Im putting backward facing lights on my custom backrack. Whats the best way to wire them in?

Lights-to-switch-to-relay-to-inline fuse-to- battery?

Is that the best way or is their another? Thanks.

07 Reg. Cab F150 4.6 2x4

 

Battery to fuse, fuse to relay. Relay to ground. Relay to switch. Relay to lights. Some sort of other power source to the switch on the other pin so it'll be able to trigger the relay.

 

All right thanks. And so i dont need to go into the fuse panel.

 

Depends on how you wire the other end of the switch.

 

How should i wire it then?

 

When do you want to be able to turn them on? Only when the truck is running? All the time?

 

Just to give you a picture ID of what is going on.



This diagram uses a SPDT switch, so the lights can turn on any time the parking lamps are on, or come on with the reverse lamps.

If you get a SPDT on-off-on switch, the center position would be able to turn them off.

The part not shown in this diagram, is the connection from terminal #30 to a fuse to the battery ( this is taking power from the battery charge ckt on the trailer tow adapter ).

Your install sounds more along the line of a fused connection to the battery from terminal #30 ( shown in this diagram )


Using the trailer tow adapter battery charge ckt means the key needs to be in the run position, where the fused connection to the battery could mean at any time.

Don't know if this helps or hurts the conversation.

 

So really If i want the lights to be on with out a key i just dont go into the fuse panel. But the only down side is if i forget to turn them off my battery is dead.

Or

I have to run another wire from the fuse panel to the relay, Then I would have to have the key in the ignition to have the lights on.

 

The relay has four pins:
30 goes to the battery with a fuse in between
86 to ground
87 is the power to lights
And finally 85 is the 'switch' pin. It's what tells the relay to be open or closed.

So if you want them to only come on with reverse lights you'd run a wire to the black with link wire in the first diagram above.

If you want them to come on anytime using a switch to toggle them on and off you run from pin 85 to one pin on the switch and the other(s) pin connect to something that'll be hot. Whether it be somewhere in the fuse panel that's always hot, connect it to the power point power wire (if you have one), straight to the battery with like a 1amp fuse, etc.

If they're bright lights I wouldn't think it'd be too hard to remember to turn them off haha.

You wouldn't necessarily have to have the key on even in the fuse panel, I can cut my parking lights on anytime even without the key, meaning that fuse is probably always hot.

 

So If the fuse is always hot couldnt I just run 2 wires from the battery.
Im going to have a seperate toggle.switch for.them.

 

You could, just means it's a longer wire and you'll need to get a second inline fuse for the wire too.

 

Run what from the fuse panel.

As posted above, you have 2 power inputs to a relay.

What fuse # from the fuse panel are you running to where ?