wiring light bar

[gamekeeperjames]

hi there, i have just purchases this light bar and lights. i was just wondering how i wire it up, i.e how do i get the wires inside of the disco?
http://www.paddockspares.com/pp/NEW_PRODUCTS/Discovery_Light_Bar/Discovery_1_Light_Bar_-_with_4_Wipac_rectangular_lights.html
cheers james

[Disco Matt]

I have the same bar and lights, so can give a few pointers:

The spots with mine came with short lengths of cable. Trying to rewire with 27a cable didn't work, so I built a power bus (27a live and earth cables zip-tied to the back of the bar) and spliced the wires from the spots into it. All joints were soldered (I won't use scotchlocks on high current jobs) and wrapped in tape, I've not had any problems with it. It's fiddly and will take a couple of hours with wire strippers, soldering iron, zip ties and heat shrink sleeving (I would use this if doing mine again - much more robust than tape) but if you take your time it should work perfectly.

Mine are earthed to one of the bolts on the left hand end of the bar, and the live feed comes into the car through a small hole in the roof. Use a rubber grommit, and make sure it's a good tight fit. Mine doesn't seem to leak and it's been there for some months now. One of those paint pen things is a neat way of touching up the bare metal edges of the hole so rust can't get in.

You'll need a relay and possibly a switch of some sort. Mine are wired to come on with full beam, but with an override switch that gives normal lighting if preferred. I have seen people use double pole centre-off switches to give "on with main beam / off / on all the time".

One final hint - if they won't switch off with your full beams, check your headlamp earths. On one vehicle I helped wire a dodgy earth connection was causing the relay to stay energised even on dipped beam!

[gamekeeperjames]

hi there, thanks for the quick reply. i have bought the ring wiring kit from ebay. 30amp relay,switch and 5m of cable. i wired my inclinometer illumination at the weekend into my dash light on the indicator stalk and soldered it so i know what you mean by fiddily. could you please post me a picture of where you drilled into the roof etc and does your wire run behinde the drivers front pillar if you understand what i mean.

thanks james

[gamekeeperjames]

oh i dont plan to wire them to main beam, purely as its easier not too. will just be running them with the on/off switch

[Disco Matt]

You'll probably need more cable - I used at least two if not three 3m reels of 27a red, and a slightly smaller amount of 30a black. I'll get some photos tomorrow that should explain it.

[stuntman]

If you have a snorkel run the wires down the side of that, I have drilled the roof and done everything properly on my last disco, but I wasn't happy with putting holes in the roof again.

You can then take the wires through the bulkhead in the engine bay.

[Disco Matt]

Here you go - photos:

One of these red wires feeds the spots - the other is a switched 12v feed for my car PC


The power bus on the back of the bar - short wiring from spots is spliced into the cabling


A small hole in the roof:


and the relay that makes it all happen. It was easy to run the wire down behind the A pillar trim and into the fuse box area:

[gamekeeperjames]

thanks alot for that. where can i get a rubber grommit like that from? most hardware shops?
james

[Disco Matt]

I got a little blister pack of them from Motorworld, Halfords should have them too. Just make sure that you use one that's a good fit on the wire, and drill a hole that it's a tight fit in.

[chris.hunt22]

I just ran the wires down the rubber gutter bit at the side of the screen and put some gaffer tape over the wire, it fits nicely into the groove that is already there (on a 300 tdi anyway), there is no need to go to the dash for anything (unless you are fitting a seperate switch), I just wired up my fused relays directly to the battery and took the switching feeds (side light and full beam in mine) from the o/s headlight wiring, overall an easy job, but as mentioned make sure you use good quality connections or they will soon corrode and fail.  Also depending on how your lights are wired, I fitted an upside down small tupperware box to the centre of my bar which has 4 lots of wires coming in (3 for each light in my case - 1 full beam pos, 1 side light pos and a neg) so 12 wires in all and splits off to just the 3 wires going down the gutter channel (if you are just having full beam then you only need 2 as I would not trust the roof or your spot lamp bar to be a reliable earth for all that ampage, mine on full beam is 4 x 100 watt!!)  Hope this helps, any questions PM me and I will be happy to help/take pictures etc.

[gamekeeperjames]

cheers for that chris. im not gonna bother wiring to my lights etc. the bar lights and just going to be controlled by an on/off switch.

james