aquickmopar

I Plan on Upgrading my Headlight Wiring Harness to get more voltage to my headlights. Now most kits I see for sale are running 12 awg wire.... But for the DIY project write ups they say to use 10 awg wire. I already have a bunch of 12 awg wire let over from doing my Off road light install. And figured I would ask if there was much difference between running the heavier 10 awg over the 12 awg for wiring an upgrade for headlights. And yes these will be on 2 Separate relays. 1 For Low Beams and 1 For High Beams. If there wasn't much difference between the two then I was going to use what I had instead of going to buy 10 awg wire for this project. Thanx in advance for any info.

TheJerm

I'm in the middle of making my own harness and I opted for 10 awg cause it was same price as 12 and figured why not. I personally dont think you will notice the difference.

aquickmopar

Thanx for the info, your lucky then cause a 12' Roll of 12 awg is 7 bucks a roll... and only a 6' roll of 10 awg is 8 bucks a roll were I live. I would have to buy atleast 4-5 Rolls of th 10 awg compared to only buying 2 Rolls of the 12 awg. Believe me id rather run it in the 10 awg but since I already have so much left over I didn't know if I would really see any difference between running 1 Vs the other.

xjfan

I'm also thinking about making my own. Just had a couple questions.

Are you going to use one relay for low beam and one for high beam?
Or 4 relays, one for each?

If using one relay for low beam, where are going feeding both headlamps?

From the relay close to the terminal, 2 wires out to the bulbs or from the first bulb to the second one?

Do you think the following would work?

If connecting both headlamps close to the relay terminal. I could twist together (2) 10 gauge wires into an 8 gauge butt connector on one end and a single 10 gauge wire on the other end to the relay terminal.

hawaiian808

I used 10to gauge and just two relays for both headlights, one write up says u can use pin 87a87 but you can't on the relay I got from napa (I exact part number given in the write up) so I just hooked both to one pin and got ultra brights from autozonw and they are mega bright for bulbs

xjsnake

Are you going to use stock wattage bulbs? If so then 12awg is fine, if you are going higher then use 10awg

xjfan

Going to use stock for now but going to upgrade the bulb in the future.

How are the lamps fed?

Are the wires to both headlamps close to the relay terminal? I was thinking of coming from the relay terminal with one wire about 1.5" or so to one end of the butt connector. Then 2 wire on the other side to the lamps....

I wonder if an 8 gauge female spade connector is available. Perhaps crimping (2) 10 gauge on it and connect it to the relay terminal directly could work.

Still researching..

xjsnake

Power comes from the battery to the relay, then out of the relay to the bulbs.

The wires run from the relay to the bulbs. You want to run both lines from the relay to the bulbs individually; otherwise you will be pulling too much current through the feed line.

xjfan

That's what I wanted to confirm. From the relay out to the lamps. Not from one lamp to the other. Good, I'm clear on that.

For those that used 10 gauge, how did you connect to the relay? I'm would like to find a terminal that could fit (2) 10 gauge. That way I don't have to use one wire from the relay then split with two out. Would that make a difference?

Maybe I'm over thinking this.....

xjfan

Just notice there is a dual 87 relay. Seem like that's what I'm going to have to use. It tough to get 2 10 gauge wires on one pin.

The search continues...

xjsnake

Yup, that's why you use a 5 pin relay.

hawaiian808

Don't get a 87 with an 87a pin it wont work, I used 10g and duel pinned it to 87become works fine

xjfan

The one I was looking at this one, it has (2) 87 pins. Not 87 and 87a.



Instead of combining both L and R to one 87 pin. I would like to put each one independent. The reason is because it's hard to get (2) 10 gauge wires together on one pin. I'm planning to do this for both low and high beam.

These dual 87 pin relays are not too common. Rallylights and Summit have them but don't have the mounting bracket.


Most relays I've seen have 87 and 87a....

kjc

About those wire prices.. I've seen some pretty heavy duty extention cords with 12 and 10 gauge wire inside.. a lot cheaper than buying the wire itself

hawaiian808

Yah I got one with the A 87 on it, so I just spliced the wires together down stream, n used one spade, if you can get dual 87's that will work