Spot lights wiring?

[dArwich77]

Hi everyone… this may be a really easy question, but please bear with me.

If you have the auxiliary switches in your JL and you want to install 4 spot lights.

1. do you need an entire harness with relays?

2.. you use switches 3 or 4?

3. what kind of wire you need?, got a harness from Amazon but It is not long enough..

4. is there a good tread for this?

5. thanks a lot!!

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[MyDaughters20JL]

first, speaking from experience, it seems as though no light operates at the wattage advertised...I"ve tested plenty. best bet would be to get a decent electrical tester & measure the amperage of the lights (if one measures 1.5 amps, that would be about 18W, but regardless, 1.5 amps per light x 4 lights is only 6 amps total..that would be completely safe to run all 4 on either switch 3 or 4 (each is rated at 15 amps)

in the event that your total amperage is under 15 amps, use switch 3 or 4 (all 4 lights if you want them all on at once), or if you want to split them up where 2 lights operate independently of the other 2, use switch 3 for 2 of the lights and switch 4 for the other 2.
if amperage of all 4 is over 15 amps total, you may have to seperate them into 2 "pairs".

no harness or relays needed, the relays are built into the aux switch circuits

ground each light to the chassis, either seperately or all together & then run all 4 hot leads (or 2, depending on preference/amperage) to the corresponding aux switch wire under the hood by the battery.

 

[DarkAardvark]

1. do you need an entire harness with relays?

Nah, not unless you're doing something very high power that you want to run straight from the battery, like a winch. Your factory option aux switches are able to handle lights without really any issue.

2.. you use switches 3 or 4?

Your aux switches have a certain watt / amp rating they can handle (I forget which ones are 15A and which are 40A), so figure out how much the things you want to wire up draw.

Watts = Volts * Amps
Amps = Watts / Volts

The link says 40W each, so
40W / 12V = 3.33A *2 = 6.66A
I'd also maybe factor in a safety margin of like 20% or something

Your 15A switch can handle that, no problem.

3. what kind of wire you need?, got a harness from Amazon but It is not long enough..

Different gauges can handle different wattages. 12 or 14 gauge from the hardware store is fine for your lights

 

[Rhinebeck01]

@dArwich77

Aux 3 or 4 are fuse protected at 15 amp. Your 4 spots draw about 13.32 amp ..... a tad more then that when they first turn on... Still though, Aux 3 or 4 will do the job for your 4 spots.

No harness / relays are needed.

12g wire is aok to use. You can buy at Auto Zone, Advance Auto, Amazon, Hardware store, etc..

Mount all 4 spots and after they are mounted, then do the wiring. Do not mount one at a time. Mount all... get them where you want and then do the wiring.

Wire all positives of the 4 spots together and then with a pigtail, wire that bundling to Aux 3 or 4.

Wire all 4 ground wires from the spots together and then with a pigtail wire that bundling to the ground point.

Do not use the Main battery negative for the ground. Use a good ground point elsewhere. Clean up the ground point good so you have good metal to metal contact. I will give a pic of a ground point below.

No need to do a total 12V power disconnect for this wiring job... just be sure you know what you are doing.... that you have a clue so to speak before you start the job.

Before proceeding with the wiring!!! ........
Be sure ALL 4 Aux switch buttons in the cab of the JL are not lighted/ are off.
DO, after you close all doors and the tail gate on the JL and have opened the engine compartment hood....... wait say 15 min before you proceed so you know UConnect is asleep.
------
After all the wiring is done, you can go in to UConnect settings and set up your Aux switch... You can look at your Aux settings in UConnect before hand if you want and even set the settings before the install if you want.
------

Ground point:

You only will find the direct to battery and the switched wire in the 6 wrire, Aux bundle in
the passenger foot well. Engine compartment Aux bundle only has 4 wires.

IF you desire to kill all 12v power to the JL, before you do the install here is a .png that shows you how to kill all 12v power:

 

[dArwich77]

Thank you everyone for your help..
It took me for ever, never solder in my life and between my 14yo all of you and me managed to tackle this job…

there was light last night!!!

have a great week and happy trails!!

 

[DarkAardvark]

Nice! Looks good!

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