tambil68

There are a lot of write-ups on this topic.

Here is a summary...
1) The power for those lights SHOULD come from the battery!
2) You run the power through a relay
a) The trigger wire for the relay is from the heated seat.. this only allows the power to be on when the key is on.
b) Run the trigger wire through your cabin switch...

Now she will have to have the key on to get power to the trigger wire, which then would require the interior switch to be turned on.. these two would then allow (low) power to flow to the relay, (think of it as an electic switch-- aka a small load to control a larger load) Then when the relay is triggered it would allow power to flow through it and to the added lights!

You can do it! It is quite easy, once you get what the components do.

XJ Kid 89

i am all for having your lights ignition switched. i did it for both sets on my jeep. think about it this way: sure you always remember to turn them off when you get out, but who is stopping that little prick in the parking lot from turning them on when the doors are off? then you come out to a dead battery. i do it to cover my own butt.

DW1964

Thanks for all the advice guys. I’m assuming that the heated seat option is part of the standard loom on all JK’s. If you opt for the heaters then they are installed and plugged into the loom, if not then there’s a cable under the seat that’s not connected? I’ll look for this tonight but should I fail to find it. Could someone tell me where they connected to this wire, is it easy to find in the engine bay or best to just go under the seat?
As for inspections, I’m fairly sure I will have to remove the lights prior to the inspection. It’s so backward out here that if you fit a lift kit you have to remove it and return the car to original spec or it fails. I’ll probably have to take off the bumpers and put on the originals as well. On the up side you can pretty much do what you like after the inspection as the cops never stop you unless you have an accident.

HappyCurmudgeon

X2, and yup, i wrote quite a few of them.

Yes, the POWER needs to be routed through a relay, but the trigger wire is optional as to power. If it's on the battery, you can turn them off/on whenever you want, even with the ignition off (bad idea IMO, leads to accidental discharge of the battery) If it's on a circuit that only has power on with ignition, or with highs only, or lows only etc, it is more customizable to your needs.

I think most people run the trigger wire directly to the TIPM fuse location and not an existing wire loom, but i cant confirm that as I didnt need to do that.

I used the factory stalk switch to energize the trigger wire to power up my aftermarket relay to work my aftermarket fogs.
My Driving light RELAY is triggered off of the hot wire for the passenger side highbeam, but i still have a switch to decide if they are on or off, but they can only be on if the high beams are on first.

If you are going to need to remove the bumper/lights for inspection, i would come up with some way to use plugs so you dont have to keep unconnecting reconnecting wires, that'd be a pain to me.

DW1964

First I have to retract part of my original post. I did refer to the JEEP as a car! In no way can these vehicles be considered mere cars. Having no other experience of driving a Wrangler and only taking this one in the dunes once I can say that I’m very impressed. Last time I had this much fun was in my younger days with an old series 3 light weight Landover. This is better, way better, a whole new game. Yes I have the bug, it was hard to give away, very hard. Now to work out how I can get one for myself?
Thanks again to everyone, I’ll put some pics up when I get everything working. And no doubt there will be many more questions as further up grades are purchased

SILVERJK

DW1964,
I am not sure if you have finally got the lights working.
I got into the same question as to where to connect the "trigger" wire (yellow with black stripe), did some research and found that it be connected to the head light. so the aux lights can only be switched on when the head light is on.
There are 3 cables going into the head light, so connect to the "WHITE-GREEN" stripe cable.

Hope this help you.

mkjeep

I was expecting something different for the title of this thread, no offense BTW

mkjeep

Hey 18, 19 That's legal, isn't it?

JK-fredd0

the cat is still dead, man.... the cat is still dead....