Difference between Standard and Heavy Duty....

[The Roadie]

Speaker wire is fine for auto (low voltage) use. Not for 115 Volt AC. The benefit of speaker wire over home wiring you find on reels at Home Depot is it's usually made with more flexibility. You can manufacture 12 gauge wire in many ways - one solid conductor (home house wiring), a low number of thinner strands inside the insulation (like appliance wiring), or many, many strands of tinier wire inside the insulation. Flexible wire like speaker wire and voltmeter test leads are usually made with the last method. Smaller interior wires can be bent more times before they break - solid conductors not so much.

[Cable810]

So I'd be better off not to get speaker wire. That's what I wanted to know.

This would work right?

[The Roadie]

I said speaker wire would be fine, as long as you get the right gauge. Not sure what you're reading into what I said?

Don't think there's any reason get this mail order. Any local parts store or even Home Depot should have speaker wire in 12 gauge.

[JorDaneeKey]

Agreed. Go local. We usually find a good deal at a local Ace Hardware over Depot.

[Cable810]

I read your post wrong sorry. I checked RadioShack this morning they had 12guage for $11. I'll check other places around town too.

[navigator]

I got mine from RadioShack. You can get your relays and fuses etc all in the same place. I doubt you save a lot of $$$ anywhere else.

[Cable810]

All right, here is what I'm going to get.

2 Wire splices
1 relay
fuse
12g wire
Switch

[v7guy]

looks like a good list

I got all my parts at AutoZone, cause I was already there. They have spools of wire, fuse holders with pigtails, relays, switches etc. If you're going to drill through the roof like I did make sure you have plenty of silicone to seal it up.
Also a trailer plug, or a weatherpak connector might be a good idea

[Cable810]

Not putting them on the roof just to the bumper. Spent 30 and some change for all the things on that list including 3 fuses. Actually got 4 wire splices instead of two seeing that I've got to splice in the fuse holder. SO hopefully I'm set now got to wait for the lights....

[firefox2501]

Looks like you have a pretty good list of parts there, but I do have a question for you. What kind of wire splices did you get?

The preferred way to wire up the lights would be to solder/heat shrink it.
The next best way is to go with waterproof butt connectors. These are sometimes called heat shrink butt connectors.
The weatherpack connector that Jason mentioned is an excellent option as well.

The reason I mention it because the standard butt connectors that Home Depot and Radio Shack sell are not waterproof. Most of the auxiliary lights that I have seen have a pretty short (usually ~6 inches) wire lead on the back of them. Since you are mounting your lights on your bumper, this means that your splice will be very near your bumper. Things like standard driving in the rain or driving through a puddle/stream on the trail will send a lot of water to the area of your splice. So you really want a good waterproof connection on those splices.

Just food for thought...

In case you are curious, this is how I did my splices for the lights on my bumper and roof. (sorry for the crappy cell phone pics...)

Solder it (make sure the heat shrink is on the wire before you solder)


Then slide the heat shrink over the solder and heat it

[v7guy]

I prefer soldering the connection too, but I've also had good luck with butt connectors and liquid electric tape. It seems to seal the joint up nice. Works well when I'm feeling lazy.

[Cable810]

Got my lights today

I've got a question. I mocked them up where I wanted them to be and the back of the light is touching the grill, with the lights being where I want them, would I run the risk of melting that section of the plastic grill? The lights are way bigger than what I thought they would be.

[v7guy]

I really really doubt it'll melt it, what will happen is that vibration will cause it to wear a hole in either the light housing or the grill (like my winch cables did on my grill), depends on which material is the harder of the two. Eventually it will "self clearance".

Maybe a piece of rubber between the two will largely avoid the issue.


We want better pics by the way

[firefox2501]

Dang - Jason beat me to it!

Second the rubber padding.

You may also be able to put at shim under the lamp mounts to tilt it slightly away from the grill. A better pic of the mounting bracket would help to see if that is possible...

[Moots1288]

I agree.. you can get small 5/16 rubber tube and snake the wire in that and electrical tape it at the ends where it goes near the grill..

[Cable810]

If I tilt the lights a smidge forward they will clear the grill by 1"

[Cable810]

Another question. There are 2 wires coming out of the light(Obviously) one is white and the other is Black. I'm assuming that the white is power and the black is ground. When Installing the lights I would want to Ground the black wire if its ground?
I can't find anything on the internet in regards to the lights.

This diagram is kind of giving me an idea on what to do

http://support.kchilites.com/index.php? ... tach_id=21

[TBYODA]

Does not matter for a incandescent lamp but if are using black for ground the follow that and hook red up to the white wire.

[v7guy]

Robert is steering you right Caleb. You'll be good to go.