Alright so I've got plans but they're incomplete and I want to run these by somebody to make sure that I'm not crazy or stupid (possibly both). Right now, the plan is to mount two 51W round LED spots to the front bumper/push bar, a 50" light bar to the front of the roof rack, and 2 small LED floods to the rear corners of the roof rack. I would also like to plan for one additional aux light circuit for future ideas.

I would really like to put the switches to these up on the ceiling right behind the middle driver/pass lights in the hard plastic (in front of the sunroof). I'm thinking of sending small-gauge wires to a bank of relays inside the plastic box under the hood where the brake fluid reservoir is located and use that box as the main electrical box for all of these.

Inline fuses for everything

My questions right now are:

- What do I need to do if I want the switches in the ceiling panel to light up? I'm guessing running the wire to the relay and grounding to the nearest metal object won't cut it. Tap into a powered fuse or something? Maybe one of the existing circuits that are up there already?
- What would be the easiest way to get this bundle of relay wires from the center ceiling to the engine compartment?
- Would you send the main wires to the light bar and the rear floods through the interior panels or under the vehicle then up?
- Should anything be tapped into any existing wiring? IE the front spot lights triggered by high beams? Rear floods triggered by reverse lights? Etc.
- What else am I missing here??

 

1. Many people have mounted the switches where you are looking. you may need to do some trimming on the back side depending on the size of the switch.
2. I would run a small (22 guage) wire from the overhead panel to the engine bay for each switch. There are plenty of grounding lugs just in front of the Aux battery box.
3. You can get switched power from the plug for the lights in the overhead panel.
4. I used and mounted it in front of the aux battery box along the inside of the left fender.
5. If the insulation is not too thick, you can run a 14 gauge wires up the left A pillar inside of the trim, then transition to the roof seam moulding and then back to anywhere you want for the light bar
You can tap into the "high beam lights if you want, I know for a fact there are several threads here about that. (I used a few of them a time or two).
6. You can use the reverse lights to trigger a relay that will then turn on the rear floods. (you may want to think of putting THAT relay back in the space by the rear taillight since there is switched power for the plug right there to tap off of.

Sorry I don't have pictures right now. I will look around later today and see what I can find for wiring the relay box, running the wires up the A pillar, wiring behind the taillight etc.
I suspect there will other along shortly with advice (and probably good step by steps guides with pictures).

Good luck, keep us informed of your ideas and progress.
Hope this helps


Jeff

 

This is great, I appreciate the info and insight.

Love the fuse/relay box as well.