help wiring lights

I just finished nearly the exact same thing today, I post pics a bit later.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=69321

why is my post above his?

I'm going to be adding a bunch of lights on my '89 MJ and need advice on a few things.
Here's what I'm planning: 4 x 100 watt lights on the rollbar (2 switches), 2 x 55 watt lights on the rollbar facing back, 4 x 50 watt under-carriage lights (2 switches). Also a pair of 100 watt lights on the front bumper but they'd be wired completely seperate. I'd like to put a distribution block and all 5 relays in a hobby box mounted to the front of the bed and fed by a single power lead from the battery. It would look something like this



I think total draw would be about 51 amps for all that stuff (?).

I've learned alot from searching...probably just enough to be dangerous. What I'd like to know:

1. what gage wire would I need coming from the battery, it would travel about 10ft to the bed? I could run a second wire for the rocklights if needed.

2. what size fuse would I need at the battery for that wire?

3. can I pull a single 12v + lead off the fuse box to feed all 5 toggles and relays the way I drew it? The toggles are each LED tipped if that matters.

Thanks for help :sunshine:

TekkaMaki said:

1. what gage wire would I need coming from the battery, it would travel about 10ft to the bed? I could run a second wire for the rocklights if needed.

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Minimum 6 gauge, I'd use 4 gauge.

TekkaMaki said:

2. what size fuse would I need at the battery for that wire?

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60 amp

TekkaMaki said:

3. can I pull a single 12v + lead off the fuse box to feed all 5 toggles and relays the way I drew it? The toggles are each LED tipped if that matters.

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Yes, but I would just get it directly from the battery. If you get it from the fuse box you need to be sure that you aren't getting a feed that is already used for something else and can't handle that plus all these lights.

dmillion said:

Yes, but I would just get it directly from the battery. If you get it from the fuse box you need to be sure that you aren't getting a feed that is already used for something else and can't handle that plus all these lights.

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These lights meaning the LED's on the toggles?

Because the 6 (or 4) gage wire from the battery would handle the power to all the lights, I would only use the power from the stock fuse block to go to the switches, run the LED's on the switches, and then trip the relay's...I haven't been able to find out what kind of amps actuating the 6 relays and powering the 6 LED's would draw, I don't *think* it would be very much but I'd like to know for sure.

Thanks!

noresttill said:

why is my post above his?

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glitch in the matrix....never seen that happen before :wierd:

I had seen FitchVA's writeup on another forum, that's where I got the idea to bundle the relays in a box. I like your setup too, almost exactly like what I want.

TekkaMaki said:

These lights meaning the LED's on the toggles?

Because the 6 (or 4) gage wire from the battery would handle the power to all the lights, I would only use the power from the stock fuse block to go to the switches, run the LED's on the switches, and then trip the relay's...I haven't been able to find out what kind of amps actuating the 6 relays and powering the 6 LED's would draw, I don't *think* it would be very much but I'd like to know for sure.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Run a 10 or 12 guage wire from the battery to your switches cause if you have all of your switches on it MIGHT pull too much amperage for the fuse box to handle. I put a secondary fuse box in my glove compartment to run all of my accesories from. I ran 3 12 guage wires from the battery for it (2 for power and 1 for ground) and used 2 4-fuse blocks that can clip onto each other. I also put a ground box in the glovebox so I can easily (And directly) ground dash mounted accessories.

There is a pic in my album of the fuse box.

http://community.webshots.com/user/lazarusmj

It is expandable, has direct power and ground, is protected by the glovebox, is easliy accessable, and keeps the main fusebox as it should be.

Did a quick check.....

Two different auto relays -- coils will draw .11 to .17 Amps each.

LEDs will be in the 0.01 to 0.02 A range.

TekkaMaki said:

These lights meaning the LED's on the toggles?

Click to expand...

My misunderstanding. No, the draw of the LED's and the relays will be minimal. Probably no more than an amp or two. That feed you can pull from almost anywhere and use light guage wire (I'd probably use 16 or 18 guage).