Wiring up some lights.

[vulkan]

I have a 95 Ram 1500.

I've wired up some amber running lights to go along the side of the truck by tapping into the fog lights, and now I received a set of lights from my buddy who was about to throw them out, they are really nice lights and I want to mount them on the front of the truck under the bumper and tap them into my parking lights or my fog lights.

The problem I am having is before I go cutting all my wires up and just seeing what works, I'd rather ask you guys.

Here are the lights

They come with a white, black, and red wire. I've pulled out my turn signal lamp on the truck and it has 3 wires, a black / black yellow / green brown. It doesn't really matter to me whether these lights flash with my turn signals or not, just as long as they come on with my headlights, parking, or fog lights.

My fog lights have 3 wires, black / green / blue. However each fog lamp only has two wires to them, the black and green (for one lamp) and the black and blue (for the other lamp).

I am assuming if I were to tap into my fog lamps to install these lights, I would match the black with black, and then match the red and white with the green and blue and those lights should light up. Anyone have any ideas?

-Tom

[jpb53]

Try thisAttachment 39136

[OGthevan]

If you try it make sure you have a volt tester for the wires. I did the similar to have a 2nd set of brake lights.

the lights you have here may work if you match them up right, black is ground usually. if your looking to use as a blinker you may just want to run it off your stock blinker but i dont know if it would function.

what I would do is just take the amber running lights and combine them with these lights you have and put them on a switch if you want them as solid lights and not blinkers, because any new lighting or toy I install goes to a seperate fuse box to the battery and switch panel.

[shorod]

Do you already have a heavy-duty/electronic flasher? If not, adding these to your turn signal circuit will likely impact the flash rate of the turn signals unless you also install a load balancing resistor.

As you suspect, the black wire will be the common ground for the LEDs. There are probably two paths for the LEDs, one higher resistance (running lights) and one lower resistance path (turn signals). You can figure out which is what by connecting the black wire to ground and one of the other wires to the positive of the car battery. The wire that causes the LEDs to be less bright is the one you want for the running light feature.

As these are LED lights, they will have a pretty low current draw. However, if you start hanging too many lights on a single circuit that already has a significant load on it - like the driving light circuit - you will want to use a fuse and relay along with the switch rather than running all the current through the switch.

-Rod

[vulkan]

Thanks guys, I'll have to mess around with them and see how they light up. Thanks. I'll let you know how it goes and maybe post a picture or two!

[jdmccright]

Wiring these up with your fogs will only turn them on when you turn on the fog lights, not in conjuntion with the parking/turn signals as they probably should be. I can understand your wanting to use the fog light circuit since the power is right there in the bumper, but I'd suggest tapping into the front marker/turn signal light circuits instead. That way the lights won't go out if a fog light dies and your markers will all be on regardless of if your fogs are on....consistency.

The three wires are for the marker (blk/yel), turn signal (green/tan), and ground (usually the black wire). You'll have to check the wiring diagram that came with the lights to match them up. For LEDs, they won't light up at all if not connected correctly...current flows only in one direction through an LED.

As mentioned, if you connect to the turn signal circuit, you'll need either load resistors to "fool" the flasher into thinking they are regular bulbs or change out the flasher with an electronic one. The new flasher is usually the cheaper route. Otherwise, just wrap electrical tape around the end of the unused wire after clipping the exposed copper wire. Personally, I'd go ahead and wire it in...it's there, why not use it?

Hope this helps!