Hooking two light bars to one switch?

Can you hook 2 light bars to one switch or will it blow the fuse and relay ?

 

You can hook as many light bars into one switch as you'd like because, if you're wiring is done properly, the power for the accessory should NEVER go through the switch. Your relay should control the power for the accessory, the switch should only be controlling the power for the relay. Most off the shelf relays are rated to either 30 or 40 amps, as long as the 2 lights don't exceed the rating for the relay, you can use one relay for both lights and one switch for the relay. If you have more pull, then use 2 relays and have your single switch control them both at the same time.

 

wired parallel... yes.
wired in a series... probably not.

 

wut

 

It depends on the amps that each bar is pulling. As long as it's under what a switch is rated for, yes you can. Although most folks feel better keeping the heavy amp draw through a relay underhood vs through the switch in the cab. The relay is 'safer' but the switch, assuming you use the right rating, isn't unsafe. But you will know if you overload the wiring at some point and let all the magic smoke loose inside the cab.

In any case a fuse won't blow unless you overload it. If you're pulling 15 amps through 20 amp wiring and fusing, no issue. Swap those numbers around and blown fuse city.

 

I have a 30 inch light bar and 2x rigid duallies on one switch with a single relay. totally fine.

 

Listen to this guy.

 

so I just stumbled onto this while doing some research... and it's pretty old so maybe I will get a response, maybe not. But my question is similar, and I just want to make sure I'm on the right track. I have 2 massive light pods that are 110W combined, and a 420W light bar that I want to wire to the same switch.. Both the pods, and the light bar have their own fuses and relays as shown. If I wire it as drawn, will this be safe?

 

Assuming incandecent bulbs, if LED what does the box say amperage requirement is?

Watts divided by volts will give you the amps and that is close enough, 55 / 12 = 4.5 amps per light. 420 / 12 = 35 amps. You can use 14 as your voltage an it will reduce the amps per 55w light to 3.9 amps but you get the jist of it. You can size you wiring, relay and fuses from this.

 

Yeah, I think my fuses are fine because they will be specifically designated for each individual light like drawn- think one is a 20amp and one is a 40amp fuse respectively. I think what I’m asking is if it’s okay to combine the 2 trigger wires off of the 2 relays and wire them to the 1 switch for control.

 

this is fine to do. Depending on the relay, use pin 86 on both if you are using a positive signal to trigger the relay.

 

@CaliRaisedLed Hoping you may be able to help me determine which wires are the trigger wires since I am using your wiring harness and OEM style switches- On the wiring harness (coming from the relay going to switch), there is a blue, black, and white. On the actual switch, there is a green, black, and 2 reds (this info is just here for reference since I already know how to connect the wiring harness to the switch per the instructional videos on your website). Looking at my 2 different wiring harnesses, which color wires should I splice together to accomplish this? Is the blue the trigger wire?

 

FYI the ground for your lights don't run through the relay they just run straight to ground. Relays have 4 prongs. With a multimeter 1 set of prongs( facing opposite) should read OL on resistance this is the high power side, 1 side will go to the battery and 1 side will send power to your lights. The other set of prongs is the coil. The resistance should be around 150 ohms ish. 1 side will go to ground and the other side will be the 12v signal from your switch.