Rock light question

Ok I admit I know next to nothing about wiring up lights.My question is on my 96 it came stock with a pair of driving lights with the dash switch.I removed these long ago.Can I wire up a pair of those rubber utility lights that are common in auto parts stores to the leads that the stock driving lights came with?I haven't a clue how many watts thoses stock ones were.Thanks

If the wireing is stil there it would as easy as crimping the new lights to the old wiring, if the new lights are around the same wattage.

I made a wal-mart 'light bar', lol, and used the switched output of the stock fog-light switch to run a relay, which in turn powers my lights. This way I'm in no danger of overloading the stock circuit, but it still looks stock inside. And that's about the only thing that looks stock inside, heh

The only concern would be if you plan on wiring up a set of 4 lights (2 front, 2 rear). Then I 'd be a bit concerned with that the stock wiring harness handling the extra wattage of the second pair of lights.

The stock driving lights should have been 55 watts. Most of the rubber work lights I've seen (including what I used) are also 55 watts. So one pair would be fine.

Kent

if you smell plasic wire coating burning then turn off the switch and re-run some heavier gauge wire

i've got 2 hot (+) leads of solid copper home wire strung through my passenger side frame rail that i have several things patched into, rock lights remote 12v-port for the cargo area etc, then i just use a switch on the ground wire for each accessory inside the cab so that i don't have any extra Hot wires spider-webbing into the cab...

xj4fun said:

The only concern would be if you plan on wiring up a set of 4 lights (2 front, 2 rear). Then I 'd be a bit concerned with that the stock wiring harness handling the extra wattage of the second pair of lights.

The stock driving lights should have been 55 watts. Most of the rubber work lights I've seen (including what I used) are also 55 watts. So one pair would be fine.

Kent

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I assume he's talking about the factory fog lights.
Probably not 55 watts but I don't think he needs that much wattage for rock lights anyways. They only have to shine a few feet ahead.
The factory switch should be a relay. Just pull the switch panel and see what wattage the relay is good for.

Your factory fog lights might be wired to only work with headlights on - it's that way on my 91. If you're running a trail where you really need rock lights, you'll also need to be spotted sometime. Staring into the headlights, your spotter can't see too well.

Search on fog+wiring -- somebody posted about tapping the running lights power wire to power the foglight relay so the circuit works with or without the headlights.

For my rock lights, I thought about doing the same thing, but in the end, I took the easy way out and just ran a new power tap off the battery to a new relay and new switch.