TonyXJ

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.

K2dark_xj

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.

TonyXJ

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.

prerunner1982

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

TonyXJ

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

Gee oh Dee

Good choice.