Previous owner had installed some off road lights. They were too dim to be useful, so I was replacing them and found burnt wire leads (I'm glad I haven't been using the lights).

Interesting thing is that the ground wire from the lights were only 3 inches long and just taped the side of the positive wire. Thus the lights weren't grounded. Do you think the wires were burnt simply bc of improper grounding? And if I grounded them and re-wired them, would they be safe to use and would they be brighter?

The wiring set up was: positive and acc both wired to the cigarette lighter, switch is 20A 12VDC, no fuse or relay, wire appears to be 18 gauge.

 

get rid of all the wiring. rewire with thicker guage wire just to be safe. use just a regular swith and relay and probably a 25 amp fuse,depends on the watts of the lights. they should brighten up. and make sure you have a good ground. chances are the previous owner just didn't know what he was doing and just monkey rigged it.

 

That's what I'm thinking too.

Forgot to mention 2 lights 55 watts each. That'll put them at 55w/12v= 4.5 amp. I'm planning on using 14 gauge wire. I'm hoping to not have to buy a new relay, fuse, and switch.

 

Don't forget 4.5 amps x 2.... so you will need a 10 amp fuse.

 

I ended up using a fuse and relay. The lights are way brighter.

 

Good choice.