I have some small 2 inch walmart lights installs on my rear bumper. I have them connected to the stock reverse light wires right now but they are not very bright. I no these lights are blinding bright because we installed some directly to the battery of our forklift at work. My question is that I found a hot wire that goes to the trailer light connector that puts out full power. I have some wire tap splices that I want to tap off of that wire and run them to the walmart lights to brighten them up. Will I need a relay for this or can I just run a hot wire to the lights to brighten them up? And how exactly can I run the more powerful wire to these lights and still make them come on when I put it in reverse?

 

Run a new 10-12 gauge wire from the battery to a fuse to a switch inside the Jeep to the WalMart lights to get full power to them.

If you use any of the stock wiring they will be dim due to power losses and possible backfeeding.

 

Bring power from the front to a relay. Hook power from back up lights to the side that activates the relay. Simple as that.

 

If you just use the back up light lead to activate he relay they will not be dim.

 

That's the thing is I have to drive 20 miles to get to the closest parts store so do I have to use a relay or can I just put a fuse on the hot wire and run it to the lights.

 

You van use a new hot and a fuse and a switch. I just thought you wanted them to work auto with the back up lights.

 

I wired up a 55 watt driving light to the trailer wiring, it seems to draw on the factory backup lights a little but is bright. I don't know about running two off trailer wiring though.

 

Just adding a pic.

 

the relay set-up is the only way you'll get the results you are looking for

 

I found a relay off of the old Bendix 9 abs brake system I took off of here. I like having an old junk parts pile. This is why I keep all my old parts instead of throwing them away.

 

Now I just gotta figure out how to hook it up

 

Should show what terminals do what on the side. One side will activate the relay. He other side is power in from battery, out to lights.

 

No diagram on it but i found a write up for it. http://www.lunghd.com/Tech_Articles/...erseLights.htm

 

Love lunghd.

 

I used this as a go by. Mounted two 55W halogen fog lights on the rear of my TJ. Worked like a charm.

Used the schematic and go by for turning the lights on independently.