Any reason not to tie light bar in with high beam switch (with an override to turn it off)?

It just seems to me that there is the possibility of accidentally having the switch on while on the road. This would create a highly dangerous situation for both you and any oncoming traffic. It just seems to me like too much risk for a little tiny bit of personal convenience. Personally, I wouldn't do it.

 

He's right. Light kills more people annually than dark.

 

Sounds good to me. Don't know if you're looking for switch options, but I would recommend MicTuning from Amazon. Backlighting is almost the same as OEM (just a bit more blue and a bit brighter).

 

It's the CaliRaised stealth mount, behind the grill.

Good to have user experience! Thanks.

I won't be trying that here in Canada, but good to know that it applies down south!

Much of my nighttime driving outside the city will be done in similar situations... out in the middle of nowhere, so the chance of oncoming traffic is negligible. Thanks for your input.

There's another way.... you can add a pigtail to one of the headlamps, and cut that. So wiring harness to adaptor to headlight. And for me it is very different... I am accustomed to dimming my brights using the high-beam stalk, so no habit re-training.

A very good point... but that gives me an idea. I will use a latching relay so that once I shut off my truck, the thing resets to "off" position. That way when I will have to intentionally enable the light bar when I want to use it. Thanks for the input.

 

Why not just wire it independently? Tying into the high beams to me is unnecessarily hacking into OEM wiring and adding a switch/relay into the whole mix seems redundant if you have to flip it off/on depending on the scenario. Seems easier to just put it on its own dedicated circuit so you can flip it on when you need it and flip it off when you don't.

The only situation I could think of being an issue with a separate circuit is if you are on a highway and running the LED bar + brights and someone comes around a corner requiring you to both flip off the highs and operate a switch, instead of just flipping off the highs.

 

Your second paragraph is my answer to your question. If I am driving along, and have my high beams AND my light bar on, I want to just move the high/low beam stalk to the low beam setting to dim my high beams and AT THE SAME TIME turn off my light bar. This way I don't have to do two things every time I want to dim my lights. It becomes a simple operation.

 

And as I already indicated, you don't need to cut into the factory harness to accomplish this. You can use a pigtail.

 

Rough crowd, eh?

 

I had my overhead bar on my 2nd gen only activated by the switch which was nice off-road. But when using it in canyons which has saved me by spotting critters heading towards the road, it's hard to turn off while turning since my switches are in front of the shifter.

I recently changed the switch out for a three position and it works great. I can easily dim the lights when i see oncoming traffic while negotiating corners. And if I'm driving up my canyon at night, both are on.

The only thing i would be somewhat worried about is the difference in the turd gen wiring. There was the thread where the malfunctioning aftermarket hid headlight units basically put the truck in limp mode. I wouldn't want that happening even though you are just pulling a tiny bit of power from the high beams to trigger the relay.

 

I just spliced mine into my high beams. I took my time and wrapped it all up so it doesn't look hacked, but I still wish i'd have just bought a splitter.

 

The the two high beam fuses (under the hood) are only hot when the high beams have been turned on. It's an excellent place to push an add-a-circuit in and use that for the controlling 12v source to your relay.

SB

 

http://www.vleds.com/h11-resistor-adapter.html

Thats more of what I was thinking of. Plug one side in to your stock bulbs, plug the other into your LED bar(either with the appropriate end or just splice)

 

I'd wire it exactly how you posted in your first post - the hi beam power to the relay coil, the switch controlling relay coil ground, and then with one click of the dimmer stalk you are on low beam w/no light bar. I don't know about you, but I've met other vehicles off road, and wire my lights this way. You might be able to get you +12V hi beam signal from one of the hi beam fuses with a fuse tap, if the fuses are downstream of the dimmer relay like some vehicles - that one you'd have to check with a meter or test light.

 

Ha. You beat me to it.

 

i run my leds with the highbeam because i DONT wana blind other drivers. when i drive highway without oncoming traffic il have my lights on (Moose on the highway is a huge problem here). when i see another driver coming around a turn i can quickly flip to low beams without the added time to take my hand off wheel and hit a switch in the dark.

my headlights are hids running off a relay so i just directly tapped into the stock harness since the headlights wont be drawing anymore.

 

I'm from Newfoundland too, and the situation you describe is exactly what I am thinking of. I used to run a setup this way when I lived in Newfoundland and used to drive from St. John's to Corner Brook on weekends. Now I am in Ottawa, but venture out of town a fair bit. We don't have moose here.... just deer... and for those of you who don't understand the difference, a deer is to a moose as a dog is to a cow.... basically. People hit a deer and get out and look at their car to see how messed up the paint is. People hit a moose and the EMT crew uses the jaws of life to get them out of the car. And the deer here, to borrow a term Devinzz1 will understand, are "maggoty", meaning there's lots of them.

 

Buddy knows luh.

I come handy to 2 last year. one i can honestly say i woulda hit if i didnt have aux lighting. some hard on the undies to come
Face to face with an animal sitin higher than your lifted truck.




I only have a set of pods hooked to the high beams. Those along with 55watt hid retrofits gives me loads of light. i got 6 hid hella 500s aswell but thats overkill most of the time so they are on a separete switch.

 

These look great, has anyone confirmed they work on our truck?

 

Also, just made this diagram for my own reference when I install the LED lights to turn on when high beams are one. I'll do write-up once all the parts get here.

 

Has anyone ever done this with a 3 way switch:

• Light bar switch in off position, light bar is off.
• Light bar switch in on position, light bar is on.
• Light bar switch in high beam position, light bar only comes on when the high beams come on.