Tower Light Help

Getting ready to wire up my tower lights and was wondering if this would fly?
Any help would be appreciated.


Sorry for the hand drawing had to throw it together fast.

No one hase any input on this?

Holy crap Larry... Where are the relays?

I have no idea what you are trying to do with the distribution center and what is that above the battery? Looks like you have the negatives tied back to a positive distribution block? Looks like you do not have a ground in the system in this case as well? I think I need more info to make a real comment. I would suppose you are fine on wire diameter. Looks like you are trying to draw around 20 amps of current and add some safety factor to it as far as wire size goes. You may actually have bigger wires than needed. Each light is around 5 amps each. I have 6 gauge wiring on my 50 amp service on the 220v service in my house and the electrician says it can be used for 70 amps. You also may want to look into wiring that is rated for outside so it does not oxidize the wiring and cause hot spots. also, use gromets and things to keep from having metal cut your wiring. Big trouble later, especially with the boat and tower bouncing around.

I did not add them in the image above simply becasue i wasnt thinking strait. Will this work ok after the switch and running both sets of lights? I will redraw again.

How many amps is the relay rated for?

Larry, I'm most likely going out with Scotty tomorrow... I can bring you a handful of 30A relays if you need - I can also bring all sorts of connectors and even my **real** crimpers if you don't have a set.

Email me if you need me to bring over any of my stuff...

Oh yea, and Larry I would recommend at least 2 relays (30A) for that setup, preferably 4 though.

Well here is the latest drawing... Ya i think i will go with the 2 relays just not sure what to fuse everything at.
Tom not sure if I can go tomorrow I have a lot of things to do to catch up before our houseboat trip. If I can not make it I would like to at least hook up with you for the relays. I don’t have any yet and I don’t expect to see any with my lights that will be in next week.
Here is what I have so far any help with the fuses is appreciated.

Someone have some Kings crimpers at home?

Larry - I'm guessing dual 30A automotive fuses will do the trick. The problem is getting an 8ga inline fuseholder for them.

My guess is you may need to get yourself a fuseholder designed for car audio that will hold a single 50 or 60 amp fuse and accept an 8ga wire. I think even Wal-Mart carries these now.

I will bring the relays with me tomorrow.

Looking better. Your second relay is confusing when you draw the inputs different each time but I get what you are doing. Is that a switch panel in the upper right with LED feedback? Do you have a resistor in your LED circuit as well if it is the case?

10-4 bud.. What ga should i run to toggle the relays with from the switch? Is 16 ok?

Larry - to Rod's question - how is the LED wired in? Are you using a factory switch where it is built in?

16ga should be fine for signal power to the relays. You could probably get away with even less - all it does is provide a positive signal to the relay.

Rob yes and yes It appears to have a resisitor in it i ran a continuity test on it last night and it ohmed out at 20. Sorry on the relay I guess I could have numberd them.
LOL

The switch is the switch that I have is the CARLINGSWITCH Same as the ones for my ballased but with a diff face on it for Tower lights.

To summerize the LED.... The factory rocker switch will run to the relays, turning on the lights. The LED will tap off the factory rockers 12v to the relay.

Why the LED? Seems like you can just look up and see if the light is on ) Or is the LED in the Rocker switch? Looks like you have it going on though. Post some pict when you get it done.

Oh..20 ohms seems low. We used to run 500 or 1k ohm resistors in our circuits in school to our LED's. If that is what is there and it is store bought, it should be fine.

Ok, while we are on this subject, maybe someone can help me out as well. Don't mean to hijack the thread. I had a Boss light system on my tower and now have a Lightning Accessories system on the tower. On the tower, I have 2 positives (front and back) and 1 ground. On the light bar, I have a positive and ground for each light.

All the switches, relays, wires, etc. are already set up. I just need to figure out how to light the tower wires to the lights. Do I need to daisy chain the fronts on 1 wire, the backs on 1 wire, and then daisy chain all 7 grounds together? Just trying to figure it out. I'll post a pic if I need to.

Could have just been continuity dropping accross the bulb itself not sure... thought that it was an LED at first. oooh well her is a pic of the switch it is going to be sweet once it is done.
Thaks for all the help guy's.

Larry, can you get those switches and have words customized on them? I have 5 of these switches for my ballast system and would love to get the proper descriptions on the switches.

Hey Brent it all depends on how big the ground wire is and what wattage your lights are. In my case I will most likely run 1 ground wire at 8ga for 4 lights.

Not sure about Tige but i just went to the parts department at my local boat shop and baught this switch the way u see it. It was nice to have one that actully calls out Tower lights. They actually sold me a ballased switch and the face seperatly so you may just be able to get the face like this one.
Good luck.

7 55 watt lights. I am pretty sure it will work because it is a very similar set up to what I already had. Just trying to figure out the proper wiring set up on the light bar to make it a clean install. I have that cloth flex tubing to hide all the wires. Everything from tower down is already set up.

Brent,

Sounds like your BOSS was like mine is. I can switch the light bars front and back seperately. How many lights were on the BOSS? The lights are about 5 amps apiece. If you are only adding one or two lights you are probabely good.

The Grounds need to be tied together and the positives can be set up how you want if you have two switches for the top. If you have one switch then wire them all together. That will put them all in parallel. Just make sure everything can handle 35 amps of current.

I had the 4 ovals on the Boss and now have the 7 lights with the new set up. 4 back and 3 front. So should daisy chain the lights together, and then splice them in the middle to attach to the tower wire? That way I would have 3 wires in tubing coming off the tower and then splicing into the 3 sets of wires in tubing on the lights. Does that sound right? Just want to figure out if it matters where I splice into the daisy chain.