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2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Make your own Sport Light harness?

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My old Western plow was super-simple in the headlight wiring. I had an entirely separate on-off switch for the plow headlights. I could run both jeep and plow lights at the same time if I wanted to, though that would just blind you from the truck lights hitting the backside of the plow.

So I would simply use my factory headlight switch to turn on my marker (tail and parking) lights and only flip the plow lights on when I had the plow mounted up. The two systems were wired together, though, since the dimmer switch would control both sets of lights. Never had a single problem on my CJ7 with that setup. My K20 Chevy was even easier: It was lifted high and I modified the plow A-frame to keep the plow level. I never needed separate plow lights on that truck at all since my headlights would shine quite well even over the lifted blade.

With your automatic setup, I'm not sure what a sportlight conversion harness would do, but you would be going from two headlight sockets to four and I doubt the plow harness is made for four (separate hi and lo beams). so if that Western harness plugs into your existing factory headlight sockets, you would probably have some problems.

On the other hand, that SUVLights harness lights up one filament on the 9004 lowbeam when on low, and both when on highbeam, so that would be exactly the same as what you have now and should, theoretically still work the plow lights just the same. Question is: Will it cut out the truck lights automatically like before. . ? I doubt it would cut your 9007 high beams out.
 
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Where are you purchasing the parts needed to make a new wire harness?



Where is a good place to find the sport headlight assemblies for the conversion?
 
That Daniel Sterns company link in one the posts above said they sell components, as does SUVLights.com

If you go to ebay and search "9004 socket", you will find plenty of sellers that have the sockets and many other components in their stores, too.
 
Sorry for the late reply, but I had to go into work this weekend. Things have been real crazy lately! It looks like you guys are looking for help wiring up your plow lights rather than sport lights. Additionally, Scott has the positively switched headlights and jeepit has the negatively switched ones. The previous posted circuits should work for your sport light conversions (additionally, Scott, you will have to enlarge the holes in your headlight wells to accommodate the sport lights). Tying in the plow lights poses additional challenges.



Perhaps each of you needs to educate me on the plow lights. When you buy a plow setup, do they really make a unique harness depending on whether or not you have a negatively or positively switched system, or your truck came with regular or sport lights? How do you connect them to your existing lighting harness? Scott, you also say that they have their own blinkers as well. Is this a separate connector? Is the OEM Dodge blinker wiring adequate to drive all blinkers or are they also to be controlled with a relay? Then, once the season is over, do you want to be able to disconnect the whole harness again?



“I think wiring my relays to work with both switched-positive AND switched-negative as the trigger wires, as shown on the Sterns website, would be the smart decision. ”
Scott, can you refer me to this page as I am not quite following you? Why do you want to have both?



Can we treat each of these systems (“sport light harness” and “plow harness”) separately? The only drawback here is that you couldn’t select between headlights or plow lights but would have to switch them both independently and could have a condition where both sets are on. Also, when running the plow lights, you would have to remember to turn on your marker (tail and parking) from the headlight assembly. However, if you still want the feature of being able to select either the headlights or plow lights (not both), we’ll have to incorporate them together. I just need the details.



The sport headlights utilize one of each lamp: a 9004 and a 9007. Typically they are wired so that in the low-beam mode, only the low-beam element of the 9007 (55W) is used rather than the low-beam element of the 9004 (45W). In the high-beam mode, both high-beam elements are used (65W) from each of the 9004 and 9007. I think that you’ll find the low-beam light acceptable on the sport lights because they are 10W more powerful and the headlight assembly has better reflectors as well.
 
David, from my installation of the current relay harness, and perhaps because of the Boss plow harness (which is plug-n-play), I ran across a wire to each truck headlight that actually reversed its polarity when switching between high and low beams, and I'm thinking it was the reason the highbeams improved and the lows did not. It just seems wrong.

Each headlight should have + to each filament and a common ground. Three wires to each plug and they should not change polarity. On or Off. Positive or negative. Period. At least that is my opinion. So I fall into that "Not sure if I have positive or negative switched" category Daniel Sterns speaks of in the last sentence of the quote below. The other possibility (probability) is I just have a screwed-up and incompatible set of harnesses and switches.

Like I said, Boss stopped issuing harnesses like mine and began including harnesses with relays for these Dodges shortly after I bought my plow. The jerks KNOW they were having and/or causing problems with the original no-relay harnesses but would NOT upgrade mine despite all the problems I was having. They want some outrageous amount of money for a new, updated harness ($300+ IIRC). Given that type of "up yours" customer service on such an expensive purchase and dangerous problem, I won't give those jerks another dime for anything!

New, separate harnesses that are actually compatible and use relays for all the headlights are what's needed.

The Boss plow headlight assemblies do have their own combination parking lights/turn signals, too. They and the truck park lights and turn signals always work at the same time when the plow is mounted, unlike the headlights. they have never been a problem, though I would also like to wire all of my parking and roof lights through a relay to alleviate the load on my headlight switch. LED's would do the same thing, but cost a lot more.

Here is where Sterns addresses the best way to wire a vehicle which either does or may have switched negative leads:

from Daniel Sterns:

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR GROUND-SWITCHED SYSTEMS

Many Japanese vehicles, as well as a few others, use a "ground-switched" headlamp circuit. In these circuits, the headlamp and beam selector switch break or complete the ground side of the headlamp circuit, rather than the feed side. On these systems, it's imperative to use both negative and positive existing headlamp wires to trigger the relays. It is tempting to run the existing headlamp feed wire to relay terminal 86 (trigger feed) and simply find a convenient ground for relay terminal 85 (trigger ground). However, this will not work with ground-switched systems. Run the vehicle's existing feed wire to terminal 86, and run the vehicle's existing ground wire to terminal85.

Now, what are we going to do now that we've used-up our one and only ground wire on the 85 terminal of the low beam relay, but we still have to install the high beam relay? Go to the other side of the car and you have another ground wire! Remember, the relay trigger circuits can be as long as you like, because they take insignificant power. So, you can extend the vehicle's existing headlamp wires to your relay mounting location. It is fine to use this method regardless of whether you have a ground-switched system or not, so go ahead and use it if you're not sure.


This is a "you cannot go wrong" method of wiring the relays, no matter which polarity is switched. Not a bad idea. All bases are covered.

The Boss plow harness:

It installs by unplugging the sockets from both (single bulb/standard) truck headlights and plugging them into the Boss harness. It then has its own headlight sockets that plug onto the truck headlights.

The truck's factory headlight switch works the same as before, turning both the parking lights and the headlights on or off.

The truck's dimmer switch aslo functions as before and controls the hi/lo beams of whichever set of headlights you have selected with the toggle switch.

TOGGLE SWITCH: With the Boss harness installed, there is now a toggle switch with 6 wires from that Boss harness (which is plugged into the factory harness at the headlights) that also mounts in the cab. It is two position (double-pole/double-throw) and selects entirely between truck headlights OR plow headlights. You cannot have both on at once, nor do you need both at once.

If you remove the quick-disconnect plow, the plow headlights go with it. If you forget to move the toggle switch back to "truck headlights" position, you simply will not have any headlights.

So the Boss harness is not stand-alone. It incorporates itself into the Dodge truck harness at the headlight sockets and uses the same, already-overloaded, Dodge headlight switch and dimmer switch. It simply adds another toggle switch, several connectors, and many, many extra feet of wire. No relays at all.

It simply intercepts the juice from the trucks's headlight/dimmer switches and wiring right at the headlights themselves. The harness then sends that juice to a toggle switch in the cab which, in turn, diverts it either right back to the truck headlights or over to the plow headlights.

You can see where all that extra wire and connections will put an even greater burden upon the factory's already-weak design. The toggle switch gets very hot from carrying all of the juice for whichever set of headlights it is diverting the power to, just like the factory headlight switch does.

The design is not totally bad, it just needs relays to alleviate the need to carry all of the headlight juice through all those connectors, wiring, and that toggle switch.

What I have in mind:

If you could intercept the 2 (high and low beam) wires that come out of the truck's dimmer switch and go to the headlights and divert them through that same double-pole/double-throw toggle switch (which would turn the two wires into four wires to enable selection of either set of headlights), then down to four RELAYS (2 for the plow lights and 2 for the truck lights), you could simplify the entire harness AND completely take the load off all the wiring, switches, and connectors. The toggle would still let you select which set of headlights get the juice.

Wire those trigger wires, and the ground wires, to the relays like Daniel Sterns says. Use the relays' output leads to power the bulb filaments the way you said. Problems solved.

Note: This is if ONE relay can power all four filaments of the Sportlights on Highbeam, and if will one relay can power both filaments for lowbeam. If not, then the Sportlights would simply need two additional relays. The daniel sterns website seems to indicate that 2 relays are more than enough to power a set of Sportlights. SUVLights uses four.


After winter is over, I find I can increase my truck headlight brightness significantly by completely unplugging the Boss harness at the headlight sockets and plugging the truck's headlight sockets back into the headlights. But, though improved noticeably, they still suck.
 
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Scott,

I am pretty swamped for the next week or so. I will give this some thought. I don't have a wiring diagram for your trucks headlights, so I am thinking a relay might be good for both the high- and low-beam circuits. As far as how many relays you want to use, I think that the standard Bosch are rated around 40-amps (I would probably only want to run half that through each). What I am thinking is two separate circuits. One plugs into the left harness and controls the headlights. The other plugs into the right side harness and controls the plow lights. We can also add a selector switch as you suggest. Gotta run for now.
 
Posting again...

I’m not sure what happened. I posted this yesterday after the Super Bowl and it appears to have been removed. I’ll try again.



Here is my first shot at your wiring dilemma Scott. I have the Sport lights plugging into your existing Dodge wiring on the passenger side. The plow lights will plug into the existing Dodge wiring on the driver’s side. I’ve minimized the relay count, but as a result, if one goes down, you’ll lose both lights on that circuit. The high-beams are controlled by a relay as well as the low-beams for both the sport headlights and the plow lights. This will allow you to run large gauge wire (high current) directly from the batteries to the corresponding lights while running minimal current through your switches (I’ve mounted extra light relays on the fronts of the battery trays on my truck). Having the relays for each also allows the use of a selector switch. Only the relays that are grounded through the selector switch are activated while the others remain non-functional (off position). I didn’t have the details for your plow lights so I drew them quite generically. Also, I do not know how you are connecting your turn-signals so I will leave that up to you. Definitely check my wiring for your system as I drew it up with beers during the Super Bowl. ;)



Let me know what you think and we can tweak it if you wish. Hopefully this post will stay.
 
Talk about multi-tasking!

Wow, David!



You came up with that professional schematic while watching the Super Bowl and preparing for work this week? Amazing!



I absolutely LOVE the simple elegance of using the relays' switched grounds as the selectors between truck and plow lights! MUCH better than my idea or the way Boss Plows did it. One single ground wire to the switch; and two ground wires out. It's completely stand-alone; no cutting into any factory wiring. No chance at all of a short circuit, no significant current load on the switch, and only half the number of wires. Fan-freaking-tastic!



I have never really investigated how the Boss harness taps into the turn signal/parking light circuits of the truck since those lights have never been a problem. The plow headlights are dual-element halogen sealed beams (one hi/lo combination bulb assembly on each side). The small bug-eye headlight housings also house the plow's parking lights/turn signals as shown in this photo.



It would be great to put the Boss parking lights/turn signals on a relay system, too. Maybe even the truck's parking/roof/turns, as well, since they put so much load on my weak and toasty headlight switch.



Doing these relay headlight harnesses will require disconnecting and disabling the modular Boss plug(s) that go to my truck harness. I think the park/turn lights have their own interface plug, separate from the headlight interface, but I cannot remember for sure. Either way, I will be eliminating all of the Boss lighting harness (good riddance!) except for the leads to the light housings themselves, so rewiring the turn/park lights will be necessary to some extent anyway.



I printed off the schematic in your post, but the small nomenclature is still fuzzy, so I will pm you my email addy if you think that might result in a sharper/larger image to print.



I want to point out to others reading this that the schematic David came up with here will probably work just as well for Sportlight conversion folks without plow lights by just eliminating the selector switch and the plow harness and relays and taking the two switched-negative relay grounds directly to ground instead of the switch.



I also believe it would be a simple matter to add two more relays and fuses to the truck harness if you really prefer a separate relay for each side and set of bulbs. David would be able to verify or correct that. Such a harness would be the equivalent of what SUVLights.com sells for $133 plus $20 shipping.



Thank you very much, David! :D
 
You came up with that professional schematic while watching the Super Bowl and preparing for work this week? Amazing!



Remember, beer was involved. :-laf



I want to point out to others reading this that the schematic David came up with here will probably work just as well for Sportlight conversion folks without plow lights by just eliminating the selector switch and the plow harness and relays and taking the two switched-negative relay grounds directly to ground instead of the switch.



Also, remember, this schematic is for Scott's "positively switched" system. You'll have to reverse the wiring on the coils for the "negatively switched" system. Also, if you have factory fog lights, there is an issue of the fog light relay that would cause problems with this circuit--basically, this relay needs to sense the state of the headlights thru the filament (this sense circuit turns off the fog lights when the high-beams are on, but if ignored, can latch up your headlights). Either modify the schematic or replace the fog light relay with a jumper.



I also believe it would be a simple matter to add two more relays and fuses to the truck harness if you really prefer a separate relay for each side and set of bulbs.



Most definitely!
 
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