar from TaoTronics it was $148 +free next day shipping off Amazon with a amazon prime account.

It is 8000 Lm, 10-30v, 120w. I know it's a cheaper made in china light but the output is great and the product is quality made, my only suggestion is buy a separate switch, the switch that comes with the wiring harness is huge and ugly!!

My PIAA driving lights I was able to order them with the bumper from all pro, they are 4" driving lights model #510.

Headlights are clear repos off eBay and some "hid" clear bulbs but they are not real HID


Here is the link to the light I got

Quandingyi 22'' 120W Led Light Bar Work Offroad Lamp Waterproof Flood Fog Lights for Off Road SUV Jeep Truck ATV

http://www.amazon.com/TaoTronics-10...&qid=1380435638&sr=8-5&keywords=Led+light+bar

 

Sounds like both of you have Totrons too and got great deals on them. Mine came with the bizarre switch on the harness which I swapped out for a daystar.

When I was research these LED bars, I read this comparison page on the Rigid site. The heat sink on my light looks exactly like the rigid one and not the "import one".
http://www.rigidindustries.com/articles.asp?ID=247

 

Which switch did you use? I just tried to swap mine out for one from autozone, it worked for a minute, but then it got hot and the shrink started to melt and smoke, almost caught my truck on fire. I went back and gave the dude hell who told me it would work fine. Now I need to rebuild part of the harness and get a new switch.

 

Get a good quality marine switch rated for 25amps. How many watts is your bar?

 

120w

The switch that came with it was 20a 12v with 3 prong

Will this work ?

$19 Daystar Rocker Switch Green Light 20 AMP Single Pole

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GH5PWY/ref=gno_cart_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

Yeah I think that would be fine. Was your switch actually smoking, or was it the wiring going into the switch? What size wire are you using? And how long of a run from battery to the bar is it?

 

Here is my gnar bar.

 

It was the wiring, it melted almost all of the shrink wrap off of the harness, I'm not sure what gauge it is, it's just what came with the light bar.

My friend said the switch that came with the kit could have an internal relay and the other one I got didn't... Whatever it was the me switch I installed caused a short, circuit stayed open and the wires got hot as fuck..

Switch on the right came with the kit, switch on the left is what caught my shit on fire... I know I hooked it up right because A I'm not stupid and everything is labeled clearly, and B the light bar went on when I turned the new switch on, could that switch have just been defective?

 

hmm. Either the wire is too small for the length of run, or there is a short somewhere. If the wire got too hot and melted but the fuse didn't blow, you're either using too large of a fuse or the wire is too small to handle the load going through it. That is just my assumption though. I'm no expert but I see stuff like that happen all the time when I'm helping people rig boats.

I tend to not use wiring harnesses that come with lights because I like to step up a size or two in wiring depending on how far I'm running the light from the battery.

I can't really tell how the harness is, but I'm assuming it's just got a red and black wire bundled together, right? With a fuse inline to the red wire I hope. Make sure you ground as close to the light as you can and are using proper gauge wiring. That obviously depends on how long your red wire is from the battery to the light.

One last question, how did you wire the blue switch? you should have one side going to your battery, and the other side going to the light with the middle post being grounded for the light on the switch to activate.

 

i dont think mine is a totron, since it came from China? I thought Hanma/Totron were japanese?

Im using a blue daystar switch too, may use a relay, probably will for shiggles

 

I used a Daystar. Does your wiring harness have a relay in it (a little black junction box)?
Like the one in the middle? This should resolve all your "hot" issues. I have no issues with my 240W bar.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-W...Parts_Accessories&hash=item19de80e09a&vxp=mtr



These Daystars fit nicely in your factory slots with some very minor trimming.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=...4515114&crdt=0

Everyone seems to like these too:
http://www.otrattw.com/

 

Totron is from China.....they do not label their products or boxes. If it says nothing, I am willing to bet it is a Totron. I think their intent was for other distributors to put their own label/brand name on them.

 

then it def is lol. no markings or anything, just "LED LIGHT BAR" - they claim 24k LM and 3W cree LEDS, im a bit skeptical, but i cant wait to see how br0ight it is

 

I have the 32" Totron double row all spot. It is rated at 18,000 lumens. I am very impressed with its performance so far. Photos don't do it justice. It looks way brighter in person.

35w HID headlights.


32" Totron Spot, LED light bar. As you can tell it is more of a Euro Beam pattern than a true spot. It is perfect for me.


32" Light Bar + Hella 700FF 55W HID

 

thats what I like to hear! i turned it on briefly but my street has a lot of light pollution and no clear path so i could tell it was bright but not really see the full effect

 

Over the years I've run various HID's and halogens lights, and now I swear by LED's and won't run anything else:



Rigid 20" E-series combo on the bumper, Jasper Offroad 3" 2x2 floods on Relentless hood hinge mounts.

 

I've seen your problem many many times.
Did the OG switch on your harness have 3 leads going to it?
and how many does the switch you bought have a place for?
one wire is a hot in, one is a ground, and one is a hot out powering the light when its turned on.
People always try to combine the 2 hots and this burns up the harness just like yours did.

Post a pic of the harness if you would

 

Ill post a pic in a second, but they both had 3 leads, that was why I bought that switch to replace it because it had 3 leads.

 

I have 2 vehicles with 50" tough light LED bars in my collection...









Not the best shot cause it's not even dark but it's all I have, you can actually see a Ram walking up the hill dead center in the light if you look close enough.








I run a 30amp relay on both of them. Running just off a switch is fine but I'm personally a believer in relays. Especially with how I have it wired up on my explorer. I basically have the power to activate the relay on my explorer pulled off my high beam circuit and I have a simple switch between the high beam circuit and the relay. That way when the switch is off, my low/high beams are just normal. Turn the switch on though and now I've got control of my LED bar with my low/high beam switch. It's how I've always wired up and ran all off road lights I've had on all my vehicles.


For comparison, the 3rd rig in my collection... I run 4 hella 4000's converted to HID on the roof and I honestly do like those a bit more for going fast but the the 50" tough light is really nice!!! If you want the ultimate, combine a couple HID's with the LED and you probably couldn't ask for more!

 

Okay here we go, first off I don't have the blue switch anymore i returned it right away to autozone. Here is the switch that came with it, this was the order it came wired and worked just fine, red wire to the + black was ground and yellow was ? Whatever was left. Exactly how I wired it to the blue switch, now I'm guessing either the blue switch was not the same internally or there was a short because the lights did come on but the wires stayed hot. If I wired it wrong would the light still have worked like it did for me?


Here you can see the harness all burnt up and how small gauge the wires are


Side note this was the scariest thing that's happened to me, my truck was flashing before my eyes in flames, I was on too of a 4 story parking garage when this happened, no way for a fire truck to get up there... Getting an extinguisher pronto...

The long red and black wires coming off the white connector hook up to the battery as well as the black and red coming out if the relay and fuse box.


Here is the diagram


The company is being really nice and sending me a new harness for free, but should I even use it? Or find someone who knows what they are doing and build me a beefier harness.