P500 Wiring in an led light bar and work lights.

[IDdandy]

Okay....I've searched all over the place for an answer and found a lot of good information but I'm still not confident.
I have a 20" light bar and two small work lights I want to install. One wiring harness came with the lights. I also have the Honda accessory sub harness installed with my winch and rocker switch.
My thought is, since I only have one wiring harness, is to run the led light bar and it's rocker switch through the Honda sub harness. The rear work lights I will run off the wiring harness directly to the battery since the battery is in the back of the machine.
Will the light bar be alright ran through the sub harness without an inline fuse and relay?

 

[ohanacreek]

Will the light bar be alright ran through the sub harness without an inline fuse and relay?

No, the sub harness is only power a relay to turn the Honda accessory switch panel on with the ignition.

You need a fuse for each circuit.

You can most likely connect the 20” lightbar to a good quality switch without a relay (most good ones are 20amp rated) WWW.OTRATTW.NET

For a Amp rating divide watts by 12volts to get amps. If the watt rating for a light bar is under 240 you should be fine to time it through a fused switch with a heavy enough wire. Search “AWG CALCULATOR 12V” on google to find any number of calls to help you determine what size wire you’ll need.

 

[Deleted member 3748]

You don't have to use the harness that came with the light bar.

The Honda sub-harness has 4 outputs. 2 of them provide +12V and the other 2 provide +12V and grounds. I always make my own grounds so I don't use the grounds from the harness. Follow @ohanacreek 's guide above to determine if you need to use a relay and wire size. You already hooked up your winch so I'm guessing you have a good idea about what you're doing. Just in case you need a visual aid, I drew up a basic wiring diagram using the Honda harness. I don't remember what colors are on the Honda harness so don't use my colors as fact.

I don't hook anything up to the battery directly and I also use a fuse panel (or inline fuses) between the harness and each accessory. Wiring accessories can get elaborate and you'll probably rip it all out at one point and start over using tips you find here on the forum.

 

[IDdandy]

Just in case you need a visual aid, I drew up a basic wiring diagram using the Honda harness.

You guys rock. That diagram is exactly what I needed. I was making it way harder than it needed to be. Thank you so much.

 

[DaddyDubbs]

As @ohanacreek stated, you probably won't need a relay for your light bar. However if you are pulling higher amps or just want the added peace of mind of a relay, which never hurts, here is how to wire in a simple cube relay.
Looking at the sketch from @PistonHonda the wire from the switch that is going to your light would go to terminal 86 on relay, from terminal 87 to light and light to ground. Terminal 85 goes to ground, and terminal 30 is your power source from battery through a 15A fuse as shown in the sketch below.

 

[Deleted member 3748]

Nice diagram,@DaddyDubbs !

 

[infernored1000]

if you are gonna run the light for extended times I recommend using a relay. We tried not installing a relay on my buddies and the switch became the weak link, after prolonged use it toasted the switch and by then we could smell it, we quickly pulled the main power line for it but could have been worse

 

[KYhillbilly]

You can buy some really inexpensive harnesses with relay and switch that make it a very easy and neat looking job. Many light bar makers even the cheap ones have them and the plug matches the light.

 

[Mudder]

Info on OEM harness. Designed to handle work light, back up alarm, horn, and those wires are pretty small guage. Ran a 6ga. Hot under the hood for add ons, including winch. Like others, put a 160 amp breaker at the battery pull off for the 6 guage lead. Once done, no worries.

 

[Deleted member 3748]

I have buss bars and breakers and all kinds of s*** under the hood. But posting all of that would just be confusing to anyone except those who have done the same thing.

 

[Scrapiron]

Scrapiron I sure light those led 52W round lights where did you find them.

 

[PNWGuy]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MQ014T4/?tag=sxsweb24-20

Under $40 with 4-star rating.

 

[906UP]

Here's some links to the set up I used, as other's have said... use the power from the sub harness to power your switch which triggers the relay.
https://amazon.com/gp/product/B06XZVTF3R/?tag=sxsweb24-20
https://amazon.com/gp/product/B01KVZ2MU4/?tag=sxsweb24-20
https://amazon.com/gp/product/B00MLI6OHC/?tag=sxsweb24-20https://amazon.com/gp/product/B072NY2XXR/?tag=sxsweb24-20

 

[KYhillbilly]

Or you can run your 6 gage wire for winch and accessories from battery to buss bar under hood(i used a Blue Sea) then feed you winch and lights from the buss bar. You can see the circuit breaker on the supply to the buss bar, yellow wire, and then the red power wire to buss bar. I then powered my LED lights and winch off the buss bar. I bought the wiring kits with relays that matched the lights, made it very simple.

buss bar

• KYhillbilly
• Aug 13, 2018

 

[JCart]

In addition to all the above great info. I’d recommend giving some thought to what you’re using the P5 for and make a quick list of auxiliary gear. Such as LED lights, they’re awesome as they draw (relative to incandescent) minimal power, winch, snow plough, stereo, E steering, grass Seeder etc. I added an extra battery with a mini Blue Sea auto battery isolator charging system. Including a fused bus bar and breaker switch, so that I run all my auxiliary gear off the auxiliary battery. This battery is isolated from the stock battery, so I will always have a fully charged stock starting battery. The Blue Sea module monitors both batteries and charges them independently based on need, keeps batteries separate so all my gear pulls power from Aux battery, unless I manually change a switch where I can combine batteries. For the most part has worked flawlessly. Usually I run a relay(s), for all my auxiliary gear. Relays are nothing but a switch that’s triggered by a control toggle or button of your choosing. I’m glad I set my wiring up this way, initially take a little longer to set up but once done it’s easier to add stuf. Hope that makes sense...

jrc

 

[ShanethePain]

I agree with above took their comments and diagrams made my own from this forum. They very helpful

 

[mdavenpo]

Info on OEM harness. Designed to handle work light, back up alarm, horn, and those wires are pretty small guage. Ran a 6ga. Hot under the hood for add ons, including winch. Like others, put a 160 amp breaker at the battery pull off for the 6 guage lead. Once done, no worries.

View attachment 60905 View attachment 60907

I'm getting my light set-up ready to order, can you tell me which 160 amp breaker to get, and what do you mean by "battery pull off" ?

 

[Mudder]

I'm getting my light set-up ready to order, can you tell me which 160 amp breaker to get, and what do you mean by "battery pull off" ?

For the winch and high amp stuff, Many have run a 4 or 6 ga. wire off the positive battery source with the switched breaker close to the battery (frame behind passenger), then run wire to under the hood to aftermarket terminals for power to accessories which draw more than the OEM harness could handle (15 amps??). Some members have chosen to run a similar separate same-gauge wire for the ground, but I used the frame as my ground path. The switched breaker makes it nice to cut power when hooking up connections. Heres a helpful thread. P500 - Call for winch wiring help??
Heres the switched waterproof breaker I used.
Many aftermarket choices on terminal blocks. Good luck.

https://www.amazon.com/Bussmann-CB185-150-Type-Circuit-Breaker/dp/B001PT7XBE?tag=sxsweb24-20

Amazon.com: 12 volt block terminal

 

[mdavenpo]

Thanks for the reply.
I have the locker and power steering installed, lights are next.
I'm ordering that breaker and a blue sea.
For lights in thinking the road shock brand from harbor freight.

 

[Mudder]

Thanks for the reply.
I have the locker and power steering instead, lights are next.
I'm ordering that breaker and a blue sea.
For lights in thinking the road shock brand from harbor freight.
View attachment 157035

When you buy the wire, try for full copper and not copper coated.