I have a 2006 XLT Supercab and am about to install some fog lights. Below is the wiring diagram that came with the lights. My question is about wiring for switch power, which is indicated by a circled 2 on the diagram. The instructions say to tap into a source that is only powered when the low beam of the headlamps is on. What is the best way to do that? Where would I place the tap, and what will the wire look like? Thanks for the help!

 

Really it just depends on if that's how you want to do it. Assuming you do that, you will only have power to your lights when low beams on, meaning you can't turn them on other times. The fault with this is, if you have your truck off and want to switch the lights on for working purposes or something you will have to have all your lights on first. Personally I wouldn't go about it that way, but I like being difficult.

When I wired mine up I wired to a 3 position switch. Up - On all the time. Mid - Off. Down - On with brights. This way was a little more complicated.

If you were to only power to your low beams, the best place would be to tap in around the headlight switch. You should find the wires running from it down, you will just have to use a tester to find the right one, or if you can find a wiring diagram to find which color code the low beam wire is. Then just cut it and split into it.

 

I agree with Watson91, you're usually best to install with a hard switch, if ever you don't want your fogs to run only with the low beam. But if that's what you're after, then tap right onto the headlight harness, like one of the bulbs. Since our bulbs are dual-filament, you'd have to find which one is for the positive size lowbeam, and tap off that. I don't remember which one it is, but with a DMM you can easily find it. It's usually best to install there because you don't have to put any wires through your firewall, which can be a headache to do. Also, power from the lowbeam 12+ wire will go to a relay to switch on and run power from your battery to the fog lights.

 

Good points on being married to the low beams if I use their directions.

So to be more flexible, I could tap into a 12v acc on somewhere. Any suggestions as to where would be easy? Thanks for the comments.

 

How many lights do you have? I'm not a fan of tapping power off of other objects. When I just had two lights behind my grille I put an inline fuse off my battery and ran power to my switch that way. Now that I have 4 lights I have a fuse block behind my center dash piece. I have run two lights to one fuse, and I have a six fuse block so I still got four spots open for anything else I might want.

I also agree with phattacorider about tapping in outside of the firewall, but if you are going to run a switch it won't matter and probably be simpler under the dash to tap in. I understand you will be tapping into low's for power, but you will still want a switch I assume unless you want them on with your lows no matter what always.

 

I'm just adding 2 fog lights to my brush guard. And yes, I'll have a switch in the cab.

If I don't tap the low beams, I want to tap somewhere that will shut off the lights when I turn the truck off, in case I forget to flip the switch off.

Where did you get your fuse block?

 

Here is what I would do in your case. Since you want to be able to control your fog lights and you don't want them on while you're not in the vehicle (or when the key is out), then use a relay hooked up to an accessory wire or something that draws very little current. A couple of popular places to use as a switched means is either the ignition wire (or accessory wire in mobile electronics) running to the back of the radio, or hook up to your parking lights. Here's is how the wiring would go...

Get a relay, and run a wire from the battery to terminal number 87. Then, run a wire from terminal number 30 to your lights, then ground those. Locate a switched source, like the accessory wire behind your radio, cut that and run one wire to terminal number 85 on the relay. then run a wire from terminal number 86 on the relay to a switch that you'll install somewhere in your cab. Then from the other side of the switch, hook that back to the other side of the accessory wire. The accessory wire from the radio can be substituted for something else that you would rather use, like the parking lights, teh low beams, you can even connect to your reverse lights. I'm not the greatest with wiring diagrams, but if you map out what I put down, it'll seem quite easy. Always use a relay when you're running high power, like for lighting.

 

This is the kind of fuse block I have. I can't remember where I got it at the moment, go it and my switches all at the same location.

http://www.wiringproducts.com/contents/en-us/d136.html
Ganged Fuse Panel

Here is a place you can buy it though.