Driving lights

[cvass20 10+ year member]

I want to put another pair of auxillary lights on my truck. I want them to turn on along with my brights but I also want to turn them on by themsemselves too. So my question is, How can I wire them so that they turn on with my brights but can also be turned on by a switch? Will they do that if I hook them up like normal and just splice them into the brights as well?? And if that would work would it be too much power going through that wires or would it just take power from my brights???

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[azbass 5,000+ posts]

realys are your friend, learn about them.

 

[rocky 59 5,000+ posts]

put all the wires on a switch that you need. then run the power wire under the steering coulm find the turn on bright wire and splice it into that.

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

I know of a way to partially do what you want to do.

You could wire the driving lights to a relay (which will have its own power connections) and wire the switch you're wanting as a trigger for the relay.

You could then use the high beams to power the switch. It shouldn't cause a circuit overload seing as the switch won't be drawing alot of amperage but rather acting more like a gate for the current to pass through and trigger the relay - much like the remote accessory activation output on your HU.

So - you'd have your driving lights controlled by a switch. You'd have your driving lights come on with the high beams (provided the switch was in the "On" position)

The drawback would be that you'd not be able to operate the driving lights independently of the high beams. The brights would have to be on for the driving lights to work.

EDIT: The above method is how I have my driving lights wired excepting I use my parking lights as the power for the switch. I can run the driving lights independently of the headlights - low or high beam - but the parking lights at least have to be on for the driving lights to work. This also keeps me from forgetting they're on and killing the battery cause when all the lights go out so do the driving lights.