Wiring spotlights

Grant, if you have to ask the question then I would suggest you get an Auto Electrician to wire them in for you. Wiring direct from the battery through the switch is a recipe for disaster. Also, spot lights have to be wired such that they can only be active when high beam is on. Good luck.

Hi Grant

I totally agree with John. Get someone to do it for you. How do you know that the switch wont melt and stuff up something behind the dash. Oops a fire! And I am 200 kms from anyone.

Don't touch it Nigel.

Phil

Grant
To be legal they must be linked to the high beam circuit.

To be safe in terms of not setting fire to your car, the circuit(s) must be fused. Depending on the current draw of the spotlights, you should use a relay.

Hella and others sell a wiring loom for spotlights. Comes with wire, relay, fuses, switch, instructions. Try Supercrap, Repco and similar places.

The problems:
- is each vehicle is different and you may need some help or a wiring diagram to pick up the high beam wire.
- if you want a good installation, you need good crimpers

Using a little bit of brain power you should be able to substitute your switch for the supplied one.

Trevor

Gday,

Yes you really should run them through a relay and they need to be activated by your high beam switch to be legal in every state I know of.
But......it really is pretty simple to do.
have a look at this
wiring link
There are plenty of people on here can answer any questions if you have trouble.

Cheers

I'm not so cluey when it comes to that sort of stuff

so you admit you do not know too much good start now go that extra step and get some who knows what to do


I got a professional to do my Mitsubishi magna

he installed spot lights and converted the main lights to HD

magna are totally different than most you wire your power to low beam so that they work on high beam only

he also put a relay onto my light fuse box and a extra HD relay onto the spot lights

here is why I can drive at night from mildura to Broken hill on high beam most of the way 4 or 5 hour s very little or no traffic I have seen a car on the side of the road 3 hours out of mildura the fuses kept burning out not wired up properly to much heat.


now just look at it this way it is a form of insurance to get auto electrician to do the job you will have peace of mind knowing it was done correct

if your car is insured and you have a fire you can make a claim if you do the job your self you will more than likley not be insured

most important is the safety of your passengers it is your responsibility to get them from point a to b safely

you may save money by doing it your self but in the long run you may be paying a higher price

simple choice

Hello all. Thanks is for all the replies. With most things I tend to be a 'have a go' type and not rely on the experts straight away. As much as I don't know a lot about this sort of stuff at the moment, I am prepared to ask the questions (sometimes stupid) to get me to the point where I'm confident enough to do it myself. At the moment I'm not at that point so I'm not going to jump straight into it.

Thanks
Grant

you will need 3mm twin core
1 x relay
1 x switch
4mm twin
1 x fuse holder
connect one end of the 3mm twin to either side of the headlight plug(the vertical pins)
mount your relay close to the battery , loop the 3mm so there is enough wiring to make a neat connection across pins 85 and 86 of the relay, split the 3mm twin sheathing, cut the red wire crimp each cut end, place the crimped ends on pins 86 and 85.run the rest of the 3mm twin into the cab to the switch crimp the ends of the wire, join to the switch.

connect the red of the 4mm twin to terminals 87 on the relay, connect the black wires of the 4mm twin to earth.run the wires to the spotlights.

connect the fuse holder to pin 30 on the relay.
connect the other end of the fuse holder to battery positive, put in 25-30 amp fuse to suit

this system will work on most vehicle applications . except vw, and commodore

regards

As an auto electrician for the last 30 years I would argue that the distance travelled from the rlay to spots in this instance 4mm twin is adequate, else the thousands of spot hook ups I have done would cause the fire depts australia wide in constant employ.I have suggested a20 -30 amp fuse which is more than capable to cover 2/3over current,

, most of the relays i have used , bosch , narva , hella , have all had 2 87 terminals each had the capacity of 15 amps each, for a combined of 30 amps at 12v, ask yourself the operating voltage of a vehicle . it is not 12 v. whilst running is 13.8 v - 14.2v this brings the amps down to +- 6.75 amps. amps 1/2 with increased voltage
regards