im going to pick up some wire soon, so what wire should i buy? 14 gauge?
also where would be a good place to mount my switch? i already have one on the side of my cup holder so where could the next one go and look good? radio bezel?

 

14 will be fine. You could even go with 16. Dont forget a relay. I have one mounted here:



And the other 3 here:


(Full length expo console)

 

i was gonna say when i had mine i drilled a hole in the cup holder and mounted the switch there

 

^^oooo...i like that idea!! Never seen that before. (@ walter)


New KC's come with a harness...you installing used ones? 14ga is what I'd use for all but the wires going into the cab from the relay. You are using a relay, yes?

 

Thanks Shane. I knew I was never gonna put tissues in there so I needed to cover it up somehow and that was also the best place for the switches. Nice and easy to turn on and off.

Yea no relay = bad news down the road.

 

Too bad a FL expo is out of the question for me now. ;-)

 

they came with the bar, so they arent new and they didnt give me the wire and all that came with it. and yes i have a relay. the last relay i bought had 2 connected together so i have an extra.
heres the switch im gonna go get at summit later
PICO WIRING 5536PT - Pico Toggle Switches – SummitRacing.com
and i already have a switch in the cup holder so im tryin to think of another place that would look good and not be too hard to mount...

 

IMO I cant stand the look of a toggle switch for a light, the rocker switches look 10x better. They also don't stand out as much, therefore it gives you more options on where to mount.

 

Do you have an ashtray or cubby hole next to your airbag switch?

My first switch was mounted on that all ugly like. I've since added 5 switches to the front of my shorty console. I do believe we've got a big 'where'd you mount your switches' thread in the interior section..might wanna check it out.

 

i saw it before. i used the search to try and find it but no luck

 

x2

I dont have any pics of mine but they are on the lower part of the dash (peice below the steering wheel) to the right and left of steering wheel.

 

https://www.ranger-forums.com/forum2...ut-switch.html

 

thanks Shane, i know what im going to do now i see different switch i like too. im not too great with wiring but when i get it all in ill post up the pics. i might have to get help. my friends wired up my lights last time and did the relay. last resort ill get them to help me again.

 

Just take your time. I like to write my own diagrams and follow them, or find a diagram and follow it. helps my head a little bit. Don't rush it...nothings worse than a rushed wiring job. Get some of that wire loom to cover up your wires for a nice clean install.

 

the switch for my light is on the cup holder base on the left side at the very back of it so you can't see it if you don't know it's there. i like it being there cause its virtually unseen. but thats just me. i can snap i pic if you want.

 

well an update. 14 gauge wire coming out of your kc lights is a BAD idea. i just burnt my hands and the wires almost caught fire.

 

I just read this thread, and was about to comment that 14 ga. wire is definitely TOO SMALL for the current needed by those lights!! ...I see that you've found that out during testing. good -- better now, then when your truck is on fire!

You may use 14 ga. wire (or even 16, but I wouldn't go smaller than that) for the wire that goes to the switch from the relay. For the wiring that goes from the battery to the relay, and from the relay to the lights, I wouldn't use anything smaller than 12 ga. or maybe even 10 ga., depending on the wattage of the lights.

If it's just two KCs, at 150W each, that'd be 300W total on the circuit; meaning it'd be drawing somewhere in the neighborhood of 21 to 25A (definitely too much current for 14 ga. wire!)... if the KCs have the smaller 100W bulbs in them, then the total current draw for two of them would be 14 to 18A total.... so, if you can use 10 ga. wiring on that side of the circuit, you'd be okay with either size KC lamp, provided you put no more than two on that circuit.

If you want to wire up more than 2 KC lights: you'll need to repeat this circuit (separate wiring, separate relay[s]) so that you're not trying to switch more than 25A or so through the relay. You can run them all from the same switch, by connecting the trigger point on the relays together... thus, flipping one switch will trigger (for instance) three relays, and each of those relays would feed voltage to two lights. Please let me know if you need/want a diagram, and I can draw one up when I get home from work.


The relay can be, in either case, a standard 30A or 40A relay. The control wiring (that triggers the relay from the switch) draws very little current, so 16 ga. wire is fine for that.

Don't forget to put a FUSE in the circuit!! ...at a minimum, you'll want a nice 30A fuse on the + lead going from the battery to the relay.

 

thanks for the info. im about to go pick up some 10 ga. i have one fuse on the power wire. do i need another?
i was just fixing a bad connection and saw a bit of smoke and grabbed the wire IT WAS HOT, if it wasnt for checking the bad connection my dad did last night my truck would probably have caught on fire......

 

Matt --

One 30A fuse, on the main wire from the battery to the relay is the minimum. Sometimes folks will put a second 30A fuse on the wire from the relay to the lights (this protects the relay in the event of a short in the wire leading to the lights).

On the switch side, where the current draw is only a couple hundred milliamps or so, a 2.5A fuse on the + wire going from the relay to the switch is fine. Since this "hot" wire will be going through your firewall and into the cab, it's probably a good idea to put a fuse on there as well.

 

ok. sounds good. im still learning. everyone i know just goes from the lights to a switch then to the battery. no one ever showed me the RIGHT way to do all this.

 

i picked up the 10 ga wire. where all does it need to be?

 

Brian.....if 14ga is too small to power two 130w KC's, then why does KC send a 16ga harness to wire the lights up with???

I've always used 14ga on my lighting with 30a relays, fuse between the lamps and the relay, fuse between the relay and the power. Never had any problems.

I know you know your ****, I'm questioning KC.

 

You can use 14ga, as long as you wire it properly (which obviously you didn't causing it to almost catch fire). USE A FUSE!!!!! If you had it properly fused it would have never heated up and burned you.

 

remember....fuse goes in last, right after hooking up the power.

 

ok so the other day i wired up 5 kc wannabees (100 watt) and i used 3 relays. 2 relays run 2 lights and 1 relay runs 1 light....just cause 5 is not even. so i ran 16ga from the batt to a 50amp circuit breaker. and from that to the first relay, and from the first relay to the second and second to 3rd. so 1 wire runs to the first relay hooked on by a solder less connector and i have another wire coming out of that connector going to the next relay....so there is 2 wires coming out of the connector on the first relay and the second and 1 on the 3rd relay. so basically 1 16ga wire is running 3 relays running 5 100 watt lights....then i ran 1 18ga wire from the switch to the relays again branching out to the 3 relays. and i have 20ga grounds on each relay. then from the relays to the lights i used 3 16ga wires and than at the end 2 of them branched out so it went to 5 lights.....now flame me how bad is this...i didnt think it was till i saw this guy talking about 14ga not being big enough.