Roof lighting questions/ideas?

JayAre

JayAre

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
Nashville
Not sure if i posted this in the right sub forum or not, but I couldn't find a better one. Anyway..

This weekend I am looking to mount four KC 130 watt daylighters (on two switches w/ 2 30A relays). I'm also mounting two LED's (rigid dually knock-offs) on the back. These are going on my new roof rack. I'm no electrical engineer, but I have a pretty good knowledge of how to hook this up. I kinda just want to maybe see if any of you have any suggestions, or ideas that I haven't thought of(or things I may be doing wrong). This is what I am thinking of doing:


Running a 8AWG wire from the battery , up along side of the windsheild, and tuck the wire into the seam as much as I can, probably put that black loom stuff on it and tie it down. Then, the power wire will go to a 3 way distribution, then to 3 different relays in some sort of water tight box mounted to the roof rack. 1 3o amp for each of the sets of KCs, and maybe a 20 amp for the LEDS. From there, I'm thinking of running the switch wires from the relays through my XM antenna. A question i'm having, is can I ground my relays. lights, and ground wires for the switches all to the same spot on top of the roof? I'm thinking where the feet screw into the roof somewhere. I'm trying to keep it to where, one power wire comes from the battery to the roof, and 3 switch power wires are the only ones that go into the cab. Ultimately, I'm trying to keep all of the high current wires out of the cab, and run as little wiring as possible from the roof to the rest of the truck.


Anybody have any better suggestions, or do you see anything that stands out as a bad idea?

Oh yeah, and this is on a Frontier, so some of the usual wire running techniques for Xterras probably wont work in my case.
 
05x4x4

05x4x4

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
Centerville, Texas
You should consider putting all your relays under the hood. That way you only need to run three circuits to to roof, and not build your circuits on the roof. If you do it the way your speaking of you'll have 12+, ground, and switch legs going everywhere= mess


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JayAre

JayAre

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
Nashville
Right, but wouldn't I then have 3 power wires running from the relays up the windshield ? That's kinda what I'm trying to stay away from but if I have to, then I have to. I do plan on keeping the electrics as tidy as possible in the box.
 
05x4x4

05x4x4

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
Centerville, Texas
The way I'm talking about you'll have 3power wires and 3ground wires.
Your power wires should be 12awg, and your grounds can be 14awg. You can make that bundle fairly small.


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E

Eric P

Bought an X
Location
Colorado
You can go with 3 power wires and 1 ground (larger size) to cut down on the wiring. Keep the relays In the engine bay. You can also plastic dip the relays to make them more water resistant.

Here is the wire size chart I always use:

76980308.jpg
 
mudchet

mudchet

Got Mud?<br><img src="http://i164.photobucket.com/
Founding Member
Location
Brentwood, TN
Agree w what is already posted. I have lights on the roof, i ran the wires up the windshield, and all the relays are in the engine compartment. i run my own ground wires to the lights and back to the battery, i believe it is safer, but also easier to track down problems. Jay you can take a look at my setup if you want.
 
JayAre

JayAre

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
Nashville
Alright this is all helpful info. Question I have now is, if I keep the relays in the engine compartment, can I combine the ground wires from the relays and run just one ground up the windshield, then split it on the roof?
 
JayAre

JayAre

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
Nashville
Awesome. Number 1 priority today is installing my Xoskel replacement roof rack. Then I'm doing the lights. As long as the rack goes on without a hitch, I'll tackle the lights.
Thanks for the insight fellas.
 
JayAre

JayAre

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
Nashville
Holy cow Chuck. That link is incredibly helpful. Thanks. Didn't do the wiring today, shooting for tomorrow. It's going to require a little more thought so it's nice and clean.
 
JayAre

JayAre

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
Nashville
lol nice. Hey, does anyone know if there is anywhere I can get one of those Blue Sea distribution blocks locally? Like to pick one up today if I can.
 
JayAre

JayAre

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
Nashville
So, I got one of the Blue Sea fuse blocks. I had to order so it's still a few days out. I feel like I have everything laid out like I want. I still have this one question, that I'm hoping someone can verify my assumptions. I am thinking of running the ground wires for the relays and merging them into one ground wire and run that up the windshield. Then, at the top split the ground out to the lights grounds. To me, that seems like it would work without issue. Can anyone confirm that this will in fact work or not? I know splitting them for the lights won't be an issue, just combining the ground from the relays is what puzzles me. I really feel like this will work, and am probably just over thinking it. Just want the ducks all lined up when it's time to run the wires.
 
Muadeeb

Muadeeb

Nissan al Gaib
Admin
Location
Dallas
Yes, ground is (usually) ground. Just make certain the wire is large enough to handle the current of everything up there and you'll be fine.

Sent via wild ferrets on crack
 
E

Eric P

Bought an X
Location
Colorado
JayAre said:
I am thinking of running the ground wires for the relays and merging them into one ground wire and run that up the windshield. Then, at the top split the ground out to the lights grounds. To me, that seems like it would work without issue. Can anyone confirm that this will in fact work or not? I know splitting them for the lights won't be an issue, just combining the ground from the relays is what puzzles me. I really feel like this will work, and am probably just over thinking it. Just want the ducks all lined up when it's time to run the wires.
Click to expand...

The ground terminal on the relay is wired to a ground, not the lights. Only the power terminal from the relay is wired to the lights.

A 2nd ground wire would run from the lights to a ground. This can be a single wire of sufficient size.
 
mudchet

mudchet

Got Mud?<br><img src="http://i164.photobucket.com/
Founding Member
Location
Brentwood, TN
Hey Jay,

One other idea...

If you are putting relays in the engine compartment and then running wires from there to your roof and other places, you might want to think about labeling your wires. You can get cable numbering stickers from Home Depot. These stickers give you little stickers with numbers on them. You can put a "#1" on one end of the cable in the engine compartment, and then another "#1" on the other end of that wire up on your roof. I found that the number of wires I have run in my truck grew pretty quickly and keeping track of all those wires (which are all typically red, black or white in color) gets to be too much for me to remember. These numbers can really help you keep track of things and speed up the troubleshooting process down the road.
 
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