Wiring up hood light pods to upfitter, please check my understanding

[CD079]

It’s been a while since I’ve wired anything to a vehicle. I currently have four LED pod lights that I’m installing on each side of the hood, two on each side. Inner lights pointing forward, outside lights pointing off to the side.

Each light has two wires, a red and black. My understanding is that I’ll run the black wires to each of the two upfitter wires by the battery, and then run the red wires to a ground point under the hood. This way I’ll have control of whether the inner or outer lights are on, right? I can run the two inner light black wires to say aux 1, and then the two outer light black wires to aux 2. Then combine all four red wires, crimp them inside a ring terminal and put that on a ground point. I feel as though it’s not as complicated as I’m making it, but want to be sure. Everything I’ve wired prior to having this Tremor has been a wire to either battery and ground, or add a fuse and ground, like my dashcam.

 

[BDE]

I have two rigid industries pod lights above the hood. For mine, red is hot, so that wire runs to the upditter wire. Black is ground, which I ran to ground. My wiring harness has only one hot (red) and one ground (black)

 

[Cblaxx19]

so typically, red is your power line and black is your ground. so flip you what you're saying.

that being said, you should consider the current draw for each pair of lights that you want to wire to each switch. you need to make sure you aren't asking the relay/fuse built into the upfitter circuit to provide more than it is rated for. if you are, it would be better to wire the lights through a relay that is appropriately sized and use the upfitter wires to trigger the relay to turn the lights on.

if the current draw is less than the upfitter circuit, then you can wire the power wires to the upfitter wire and the ground wires to a common ground point. it would be optimal to use the battery negative terminal as your ground rather than a body location.

 

[CD079]

so typically, red is your power line and black is your ground. so flip you what you're saying.

that being said, you should consider the current draw for each pair of lights that you want to wire to each switch. you need to make sure you aren't asking the relay/fuse built into the upfitter circuit to provide more than it is rated for. if you are, it would be better to wire the lights through a relay that is appropriately sized and use the upfitter wires to trigger the relay to turn the lights on.

if the current draw is less than the upfitter circuit, then you can wire the power wires to the upfitter wire and the ground wires to a common ground point. it would be optimal to use the battery negative terminal as your ground rather than a body location.

So the lights I have, the only identifying marking on the box is that they’re rated for 12-24v. I assume that I can touch a multimeter to the wires to check amp draw, right?

 

[Cblaxx19]

you don't have any documentation from the box or anything? can you check the manufacturer's website for the info?

what light do you have?

you'd need to hook the lights up to power in order to get a proper reading on current draw with a multimeter.

 

[CD079]

you don't have any documentation from the box or anything? can you check the manufacturer's website for the info?

what light do you have?

you'd need to hook the lights up to power in order to get a proper reading on current draw with a multimeter.

Doing a quick search, the lights are rated at 18w each. Which someone equated out to 1.5amps per light. So potentially each switch would have 3 amps running?

 

[Cblaxx19]

Doing a quick search, the lights are rated at 18w each. Which someone equated out to 1.5amps per light. So potentially each switch would have 3 amps running?

if that's the case(and sounds like it compared to the light that i have) then you should be fine wiring to the upfitters and using their relays/fuses.

 

[Kidastra]

do the math at 14v as a running truck alternator pushes around that, any your wiring will most likely be standard, meaning black is ground. so you will tie the forward facing red wires together to 1 switch, and tie the outer facing red wires to another switch. grounds all together, switch 5 and 6 would be ideal for your setup, i installed pod lights on my truck a couple weekends ago.

 

[Escape Hatch]

Doesn't Baja Designs make a Rapture specific wiring harness for the upfitter switches?

 

[mashir]

Doesn't Baja Designs make a Rapture specific wiring harness for the upfitter switches?

I think so and was wondering if anyone had used it. Feedback on this? Can someone with almost no wiring experience do this themselves with the harness?

 

[mashir]

Also, OP or others who have done good lighting: what bracket are you using? Does it require cutting any of the black rubber/plastic fill piece at the corners of the hood?

To clarify I’m talking about A-Pillar lights which is I think what we are referencing here.

 

[Kidastra]

I had to trim my plastic rubber trim thing, Amazon brackets

 

[CD079]

Also, OP or others who have done good lighting: what bracket are you using? Does it require cutting any of the black rubber/plastic fill piece at the corners of the hood?

To clarify I’m talking about A-Pillar lights which is I think what we are referencing here.

This is what I bought, haven’t tried to install anything yet though:

Diode Dynamics F-150 Stage Series Ditch Light Mounting Brackets DD7364P (21-23 F-150) - Free Shipping

FREE SHIPPING! Firm Light Fastening. The Diode Dynamics Stage Series Ditch Light Mounting Brackets are staged to firmly mount pod lights and ditch lights for be

www.americantrucks.com

ZRoadz F-150 Hood Hinge Dual Pod Adapter Mounting Plate Z360002 (97-23 F-150) - Free Shipping

FREE SHIPPING! Multiply the Awesome Factor of Your F-150. The ZRoadz Hood Hinge Dual Pod Adapter Mounting Plate is a fast and easy solution for mounting two lam

www.americantrucks.com

From what I saw on the DD website, there’s a bolt under the rubber panel that I just have to lift up and attach to. We’ll see!

 

[Fozzy]

In my experience all the single mount A-Piller mounts vibrate.

 

[caslim]

I think so and was wondering if anyone had used it. Feedback on this? Can someone with almost no wiring experience do this themselves with the harness?

I just installed BD XL sports, and I just cut the relay and switch off. The uplifter switches can handle up to 15 amps on switch 2 and 3. I wired mine up to switch 3 ( I have KC Flex 4 on 1 and 2). These XL sports only draw about 4 amps total.

 

[Tremor14]

In my experience all the single mount A-Piller mounts vibrate.

I got the one's from Diode Dynamics and they are very stable. Their lights are a bit smaller and lighter than some of the others, so that helps.

 

[CD079]

Finally got around to installing and wiring everything, wasn’t nearly as complicated as I had thought. Put two pods on each side, outside pods connected to #6 switch, and inner pods attached to #5 switch. My only real complaint is directed at Ford manufacturing itself:

Is it really that much of an ask to give us like 2-3 more inches on the wires under the hood? Or maybe don’t tuck the entire thing behind the battery. That was the literal hardest part, just getting my fat hands in there to attach wires.

 

[Kidastra]

Finally got around to installing and wiring everything, wasn’t nearly as complicated as I had thought. Put two pods on each side, outside pods connected to #6 switch, and inner pods attached to #5 switch. My only real complaint is directed at Ford manufacturing itself:

Is it really that much of an ask to give us like 2-3 more inches on the wires under the hood? Or maybe don’t tuck the entire thing behind the battery. That was the literal hardest part, just getting my fat hands in there to attach wires.

agreed, a couple more inches on all 3 harness' would be perfect, post a pic of your lights!

 

[Cheif2Slo]

What beam pattern is everyone using on ditch lights? Driving? Flood? Disco?

 

[Kidastra]

I have spots