Some SERIOUS relay magic for HF Roadshock lights

[Gadgets4grls]

Thought I post my relay magic project that I'm just finish up on in case it could help other members.

Spouse gifted me with a set of Harbor Freight 4" Roadshock Edge lights and a-pillar mounts and so this is how I ended up wiring.

We live in "STUPID deer" country, as if there is any other kind of deer, and while I know these lights are not street legal we travel low traffic roads after dark and I wanted to be able to use these to illuminate the sides of the road but not end up blinding other drivers and not have to do a switch juggle for on coming traffic.

As such here were my needs:
High/Low setting for the RoadShock's (only one can be powered at any time so SPDT relay needed).
Driver/Passenger individual power control
High/Low to match Bronco's light settings or High/Off (road use on with high beam but off with low) and keep auto high beam function

Issues if you have cornering fog enabled the factory fogs still operate even when high beams are on so it will either switch to low or off on the turning side.

I finally have this working. I need to clean everything up but thought I'd share the wiring diagram and the little piece that made this compact enough to be an option because in this case I needed 8 relays to accomplish this magic 4 per side.

2 of the OONO F-1002 12v 4SPDT relay module.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BNJMNXT?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

These are only rated at 10amp but that is fine since I'm using one for each of the lights and the 4" are rated for 95W on high. If you plan on using them be sure that you don't exceed the 10amp rating. The 10amp limit matches the limit on Aux switches 5/6 so this is a good match.
In addition to the roadshock and aux switch wiring you'll need a wire from the positive side of each fog lights to trigger the relays. Then power and ground to run the OONO themselves. I used an add-a-ciruit on the 360 camera circuit. The OONO only draw 130ma each so this shouldn't an issue with piggy backing on that circuit.

Now I have this setup
Factory Fog lights need to be switch on for this to work correctly(no bambi mode as the roadshocks are replacing this option) otherwise the roadshocks will just stay on high

Aux 6 power passenger side
Aux 5 power driver side
Aux 4 when off-High/Off, when on-High/Low

The attached diagram is the relay (OONO) for each side.
Have fun and hope this helps.

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[ScLeCo]

Good luck with those cheap Amazon relays.
https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/thre...n-bad-fire-extinguisher-saves-the-day.101905/

 

[SierraBronco]

Good luck with those cheap Amazon relays.
https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/thre...n-bad-fire-extinguisher-saves-the-day.101905/

These assholes buying fuses from amazon. Don’t they know that shit is cheap and inconsistent? Stupid.

 

[Gadgets4grls]

These assholes buying fuses from amazon. Don’t they know that shit is cheap and inconsistent? Stupid.

I wont argue that a lot of stuff on Amazon I wouldn't trust but the other side of that is you need to educate yourself on what you're doing.
One of your best friends whenever you do electrical work is a "voltage drop calculator" to properly size your wiring. Something people forgets is that "wire" is in fact a resistor and resistor generate heat. More resistance equals more heat and you need to make sure that you keep the wire within it's insulator heat rating.

Anyone that has ever looked at the aux switch pigtail will shake your head. Those TINY wires are supposed to handle 10~30amp? Maybe to the end of that pigtail but definitely no further than that. While a 22awg wire might carry 10amps for 6" it definitely wont do so over 15' you'll turn that tiny wire red hot without ever blowing the fuse.

A quick and "DIRTY" rule of thumb is you don't want more than .5v drop at the end of your wire run while under load. If you have more drop than that you need to use a larger gauge wire or risk what you saw in that post.

While it might have been the fuse it could also just as well have just been undersizing the wire. 20' of 8ga wire at 40amps is losing over a full voltage and generating 40watt of heat in the wire itself. Which might have been fine if you were running it intermittently but way to much for running it for an extended period of time as in inflating all four tires at once.

 

[SierraBronco]

I wont argue that a lot of stuff on Amazon I wouldn't trust but the other side of that is you need to educate yourself on what you're doing.
One of your best friends whenever you do electrical work is a "voltage drop calculator" to properly size your wiring. Something people forgets is that "wire" is in fact a resistor and resistor generate heat. More resistance equals more heat and you need to make sure that you keep the wire within it's insulator heat rating.

Anyone that has ever looked at the aux switch pigtail will shake your head. Those TINY wires are supposed to handle 10~30amp? Maybe to the end of that pigtail but definitely no further than that. While a 22awg wire might carry 10amps for 6" it definitely wont do so over 15' you'll turn that tiny wire red hot without ever blowing the fuse.

A quick and "DIRTY" rule of thumb is you don't want more than .5v drop at the end of your wire run while under load. If you have more drop than that you need to use a larger gauge wire or risk what you saw in that post.

While it might have been the fuse it could also just as well have just been undersizing the wire. 20' of 8ga wire at 40amps is losing over a full voltage and generating 40watt of heat in the wire itself. Which might have been fine if you were running it intermittently but way to much for running it for an extended period of time as in inflating all four tires at once.

I was making a joke at myself for that one just to be clear, acting like now that I know about the fuse problem I’m superior to anyone that didn’t know, as if didn’t just literally learn that yesterday and I had been born with the knowledge that amazon fuses were mostly not a viable option. A common theme on the internet

Absolutely agreed on your wiring suggestions. That’s why we ran 4G for the compressor supply. I brought up that 25’ dual 10G harness as an example of a bad idea. And while I was wrong that the factory ARB harness is 8G, like @Snacktime I still maintain that it’s a risky proposition to run 31’ of 10G through a 40amp fuse on a device that seems to be rated at 58 amps. Others online are claiming it draws much more. I can’t verify either claim, so I’ll go heavier than needed on my wiring rather than ride the line. And now I’ll never use the set screw connections again.

Oh-I don’t air up all four at once. I think those 4hose things are a gimmick. About 20-30 minutes from the trailhead I kick the compressor on and fill up our air tanks for 5.6 gallons of stored compressed air, then let the compressor cool down. We fill up one tire at a time. Was really trying to be diligent on safety and being overbuilt on our mods.

Your relay solution is great!

 

[Snacktime]

Been buying cheap Amazon relays for years, it's all cheap crap. I just buy the largest wire harness, cheap crimp connectors. Harbor freight shrink tube goes on top. Harbor freight zip ties!

I only buy 3M electrical tape, I find it to be the most sanitary when used as a bandaid.

 

[SierraBronco]

Been buying cheap Amazon relays for years, it's all cheap crap. I just buy the largest wire harness, cheap crimp connectors. Harbor freight shrink tube goes on top. Harbor freight zip ties!

I only buy 3M electrical tape, I find it to be the most sanitary when used as a bandaid.

3M electrical tape is the only option.

 

[Gadgets4grls]

I was making a joke at myself for that one just to be clear, acting like now that I know about the fuse problem I’m superior to anyone that didn’t know, as if didn’t just literally learn that yesterday and I had been born with the knowledge that amazon fuses were mostly not a viable option. A common theme on the internet

Absolutely agreed on your wiring suggestions. That’s why we ran 4G for the compressor supply. I brought up that 25’ dual 10G harness as an example of a bad idea. And while I was wrong that the factory ARB harness is 8G, like @Snacktime I still maintain that it’s a risky proposition to run 31’ of 10G through a 40amp fuse on a device that seems to be rated at 58 amps. Others online are claiming it draws much more. I can’t verify either claim, so I’ll go heavier than needed on my wiring rather than ride the line. And now I’ll never use the set screw connections again.

Oh-I don’t air up all four at once. I think those 4hose things are a gimmick. About 20-30 minutes from the trailhead I kick the compressor on and fill up our air tanks for 5.6 gallons of stored compressed air, then let the compressor cool down. We fill up one tire at a time. Was really trying to be diligent on safety and being overbuilt on our mods.

Your relay solution is great!

Can't say you're wrong about fuses off of Amazon though. Head over to youtube and lookup Louis Rossmann's video on Amazon fuses. That is an eye opener for sure. 2amp fuses not blowing until over 10 is just scary.

The other one that I've come across is sellers passing off aluminum wire as copper and the worst one I found was the stuff that looked like copper until you actually scratched the wire then it turned silver. That was an immediate return but if you didn't know to look for it that could've turned out bad. I was using heavy gauge wire for my van conversion inverter hookup and I got this stuff and it was just way too light as in half the weight of other cable I had. Started digging into it. Want to talk about something that could turn out bad. My inverter setup can draw over 300amps and aluminum is only rated for 60% of the same gauge copper.

So I'm curious where did you find room for a 5 gallon tank to go with your compressor. Portable or fixed mounted? I have the dual chamber ARB mounted in my Van conversion and a STEALTH 10 gallon portable air tank but was considering a fixed mounted tank for my Bronco at some point but haven't investigated a good mounting point for it yet.

Nice looking setup you have there but I have to honestly say I don't think I could even climb up into that thing without a ladder. I have enough trouble getting in mine with running boards and only 33s but I also have messed up knees as well but it does look like fun.

Thanks for the comment on the relay magic. I thought about attempting to buy the XBB modules but you know $40 for the two Oono is a lot easier to scrape up compared to $400 and I wasn't even sure those would work the way I wanted. So decided to do the old school logic with relays.
I will say the cornering fogs kind of threw me for a loop I didn't expect them to still turn on with high beams and I had it all wired up and couldn't figure out why it wasn't working right until I realized those were still turning on and messing it up.

 

[SierraBronco]

Can't say you're wrong about fuses off of Amazon though. Head over to youtube and lookup Louis Rossmann's video on Amazon fuses. That is an eye opener for sure. 2amp fuses not blowing until over 10 is just scary.

The other one that I've come across is sellers passing off aluminum wire as copper and the worst one I found was the stuff that looked like copper until you actually scratched the wire then it turned silver. That was an immediate return but if you didn't know to look for it that could've turned out bad. I was using heavy gauge wire for my van conversion inverter hookup and I got this stuff and it was just way too light as in half the weight of other cable I had. Started digging into it. Want to talk about something that could turn out bad. My inverter setup can draw over 300amps and aluminum is only rated for 60% of the same gauge copper.

So I'm curious where did you find room for a 5 gallon tank to go with your compressor. Portable or fixed mounted? I have the dual chamber ARB mounted in my Van conversion and a STEALTH 10 gallon portable air tank but was considering a fixed mounted tank for my Bronco at some point but haven't investigated a good mounting point for it yet.

Nice looking setup you have there but I have to honestly say I don't think I could even climb up into that thing without a ladder. I have enough trouble getting in mine with running boards and only 33s but I also have messed up knees as well but it does look like fun.

The video you referenced is the exact one I learned from. I couldn’t believe it. Funny-I’m literally watching his video on crimping connections right now. Also blown away. I thought bad crimps were due to the user, not the connector itself. When I’ve done my pull tests and the wire came out I always chalked it up to my being careless or whatever. My mind is blown.

For the tanks we did two 2.8 gallon tanks. Originally wanted them on the frame but the sliders were in the way. But they fit between the seats and toolbox and the side of the toolbox so good to go!

 

[SierraBronco]

Yeah-pretty hard to find pure copper lines. Gotta root through 80 options of CCA before finding anything good, and then they won’t have the amount you need.

 

[Gadgets4grls]

Yeah-pretty hard to find pure copper lines. Gotta root through 80 options of CCA before finding anything good, and then they won’t have the amount you need.

I've actually had really good luck with the Harbor Freight Hydraulic Wire Crimper. I used it for my inverter cable crimping.
As for crimp terminals you can get good one from McMaster Carr search for High-Temp ring terminals. Not the cheapest but they are worth it when doing anything high current draw. Also had good luck with Selterm on Amazon. Don't bother with a hammer crimper hydraulic is the only way to go with those.
Strange as it sound the best place I've found for heavy gauge cable is local automotive performance audio stores. They normally only carry up to about 1/0 but it actual real OFC tinned copper. It's more than is really need for most Bronco mods but it was my goto when I was building up my inverter in my van. I have 6 100AH lithium batteries feeding my inverter so you can imaging the cabling involve in that setup.

 

[Fordified1]

Now THAT is how you turn something as mundane as airing up a tire into something worth watching. LOL.

carry on.

 

[SierraBronco]

Now THAT is how you turn something as mundane as airing up a tire into something worth watching. LOL.

carry on.

I spot, the one holding the hose drives, and the other has locker duties. And of course-they air up

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