DETAILED info on my lighting / wiring setup -- bumper lights, ditch lights, underhood lights

[jharrell3623]

Really well done post, very detailed. This helps me with my own current lighting project.

However, how about some night pics of the lights at work? After seeing all this work done it'd be great to see what it looks like lit up!

This is after adjustment

Adjustment Done

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[Blue Steel]

Great work and write-up. How did you wire the engine bay lights? Do you need to have auxiliary power on in order to turn them on or do they get power direct from the battery to be switched on at any time?

 

[jharrell3623]

Great work and write-up. How did you wire the engine bay lights? Do you need to have auxiliary power on in order to turn them on or do they get power direct from the battery to be switched on at any time?

Just wired them together and ran them to my auxbeam 5 amp circuit. Switch on and off from the cab.

 

[scotman623]

Excellent write up!! Nice clean work.

 

[jharrell3623]

Excellent write up!! Nice clean work.

Thank You

 

[mattymik]

Ok this is going to be long and a few pictures. I'll be as detailed and hyperlink friendly as possible. This first pic is just a frontal view at mid ground level. Overall look not complete , I still have to run wire from all the lights in the bumper and the bull bar lights that have to be installed still as well as the bull bar. More on that to come.

Second pic is a 3/4 view , just a different angle, eye level.

Now on to the meat and potatoes of things. This pic is a close up of the bumper lights. Now I wish Ford had done a more squared off opening to match most aftermarket lights but sadly enough they did not and they have this angle design. There are a few manufacturers trying to combat this issure from what I've seen but for the sake of trying to finish out my build and seeing the end of the tunnel. I purchased the Diode Dynamics bracket. Found here .........
Diode Dynamics Bracket
This bracket seemed to be the best fit at the time. It also offers a slightly thicker gauge steel than most brackets. I only have two lights installed because honestly I do not feel that three is worth the trouble and the outside light is already being somewhat cut off from view. Its hard to find square lights to fit this opening and produce completely through the opening. I know some vendors sell complete kits but I like having full control on each light that way if one fails I replace the pair , not the entire light kit. Plus , with individual lights I can do spot and floods or amber mixed in for various conditions. Other thing some my notice , my lights are almost completely centered with one another. This is done with the use of a Teflon spacer between the bracket on the light and the DD bracket on the bronco. Not sure the exact thickness but its around 3/8 inch thick. The light I used this on is this one from Auxbeam.....
Auxbeam Light
Its is a great light but its also a very unique light. It has 6 modes , white , amber , white and amber , strobe white , strobe amber , and strobe white then amber. Now most would believe you need the harness for this to be possible , however you do not. I have not used any of the harnesses with any of my lights because the plugs are very bulky and the switches that run inline with a relay have to be accessed within the cab and I'm not sticking anything inside my cab that looks unprofessional and these switches look very unprofessional. On to the light itself , After I cut off the DR plugs and stripped the insulation back I'm met with 3 wires. Black , Red , and Yellow. Now being that this light has a Amber and a White light you would think that Red is the hot for the White side and the Yellow is the hot for the Amber side but that is not true. The Red is the hot for both sides and the Yellow is a trigger wire for the modes. If you supply power for a split second to the yellow it changes to the next mode in the sequence which means the modes are built in to the lights , not the switch or the relay. Which is great news for me cause I was just going to wire them together and use both on at all times. Now I just need to figure out how to switch the modes.
The next light beside that is a Rough Country 2 inch DRL Black series light found here.....
Rough Country DRL Black Series 2 Inch light
This is a great light for the space although the light space itself is 2 inches , the housing is not so thats why it cuts off a little at the bottom. I thought it would be smaller but its not. The auxbeam is a 3 inch light and the 2 inch Rough Country is about the same size. Anyhow I decided to use it the best I could. Once again , I chopped off the harness and the plugs , they are useless and to bulky for running to the distribution blocks. I also have no need for a switch that does not belong in my cab, so chop chop and we moving........

Next is the A pillars , This is a close up , the brackets I chose are these from some Chinese vendor.....however they are of decent quality and cheaper than most and who does not like Cheetos? I mean come on. Here they are............
Cheto Pillar dual light bracket
These are After mounting the lights with my hood up for some reason on one side I have a inch of space between the closest lights and the hood and on the other side , I have like a 1/8 inch. Not sure why this is other than the hood hinge was adjusted that way to get the hood to line up correctly. The brackets and lights are identically designed and positioned on both sides. So be careful when opening the hood the first time and check how far the lights stick out and I can go to a different bracket if I need it in the future , there is brackets with side by side lights but I'm trying to keep from obscuring my vision from inside the cab as much as possible but still use two lights on each side. The first and largest light is my spot light for the hood , its a 4 incher made by Nilight and its very bright. They can be found here.
Nilight 4 inch Spot
The second light is a flood light by Rough Country with great wide angle coverage. They can be found here.
Rough Country Flood light Osram LEDS Wide Angle
Now on the first light , let me say this about LED lights and what I have found. Through Testing , most of these lights are not rated at a wattage equivalent , they are actual watts. If it says 60 watts , its 60 watts , or treat it as such. The Nilights are a real 60 watts , each one uses almost 5 amps. The Rough Country 3 inch floods it says its 150 watts per light but that is an equivalent , They only use around 3.6 amps per light. They are actually around 40 Watts. So you have to be careful about the amperage and what you use for wiring and how its all fused. So are real wattage , some are not. If you want to test the loads , get one of these inline current testers and see for yourself. They are here..................
Amp Draw tester
You get a battery , just any 12 volt battery will do , hook it to the source side , and then hook the light to the load side. Then the light will be on and you can see how many amps each light will draw. Do the math and make sure your wires are above the current draw for capability and that the fuse inline is only being pushed to 80 percent of its capacity. So example , if you have 5 amps of draw , use a 7.5 amp fuse , or a 10 amp fuse but make sure your wire running the whole length can handle at least twice the amps respectively. That way the fuse will blow before the wire burns in to and catches on fire. You do not want that. Ever. I have done this with each wire I've ran , tested the amps of draw and then size the wire way above and the fuse just above. More on that soon.

Next picture is a close up of behind the A pillar and what I did to route the wires unlike so many others online , which I have no idea why you would run wires that way , only to get friction and a short at some point , its senseless and very very risky for a 60 k plus vehicle. Do the work and do it right. These are two holes I drilled through the top cowl. Now I want to be VERY clear , These are the ONLY 4 holes I've drilled On the entire Bronco. Quite honestly , Ford should have done this from the factory but its one of three things that did really gripe my ass that should have been done from the get go. You offer A pillar lighting mounts , but you leave absolutely no GOOD way to route the wiring to the inside under the hood. I guess they expected the power by now to be wireless lol? These holes were achieved using this tool......
Multistep Hole tool
And the grommets were from this kit............
Grommets
The holes punched for the grommets were from this kit..........
Hole Punch
Find the grommet size you are using , then compare the insulation size on the wire , too the hole punch sizes, and downsize JUST below the size of the insulation. Lay the grommet on a piece of wood , assemble the correct hole punch size and then place it dead center and hit it with a hammer and punch your perfect hole out.
The process is to measure out from the base of the back of the cowl about a inch and a half and leave about an inch or inch and a half between the two marks. Then use a very small drill bit to put two small holes as starter holes for the multistep bit. Then use the multistep bit and SLOWLY , not at high speed , make the hole larger and larger , take about 10 second breaks between each step because the plastic will get soft and melt and make it difficult to get a smooth inside edge and the bit has a harder time cutting soft plastic. Stop when you think you are close , DO NOT OVER DO IT. clean the inside edge with a razor knife if its not sharp edges. Then test fit the grommet , You want it to be a tight fit but not impossible to get it in. If its too tight , try another step size, rinse and repeat until the grommet fits. Walla , perfectly routed wire..........Thanks Ford.......

Ok now on to the way I routed all the wiring and why............These distribution boxes can be found here .......
Wiring Distribution box
Ok so This is how all my wiring for all of my exterior lights comes in before going to my Auxbeam 8 gang Switch Panel. I have three panels total , One for Upper lights , one for lower. I was going to do One for spot and one for flood but after thinking about it and looking at the amperages I was dealing with I decided it made more sense to go this route. Also , there is not a lot of space inside the compartment bay for mounting all this stuff so where I mounted it seemed the most logical. I mounted it with heavy duty Velcro and its not coming off , you would have to pry it off with a crowbar. The heat from the engine has permanently sealed it to the top of the fuse box. I made sure to leave enough free wire so that if I have to lift the fuse box panel for any reason I can. There is one wire that I had to notch out for on the fuse box panel cover itself , which was for the oracle lighting letters as I wanted an always ON Accessory solution and this was convenient for this particular installation.
On to the wiring , EVERY single wire and connector is wrapped with SEALING heat shrink to avoid water intrusion and air intrusion into the wire itself. Yes , air can get into wires and the moisture within the air can cause corrosion beyond the terminal. I have purchased several size of sealing heatshrink from Wirefly , this is great great stuff. You can get it here......
Wirefly Sealing Heat Shrink
Also all the connectors are also heat shrinkable as well as using solder sealing butt connectors..........Links for those are here........
Solder butt connectors
and here........
Heat Shrink Connectors

I also wrap all my wire with a nylon shield mesh , I have purchased several sizes in the blue style and one size of the black style for any visible exterior areas to sort of cover the look. They are found here.........
Black Mesh wire wrap
Blue Mesh Wire Wrap

The process in a nushell is this.....run wire to length , butt connect solder butt connector to wires , then cut right size heat shrink , then slide over EACH butt connector , seal butt connector to wire , then slide over mesh loom to length , then cut larger size heat shrink , slide over wire loom all the way to end near the light , then seal wire loom on to factory wiring with heat shrink , then go back to terminal end , cut about 6 inches of wire mesh back past wire , then cut another piece of heat shrink and slide over loom and wire , then seal that end , then cut two smaller pieces for the terminal ends , slide over each wire , then use terminal connector , crimp and heat and seal the end , then slide over heat shrink and heat that and seal , then its a completely water tight system from light back to terminal connection.
Now on to the distribution boxes. As you can see I have very large 12 gauge wire that feeds each box from the Auxbeam switch box. Each box can get a total of 30 amps max. Thats the size of the circuit from the Auxbeam switch , it has two 30 amp circuits. I dedicated those two circuits to lights only. This is the brains of the operation...........Here is the link............
Auxbeam Switch
The distribution module is in the second photo.........and the location I mounted the control panel is in the third photo.............Now there is a third distribution box for power mounted to the top of the red plastic positive battery terminal cover and I left enough slack to get the cover open and remove the battery if needed, that is in the 4th photo.
Now the wiring to the lights , as I said before I wanted FULL control to everything. SO EACH light has its run all the way to the distribution box positive and negative , I DID NOT wire lights together for a single positive and negative to a pair of lights. Why you might ask? Well , If one light is bad I know exactly which wire goes to that light only and it will not take out both lights at once. Two I can replace only a single light but being that they are sold in pairs , that's not a likely option. I also have each light individually fused so if a single fuse blows , its one light out , not a pair. Doing this , I removed a lot of the bulkier wiring harnesses and I have a very clean pair of wire from each light source all the way back to the fuse blocks. I still have to redo some labeling but lets move to the third distribution box and what its for , Its on a ten AMP circuit. Its sole purpose is for the trigger of the modes for the One auxbeam light that has the modes built in , I push a button on and off in the cab , and it will switch modes. The auxbeam panel can also do modes but it can not tell the light which mode to be on , so now I have control of both sides. So that Third Yellow wire will go to a terminal on that block , and if I buy the same exact lamp for rear dust lights which I may do , then I can trigger it from the same distribution block and the sequence will be the same as well. Full control from each light.

On to the under the hood lighting.............So I have these LED pads I bought............Link here...........
LED Pads
They are used under the hood and I have used them inside as well , very bright , very amp efficient. I stuck two of them under the hood and an angle to where they do not blind me and shine on most of the engine bay. Pretty straight forward , I tied them to the trigger distribution block because I figured I would never have the lower lights on and these at the same time. The next few shots are of that.

Ok well , there is some of the mods I have done in as much detail as I can possibly imagine , if you misunderstood something , feel free to reply. If you made it to the end , then damn , congrats , you deserve an award , and I deserve one for all the crap I had to do to make this post but its at least done now. I have a lot more going on than this but this is a good start , next is my bull bar and lights for that and etc etc etc............it will never end lol...............thanks for reading , and I will have several you tube videos about the entire bronco broken into 15 minute segments sometime before summer I hope....................

This is an excellent write-up. Thank you.

For your A-pillar mounts, is there a reason you drilled through the fixed hood cowl area instead of the removable cover that’s attached to the mirror arm?

I ask because if you wanted to replace that little cover on the mirror arm, that’s probably $25 on Ford parts and a 2-min install. But maybe there’s a downside to this?

 

[jharrell3623]

This is an excellent write-up. Thank you.

For your A-pillar mounts, is there a reason you drilled through the fixed hood cowl area instead of the removable cover that’s attached to the mirror arm?

I ask because if you wanted to replace that little cover on the mirror arm, that’s probably $25 on Ford parts and a 2-min install. But maybe there’s a downside to this?

Not a good reason. No sir. Its more for hiding the wires to the rear of the lights , the bracket I have covers most of the plate. I do think there is more metal behind the plate (sharp edges) and not as much room but probably still enough for the wire. Worst case scenario if I ever get rid of the lights , I can put two rubber plugs in those holes and it will just always look factory , even with those. If I had a different mount that had more rear exposure to the removable plate I probably would have went that route.

 

[mattymik]

Not a good reason. No sir. Its more for hiding the wires to the rear of the lights , the bracket I have covers most of the plate. I do think there is more metal behind the plate (sharp edges) and not as much room but probably still enough for the wire. Worst case scenario if I ever get rid of the lights , I can put two rubber plugs in those holes and it will just always look factory , even with those. If I had a different mount that had more rear exposure to the removable plate I probably would have went that route.

Thanks. I went to install some A-pillar lights this morning when I realized there's no real pass-through anywhere, so I came here and searched for a bit before finding your post.

Your work looks very clean and professional. So I'll either do that the same way, or I may just try doing the same in the mirror arms.

 

[Broncolli]

Hi - what did you do with the AuxBeam lights with the 6 modes - how were you able to switch in between them ?

 

[jharrell3623]

Hi - what did you do with the AuxBeam lights with the 6 modes - how were you able to switch in between them ?

ok so there is one wire , If I remember right , its white. Its a trigger wire , only needs a quick tap to voltage source to trigger it to change modes. If you keep it on that source for more than a second or two , it will reset back to the first mode , which is spot white only. I have my under hood LED pads connected to a 5 amp load circuit on my aux beam switch in my sunglass holder. All I did was tie that white wire into the same circuit on the hot side of that 5 amp circuit. I can then quickly tap that button on and off to change the mode and continue to do that to switch to the next mode in sequence. If I want to reset the light , I just tap the button to turn it on , and wait a few seconds , then tap it off and its reset to the first mode. The black and red that actually cut the light on are on a separate circuit with all my floods because my aux beam lights are in the corner of the bumpers. If I had them above my grill , I would put them on my spot circuit. Of course when I tap the button my under hood leds come on but only for a second and the hood is closed , so it does not really matter. If you want to test it out , just connect the red and black to whatever switch you got to turn them on , then strip the white wire and tap it to ya positive on ya battery. It will change.

 

[Broncolli]

Thanks - I played with it. So I am hooking up the same lights to my AUX switch. I found that using their harness, that supplies power to the lights, the red, black, white and yellow wires work like this when going to an AUX switch. I am simply tying white and yellow together and plugging to an AUX lead. The small red and black are not used. Only yellow and white together tied to one switch When I turn the switch on it turns on the lights, tapping the switch off and then and on, quickly, will have it change modes.

 

[jharrell3623]

Thanks - I played with it. So I am hooking up the same lights to my AUX switch. I found that using their harness, that supplies power to the lights, the red, black, white and yellow wires work like this when going to an AUX switch. I am simply tying white and yellow together and plugging to an AUX lead. The small red and black are not used. Only yellow and white together tied to one switch When I turn the switch on it turns on the lights, tapping the switch off and then and on, quickly, will have it change modes.

Not sure that will work if they are on the same circuit , because you have to have it on to use it and simply having it on will keep it reset to the first mode? I have no idea , cause I never used the harness they supplied or the relay etc , I made my own harnesses. Hope it works though.

 

[Broncolli]

Not sure that will work if they are on the same circuit , because you have to have it on to use it and simply having it on will keep it reset to the first mode? I have no idea , cause I never used the harness they supplied or the relay etc , I made my own harnesses. Hope it works though.

I thought of that too - but it seems to work. I was hoping it would just be one wire for yellow and one wire for white. I will keep playing with it too.

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