wiring fog lights

[hummer05]

if i am running a set of piaa fogs, can you tell me if the white wire or the black is the positive wire, the picture that came with it does not say. Also what is the best fuse for me to tap into under the hood so that they are not on when i start the hummer, i heard that was bad for the lights and the truck.

[hummer05]

if i am running a set of piaa fogs, can you tell me if the white wire or the black is the positive wire, the picture that came with it does not say. Also what is the best fuse for me to tap into under the hood so that they are not on when i start the hummer, i heard that was bad for the lights and the truck.

[VTSTOMPER]

i personally would not tap a fuse...just run off the battey and get a inline fuse from a place like autozone. Or you can tap into the wire that leads to the low beam. (that is what i would do, but I would also put a switch in the cab)

Also pick up a current testing probe! It will save you tons of guessing and time.

[hummer05]

so if i have an on/off switch on the truck
after i run the hot and ground, the extra wire that allows when the light is on, should i just run that to the positive on the battery?

[Kevin B]

05, I would recomend using a relay. That way you can pull power straight from the battery. Hook the control wire through a switch and tap that power off a fuse that is only "hot" while the key is on (prevents melt down and dead battery). Just my 02.

[timgco]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by N2ITNSD:
05, I would recomend using a relay. That way you can pull power straight from the battery. Hook the control wire through a switch and tap that power off a fuse that is only "hot" while the key is on (prevents melt down and dead battery). Just my 02. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I agree, that's the way I did mine.

[hummer05]

ok
let me ask you this
i plugged the switch wire into the the area that runs the parking lamps, if i plug in with car off the fog lights get power but when i turn the key on so the parking headlights have power i lose power to the new fogs that are plugged in, does that make any sense
thanks

[PARAGON]

05, you might need to be a little more specific about your setup. I have some PIAA offroads and they came with their own relay which included a fuse inside. I would suspect yours has the same thing. You should have a black box that has a rounded off side to it with a mounting tab on the other side. The top will come off which reveals a relay and a fuse. If you have this, then the main power needs to feed from the battery.

You can use a fuse tap for the POS for the switch side and I think PhilD has a great write-up for this (http://www.h2southtexas.com/tech/12v.html)

Stomper and N2IT are right for normal situations but if your PIAA setup is new and anything like the ones I have, it is quite simple to install.

Give a few more details and I am sure we can help you out.

[hummer05]

i have the basic piaa set up
two plugs go into the fog lights then that wire goes into a relay, then the wire goes to the pos and neg of the batter directly, then the wire goes to a on/off switch, but right before you get there there is another wire breaking off called the switch wire that i assume is suggested to plug into the driving lights/parking lights ectt area so that they will not be on unless the driving lights or parking lights are on (at night to avoid battery drain)
now i went out there and plugged it into the area that powers the parking lamps when i did that with the key off i got juice to the new fogs and they worked
as soon as i turn the key on l lose power to the fogs completely, it is like the opposite of what should be happening.

[hummer05]

i saw that diagram and will go to radio shack and see if they carry that add a circuit and try plugging into that fuse area and see if that solves the problem,
any other thoughts?
I will be back in 20 minutes and let you know if that solved the problem

[PARAGON]

Now that you say all of that, I remember having some kind of problem with my PIAAs when I was wiring them up. It's not going to help you any because I can't remember for crap what it was, but it did have to do with switching. My off-roads are wired to the stock switch that came with the hummer lights that I had on my brush guard but when wiring it up I was doing some testing with the PIAA switch and couldn't get it to work.

I know I had to break out my voltmeter to figure what the problem was but I just can't remember what it was. What does the dumbrections say that the two wires headed to the switch should go to? I don't guess there is a way that the relay is ground activated.

Let me know if you figure anything out once you make it back and I'll go look at mine and see if I still have the PIAA switches and maybe help you figure it out.

[hummer05]

well i got them working but not sure why, after wiring it to the other fuse that you showed my in the link it seems to work. I do not know why they are working there but when pluged into the headlamps/or parking lamps they go on with car off and off with car on. Well this turned into a all day event. I still feel like when i go out one of these next nights they are not going to work, we will see. Any suggestions what size fuse should be in the extra SEO ACCY
area that i wired this to.
What lights did you end up keeping on yours?

[PARAGON]

Good deal, strange, but good that they are working now. The switch draws very little amperage so you could get away with a 5amp or 10amp there. I wouldn't get too big because if there was a short in the switch wire the wire could still possible cause a fire before it blew the fuse (because of the small size of the wire).

I have 4 PIAA 520 SMRs on the Warn Light bar. I also have replaced my DRLs with Cibie Tangos (which are fogs).

[hummer05]

looks good, So you say that you replaced the daytime running lights, did the new ones fit in the hole or did you need to adapt it to have them fit properly. I had heard that the only lights that fit in our size was the lincoln navigators driving lights, but i did not know if they added much in brightness.
thanks for all you input

[PARAGON]

I had to heavily modify the plastic where the stock DRLs mount. The Tangos fit in the hole but you have to cut the back out of the hole using a dremel or something. The DRLs are for nothing but daytime visibility (visibility of you, not for you). Anything that is a fog would be an improvement and I know a couple have used the navigator lights and are happy with them.

Now, the cleanest and best route to go would be to by the SMA steel valance and mount some PIAA fogs or some other fogs in there. The valance is here: http://www.h2source.com/201-103-4.htm

You could also do the valance and put some driving lights there since you have fogs already.

Here is a pic of the metal valance:

[VTSTOMPER]

Getting back to what I said earlier. Yes! I should have mentioned a relay. My Hella kit came with one, and it is a good idea to use it.