Installation of KC Gravity® LED Pro6 lights

[Bobchadwickga]

I got two KC Gravity® LED Pro6 lights that I am going to install with a Voswitch. From readings here, I won't be using the harness that came with the lights but will need to cut the plugs that connect to the lights from the harness and run my own wires. For each light will have one ground to a ground and one hot to the appropriate Voswitch switch (these will be run together so I am only using one switch).

The fuse on the wiring harness is 20amp. What gauge wire should I be using for a run of 10 feet tops. Also, their instructions have the ground to the battery. Is that necessary or can I ground it to the frame?

TIA.

Bob

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[Bobchadwickga]

@ShadowsPapa You are very knowledgeable on electrical issues. Do you have any comments?

 

[chorky]

You should be fine with 14 ga. Personally I wire up so I would use 12 ga but thats excessive.
be sure to use heat shrink and solder

run ground to a frame grounding point.

I am not familiar with the voswitch (I have switchpros). But make sure you still have a 20a fuse for that circuit. Depending on the amp draw of those lights you might want to step down to a 15amp even

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I got two KC Gravity® LED Pro6 lights that I am going to install with a Voswitch. From readings here, I won't be using the harness that came with the lights but will need to cut the plugs that connect to the lights from the harness and run my own wires. For each light will have one ground to a ground and one hot to the appropriate Voswitch switch (these will be run together so I am only using one switch).

The fuse on the wiring harness is 20amp. What gauge wire should I be using for a run of 10 feet tops. Also, their instructions have the ground to the battery. Is that necessary or can I ground it to the frame?

TIA.

Bob

You can ground to any of the Jeep's ground points. I'd likely keep ground points together rather than random grounds all over the place, and keep it where it would be cleaner and dryer (like under the hood) and probably run a ground to one of the "fender ground studs". They are made for that purpose. I figure - if good enough for the factory.........

I know all of the charts on the web would say 10 gauge but wow, that's hefty wire for a pair of lights - especially when you look at the gauge of wire Jeep puts in place for their aux switches rated for 15 amps and 40 amps.

Factory aux switch wire sizes -
3 and 4 are roughly 18 gauge
1 and 2 are in the 12 to 14 gauge range.

That being said - you are running less than half of 40 based on a 20 amp fuse (that seems large for LED lights. My plow lights don't have fuses that big)
I'd say 14 would work fine, but if you want to be absolutely certain, based on a 20 amp fuse, 12 gauge.

Me, if it was my own truck, I'd use 14 gauge. I mean, the factory aux switches are rated at 40 and use a similar size wire.

 

[Minty JL]

I have spools of 12ga black and red, so that's what I use

 

[ShadowsPapa]

You should be fine with 14 ga. Personally I wire up so I would use 12 ga but thats excessive.
be sure to use heat shrink and solder

run ground to a frame grounding point.

I am not familiar with the voswitch (I have switchpros). But make sure you still have a 20a fuse for that circuit. Depending on the amp draw of those lights you might want to step down to a 15amp even

12 gauge seems excessive for a pair of lights like that. The 20 amp fuse sort of surprises me. Factory aux switches with 40 amp fuses run a wire (metric) that comes out between 12 and 14.
For these trucks, I have started using marine type heat shrink. It has a "glue" inside that when the tube is heated to shrink, the glue melts and seals the tube.
I don't want my connections to be the first thing to go!

 

[redfish]

I just did this yesterday and maybe I did it wrong, but I just clipped the KC wire harness closes to where it seperates to the relay. That left me with a + and - for each light that I butt spliced into one +and one - and wired those to the Voswitch number 2 and all is good. The Voswith is grounded to the battery.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I have spools of 12ga black and red, so that's what I use

It's just as easy to run one as the other. I have spools of everything from 10 gauge up to 22 gauge so I have to not say I use based on what I have LOL.
I've started switching over to silicon wire - much softer, less stiff to run through things, simple to work with, resists petrol products and a lot more heat resistant. It won't age as badly as other insulation types. More expensive and no one carries it locally but it's a dream to work with and it has more and finer strands so is extremely flexible.

 

[chorky]

12 gauge seems excessive for a pair of lights like that. The 20 amp fuse sort of surprises me. Factory aux switches with 40 amp fuses run a wire (metric) that comes out between 12 and 14.
For these trucks, I have started using marine type heat shrink. It has a "glue" inside that when the tube is heated to shrink, the glue melts and seals the tube.
I don't want my connections to be the first thing to go!

i agree 12 is excessive. 14 is more appropriate. The harness from KC probably uses 16 maybe even 18 just thinking about the wires in the baja designs light harness. But I always wire up one gauge. Besides I have rolls of 10 and 12 ga for other items so its easier to just use that.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I just did this yesterday and maybe I did it wrong, but I just clipped the KC wire harness closes to where it seperates to the relay. That left me with a + and - for each light that I butt spliced into one +and one - and wired those to the Voswitch number 2 and all is good. The Voswith is grounded to the battery.

But how heavy is the switch ground wire? Is each switch grounded to the battery? Or is the array of switches grounded back to the battery?
You do run that ground to the top of the IBS, correct? Never to the battery terminal............

 

[SSinGA]

I got two KC Gravity® LED Pro6 lights that I am going to install with a Voswitch. From readings here, I won't be using the harness that came with the lights but will need to cut the plugs that connect to the lights from the harness and run my own wires. For each light will have one ground to a ground and one hot to the appropriate Voswitch switch (these will be run together so I am only using one switch).

The fuse on the wiring harness is 20amp. What gauge wire should I be using for a run of 10 feet tops. Also, their instructions have the ground to the battery. Is that necessary or can I ground it to the frame?

TIA.

Bob

I used the KC supplied harness and just cut the ends and connected to my switch box. No issues at all with my older Gravity Pros.

The lights only draw 1.63 amps so no need to go crazy

 

[ShadowsPapa]

i agree 12 is excessive. 14 is more appropriate. The harness from KC probably uses 16 maybe even 18 just thinking about the wires in the baja designs light harness. But I always wire up one gauge. Besides I have rolls of 10 and 12 ga for other items so its easier to just use that.

I keep hundreds of feet of 14 and 16 on hand, and some 18, because frankly, those are the very most common wire sizes used in automotive. You'd be surprised what runs on the small gauge wires.
Old style headlights were 18 gauge and went a lot farther than 10 feet. Windshield wiper motors - 18 to 20 gauge. Internally, 22 gauge.

 

[chorky]

I keep hundreds of feet of 14 and 16 on hand, and some 18, because frankly, those are the very most common wire sizes used in automotive. You'd be surprised what runs on the small gauge wires.
Old style headlights were 18 gauge and went a lot farther than 10 feet. Windshield wiper motors - 18 to 20 gauge. Internally, 22 gauge.

feel free to send me some . Lol.

 

[Bobchadwickga]

Thanks guys. I plan to reduce the fuse on the Voswitch to 20 amp as this was the fuse that was in line. The JL300 appears to have 6 30 amp fuses subject to a 100amp max draw. I only have 1 item, a winch relay attached, and that has either a 5 or 10 amp fuse if I recall correctly.

The consensus seems to be that 14 gauge wire will meet my needs. I haven't tried to determine what gauge wire is in their harness but it's not all that heavy.

The Voswitch is grounded to one of the terminals on the top of the battery.

 

[Bobchadwickga]

I used the KC supplied harness and just cut the ends and connected to my switch box. No issues at all with my older Gravity Pros.

The lights only draw 1.63 amps so no need to go crazy

Can you be more specific where you cut the harness. Before or after their switch?

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