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Thread: Anyone familiar with wiring for an LED light bar?

  1. #1
    Registered User Cavasar's Avatar
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    Anyone familiar with wiring for an LED light bar?

    I just picked up a 50" LED light bar to put on my TJ, but I don't know much about wiring. As far as I know, I need to ground the black wire to the Jeep somewhere and attach the red wire to the positive terminal on the battery (picture 2). Then find a good location nearby to mount the relay. After that I have the little plug in pictures 3/4 that I'm guessing I some how connect to the black/red wires coming off of the light bar that are just hanging there. If that is correct, what is the best way to connect the two? Sorry for my ignorance, thanks for the help.




    Last edited by Cavasar; 09-05-2013 at 03:45 PM.

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    Resident Ricer Sparling's Avatar
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    Like this picture.

    With a light bar, you don't have to use a relay if you want to be lazy. I don't use one on my 40" and you can see it light up signs 2 or 3 miles away on the highway. If you don't want to use a relay, red wire from the battery to a switch, then from the switch to the light bar. Black wire gets grounded, either to the battery or to somewhere on the body if you have a good chassis ground.
    '91 Bronco 351w, ZF5, D44 TTB, 9" rear swap with disk brakes, 37" toyos, method wheels, mastercraft seats, A/C and heat

  3. #3
    Come and Take it BroncoJo's Avatar
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    Use a relay, don't be lazy. 87% of vehicle fires are caused from switches burning up.
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    I just watched a spider dominate a fly on the wall outside, i thought would would travis do? and i did the opposite, spider lives!

  4. #4
    Registered User Cavasar's Avatar
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    Thanks for the info, Graham texted me earlier and said he could help. I will be using a relay, no worries.

  5. #5
    Like my rock crawler? KrazyKarl02's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BroncoJo View Post
    Use a relay, don't be lazy. 87% of vehicle fires are caused from switches burning up.
    97 percent of all statistics are based on fake numbers.

    Looks like you bought a pretty complete set up, so yes, I think you have the idea. A fuse is more important than a relay, but you have both. Rather than hooking it up to a battery post, I would find an accessory power in the fuse block.
    -Karl
    2006 Chevy K3500 4X4 - No J.B. Weld on it yet!
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    Resident Ricer Sparling's Avatar
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    A 50" rigid bar draws 14.4 amps from some quick googling. Any decent switch will handle it fine. He's not hooking up a row of old school KC lights.
    '91 Bronco 351w, ZF5, D44 TTB, 9" rear swap with disk brakes, 37" toyos, method wheels, mastercraft seats, A/C and heat

  7. #7
    Come and Take it BroncoJo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sparling View Post
    A 50" rigid bar draws 14.4 amps from some quick googling. Any decent switch will handle it fine. He's not hooking up a row of old school KC lights.
    That's exactly like hooking up a row of old school kc lights... Probably equivalent to 4-6 kc lights.
    Born to Kill

    Quote Originally Posted by RCcola55 View Post
    I just watched a spider dominate a fly on the wall outside, i thought would would travis do? and i did the opposite, spider lives!

  8. #8
    Resident Ricer Sparling's Avatar
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    Less than 2 actually. If you're using 100W bulbs. 100w / 12v = 8.3amps for each kc light.
    '91 Bronco 351w, ZF5, D44 TTB, 9" rear swap with disk brakes, 37" toyos, method wheels, mastercraft seats, A/C and heat

  9. #9
    Come and Take it BroncoJo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sparling View Post
    Less than 2 actually. If you're using 100W bulbs. 100w / 12v = 8.3amps for each kc light.
    Actually it's 20 if you we're using 10 watt bulbs.... Do you actually believe a double row, 50 inch led bar pulls 172 watts?

    Rigid claims 200 watts but I bet its closer to 300 like the Chinese ones are
    Last edited by BroncoJo; 09-05-2013 at 10:49 PM.
    Born to Kill

    Quote Originally Posted by RCcola55 View Post
    I just watched a spider dominate a fly on the wall outside, i thought would would travis do? and i did the opposite, spider lives!

  10. #10
    Resident Ricer Sparling's Avatar
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    Who uses 10 watt off road lights? 100 watts is probably by far the most common for off road halogen lights.

    http://rigidindustries.com/v/RigidCa...igidmaster.pdf
    page 16

    Says 212.4 watts and 14.75 amps
    Even at 212.4 watts, that's just a bit more than 2 halogen lights.

    Why is it crazy to think they use fewer amps than some halogen lights? Your HIDs probably pull even less after they fire up.
    '91 Bronco 351w, ZF5, D44 TTB, 9" rear swap with disk brakes, 37" toyos, method wheels, mastercraft seats, A/C and heat

  11. #11
    Like my rock crawler? KrazyKarl02's Avatar
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    I tend to lean towards the no relay side. Here is a true story from the greatest off road rig ever, I had a relay on the fuel pump cause people on the interweb said relays were awesome. I replaced that relay 3 times, had to fix the ground twice, then I bought a 30 amp switch and never had another problem. With either the relay or switch I had fuse protection.

    At any rate this guys light bar seems pre-wired with fuses and relays so he should be golden.
    -Karl
    2006 Chevy K3500 4X4 - No J.B. Weld on it yet!
    1982 thru 94 F-Series "The Klogger" AKA Transport on the road, on the trail, or on the trailer!
    1965 Chevelle
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  12. #12
    Registered User Cavasar's Avatar
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    I believe mine is 288W

  13. #13
    Respek TdmayfieldIV's Avatar
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    Use a relay. It's not hard, just follow the wiring diagram.
    Quote Originally Posted by Sharpe View Post
    F*ck off cj.

  14. #14
    Come and Take it BroncoJo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sparling View Post
    Who uses 10 watt off road lights? 100 watts is probably by far the most common for off road halogen lights.

    http://rigidindustries.com/v/RigidCa...igidmaster.pdf
    page 16

    Says 212.4 watts and 14.75 amps
    Even at 212.4 watts, that's just a bit more than 2 halogen lights.

    Why is it crazy to think they use fewer amps than some halogen lights? Your HIDs probably pull even less after they fire up.
    What's crazy is that you would believe rigid s calculations which are probably based off a 14.5 volt system then do your own calculations based of of 12 volts. Or that you would even use a rigid in comparison here when it's obviously not the case. Or that you would claim that 100watt off road lights are more common than 55watt lights.
    Born to Kill

    Quote Originally Posted by RCcola55 View Post
    I just watched a spider dominate a fly on the wall outside, i thought would would travis do? and i did the opposite, spider lives!

  15. #15
    Resident Ricer Sparling's Avatar
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    212.4/14.5=14.65
    212.4/12=17.7

    So using your logic, they use even fewer amps. Good argument. Both sets of halogen off road lights I had were 100w lights. I just looked at 10 random halogen lights on poly performance and 5 were 100w, 2 were 55w and 3 were offered in either. There were a few I couldn't count because they were 130w only.
    '91 Bronco 351w, ZF5, D44 TTB, 9" rear swap with disk brakes, 37" toyos, method wheels, mastercraft seats, A/C and heat

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