How to make it so aftermarket lights turn on while truck is off?

Hi everyone

I'm eventually going to install bed lights and ditch lights but I was wondering if there was a way to wire them to a switch that you could turn on while the car is off. Wiring the whole thing up doesn't seem too hard but is it any harder to make it so switches and lights work while the truck is off?

 

Actually the way my bed lights are done, and I'd do other aux lighting the same.

You just have to remember to turn them off.

 

Well how do I do that? This is my first truck and I know nothing about switches n the suck. Would I just need to wire them to a switch and then the switch to wherever I need to go? Would the switch work even with the truck being completely off or do I need to do something special?

 

Wire them directly to the battery.
/thread

 

Really, that easy? Is there any chance of draining the battery even if everything is turned off? Just making sure

 

Use a 12V relay on the positive power between the battery and the lights. Otherwise all the power of the lights has to go through your switch, i.e. you will need a heavy duty switch or will burn it up.

Then if you want them to be available anytime come off the same battery wire and run that through a switch then back to the activation terminal of the relay. So the switch only needs to provide the low power to activate the relay.

 

Thank you so much.

 

Yup. I have my fog lights wired directly to the battery via the supplied harness and they turn on with the truck off.

 

Thank you, have a good day fr.