SEEIN BEIN

[sickwilly]

Truck is an 03 xlt. I was gonna build a harness from scratch so i could use heavier gauge wiring than what you can buy. Its a bit of work and my voltage drop doesn’t seem THAT bad. I just didn’t know what kind of drop everyone else was seeing. I’ve got a handle on how it works, I just wouldn’t want to do all that for virtually no difference.

 

[gaz]

Sickwilly,

If you do this you will learn at least 2 things:
1) it makes a HUGE difference (your stock light switch will also benefit from the reduced current load)
2) it will eliminate you headlights as the source of the power drop.

Approximately 12' of 10g wire from the hardware store is easy to "buy" and we're talking $0.35 foot. It can be done with just one 20amp 5 pole relay $7, one 20amp fuse and holder $5; with nice condulet and tape, can easily be accomplished for under $30. Just sayin

 

[superj]

i did a relay set up in my 87 wrangler and kept the stock light bulbs. jeeps were set up like the rangers with the power going through the switch. using the switch to just power the relay and larger wires, my light output went from yellowish to solid white and driving around the golf course on base at night time was considerably safer because i could see farther and clearer.

i would do the upgrade. i will probably do it on my ranger some time when i get bored

 

[sickwilly]

Saw this in the tech section.
“By bypassing the standard wiring with relays the voltage to the headlamp can increase, giving improved performance from any bulb. Typically standard wiring is relatively thin and a 1 volt drop is common to the bulbs. When replaced with higher capacity cable and relays this voltage drop can be deduced. A 10% drop in voltage (1.2V) equals 33% drop in light output.”
So looks like it would be worth it. Now to figure out where to tie into the hi/lo beam wires.
Thanks Gaz, I was just trying to figure out if it would be worth it, looks like it would be.

 

[gaz]

sickwilly,

I feel the best location for your new light network is near either the battery or the relays under the hood. The power wires for the headlights run to both lights so it will not be hard to locate them.

The aspects I was most concerned with we're:
1, keeping my ground wires as short as possible.
2, positioning the relays where they would be exposed the least to water.
3, building a simple system so that it would also be simple and accessable if replacement components were needed.