rear led light wiring ?

jonney · Jul 29, 2015

guys i have 2 x 18watt 4 inch led lights that i want to fit on the rear roll tub bar. what i need to know is , can i tap into the reverse light wire for powering these 2 x lights ? i intend to also run an on/off switch so these lights will only come on when the switch is ON and in reverse gear. the power sorce is my concern, thanks.

user 5942 · Jul 29, 2015

I'm no pro, but I would say tapping to the reverse light for power is a big no no. You should use a relay to bridge to main for power, and use the reverse light as a trigger for the relay.

Jarone · Jul 29, 2015

slepax said:
I'm no pro, but I would say tapping to the reverse light for power is a big no no. You should use a relay to bridge to main for power, and use the reverse light as a trigger for the relay.

Yep run it through a relay with its own power cable, you shouldn't run that much power from the reverse wire

bods · Jul 30, 2015

I'm not sure what the reverse light fuse is rated at, but lets do a couple of quick calculations. The standard reverse light globes are 21w

So, amp draw is watts ÷ volts
21w÷12v=1.75a each
For the leds
18w÷12v=1.5a each
So, lets say the reverse light fuse is 10a, and you have approx 6.5a draw on it... not sure why you'd bother with relays for that load lol. Just chuck them on. You wouldn't be the first to do it. I have seen plenty of 4bys getting around with extra leds on the back, even the 27w ones.

jonney · Jul 30, 2015

yes also what about wiring up for a trailer lights? you don,t use a relay and you use the available power wire such as reverse / stop / indicators etc etc. the lights i have are 18 watts each and mainly designed as a work light i would say [ $40 for the 2.off ]

JAFO · Jul 30, 2015

I have a LED Work light on my Rear Bar of my canopy. Wired up with a 3way toggle switch so it comes on with the reverse light when switched one way, totally off when in the neutral position and the 3rd position is on as a work light. It is conected up via a relay, with the 3way toggle switched selecting which power supply to trigger the relay and power the work light

Old.Tony · Jul 30, 2015

The calc provided by bods is spot on. Well within the limits of the fuse and while 6.5A is enough to drop the voltage (and LEDs don't like that a lot) it's not a game-killer.

To avoid that voltage drop, you could connect a fuse to the battery, connect a heavy (8Ga is good) cable to the fuse, run that cable down to the rear. Connect pin 85 of a 4-pin 12V relay to the reverse light and pin 86 to the chassis (or any reliable earth). Connect pin 30 to that heavy cable and pin 87 to the work lights.

jonney · Jul 31, 2015

thanks very much for this needed info guys. now i can work it out.

rear led light wiring ?

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