need some electrical help
 

Yesterday I added some Harbor Freight cab lights and everything worked out fine up until the electrical part. I want to have them come on when my parking lights come on by turning the factory light switch. I ran the main wire between the liner and the roof and tapped the lights to the main wire. Then ran the wire down the passenger side A pillar to the passenger side fuse box and tried tapping into the parkinglight/licesnse plate fuse then reconnected the battery. When the battery was connected the lights came on, not waht I wanted. So then I tried tapping into the foglamp fuse in the power distribution box under the hood and same thing. However when I put the origional fuse back in the box under the hood my foglights won't turn on or the led indicator on the factory foglamp switch won't turn on.

So this is where I come to you guys, how can I wire up my cab lights using that tap connector and does any body have an idea on what happen to my fog lights? Also, none of the fuses are blown because I already checked.

Any help would be appreciated and if you could be very specific because electrical is not one on my strongsuits. Thanks guys

IDK if the fogs have a relay but i would check you see if you have a bad relay, as for the other lights i would just use a toggle switch imo.

I would reconsider the wire.
Run the wire under the hood and to a parking light wire or trace the parking light wire back to the switch which in my opinion is too much work.
Running the wire under the hood to the parking Lights uses a little more wire but gives you a direct connection to the type of power you wanted.

The Cab Lights, are they LEDs ? If so then there is no problem with current raw on that circuit, if they are standard bulbs then you might get a problem but I think the circuit will handle it without any trouble.

alright, I just got home from work so i'll check things out tomorrow. thanks guys

You can't tap the lights straight to the fuse, because there is always power at the fuse. Use a relay, it will work better

These are the small lights mounted on the top of the cab as markers, correct ?

If they are then no relay is needed.

Can you give me an address for the Lights ?

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uh! yeah you are going to need a relay for those lights
they are ugly, you should have used LED cab lights.

i will post a link later for them.

open up the driver side fuse panel cover ( driver side dash )
you are are looking for the low power 12v lead ( light blue wire with white stripe )from the headlight switch

tap into that wire and use that as your relay trigger wire
and make sure you buy a 40 amp heavy duty relay

Thanks cheese_man for the link.

Viewing the manual I do not see an amperage requirement so I am guessing here but it probably will be a little more than 1 amp so the additional load to the Parking Light Circuit will be minimal and there should be no need for a Relay.

Either hook up the Cab Light to the front or the rear parking lights circuit.

Under the drivers seat is an Electrical Feed-Thru and you could easily tap the rear parking light circuit, just be careful not to tap the brakes and directionals.
if you can’t find the type of power you want at that point then consider the front parking light circuit. You might trace the parking lights wire back from the front or find the harness going toward the front and probe the wires, while the lights are on and see which one has the type of power you need.
After locating the wire /power test to make sure it does not work with the directionals.

Another thought would be to add the switch inline between the lights and the power so you could shut them off an still have the headlights on IF you wanted or needed it that way.

Sorry for getting windy but this is not a hard electrical connection, you did the hard work when you mounted the lights on the roof.
Take you time, probe a few wires and find the power you need inside the cab if possible but under the hood if needed.

Luck,
Ltr,

p.s. Make sure to use a low amperage fuse between either the lights and the power or the sw and the power.
The kit does not have one but it is always a good thing to have, just in case.

alright thanks i have to work all day but i'll try some things this afternoon.

I'm perty sure after talking to you guys that i did blow the relay for the factory fogs so i'm gonna see in that have one at autozone after work.

The lights really don't look that bad actually once mounted and everything. I had them taped on for a few days just to get an idea of how they look. I am also considering the option of putting some night shade on them to match my heads and tails but i'm not sure what i'm gonna do yet.

actually i have seen those lights in person
they each consume 3.5 amps a piece

you best off using a relay ,, to prevent a electrical fire

DarkEdge05,
Do you know for sure what the amperage draw on these lights are, check the paperwork and see what it says. If what cheese_man is saying is correct (17.5 amps per set), then you will need a relay but it is hard for me to believe there is that kind of draw from those lights, my thought is more like 1.5/3.0 amps.
IF by some chance these lights draw that kind of amperage, I would consider replacing the Incandescent Bulbs with LED Bulbs and leave the relay out of the picture all together,

the paperwork doesn't say anything about the ampsor wattage so i was gonna call the 1800 number later today. my truck isn't a daily driver or anything so i'm in no hurry to complete this mod. also with 21 credit hours at school and working 30 hours a week don't have much time on my hands. i just thought i'd do this because i'm on spring break till monday them i go back to school.

also picked up a new relay form the ford dealer this morning and went home to put it in and i got nothing. the fog lights didn't turn on nor the led indicator in the factory button. so the relay is new, and no fuses are blown for any of the lights either in the power distribution box or in the passenger kicker box (i triple checked). so i don't understand why there not coming on. it's not the bulbs because i replaced them past summer when i did my body lift.

well customer service is closed until monday at 9am so i guess thats on hold for now

That sucks.

Maybe remove the wire connections you added and see if the Fogs work, then you will at least know it was the new wiring that cause it.
Then run some new connections to where you choose to but dependent on the amperage draw.

Is there any markings on the Bulbs, a wattage rating or the number of the bulb ?
Then you can check the Bulb Number out on the Web for a wattage/amperage rating.

Just thinking out loud.

Good luck on the project.

ltr,

the letters/numbers on the bulb are 67 12V4CP and after searching on the net i found out that the bulb has an amp of .59 and so then i did more searching and found that a bulb with a .59 amp would have a wattage somewhere between 2.1 and 2.23.
so all together the bulbs have a 2.95 amp or a 11 watts. To me this seems really low so i hope what i found was right.
Also i heard of people splicing into their factory fog light wire with lights less that 55 watts. if thats true then why wouldn't i be able to just splice the lead wire from the cab roof lights to the brown/orange wire running to my fog lights? just a thought because i talked with my friend who ownes a chevy 1500 and he did this and they come on with his DRL/fogs

thanks for the help

those are incandesant bulbs not LED`s

the exact same light i looked at ( the back of the package stated that each each light uses 3.5 amps
and a relay must be used )

and i agree ,, you will be much better off using LED cab lights

If those are the numbers then as I said 3 watts per lights sound normal.
If the light were to draw 3.5 amps a piece their wattage would be around the 35 watts per lights, that is the wattage of a standard backup light or brake lights, too big, man.
I would not connect the lights to the Fog Light Circuit, go to the parking lights, run nna relay if you want actuated from the Parking lights and run a new fused power wire from the battery, it will all work.
DRLs not sure on my end.
I would look for replacement LED Lamps and then you can hook the Cab Lights to any circuit you want to, very little amperage draw on LEDs.