Aftermarket lights w/ stock harness? need advice!

[mbarroso12]

My FJ came with 2 of those OEM offroad lights on the OEM brush guard. I'm want to replace the lights with some KC Rally 800 or IPF 900 xsd. Can i just swap them out and will the OEM harness handle these more powerful lights? The KC's are 130 watts. Thanks for any info, electronics are not my specialty....






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[doublejfj]

You'll need to check the gauge of the wiring that's on there just to make sure it can handle the extra current (the stock lights are most likely 55W). The relay and everything else should be fine, just check the wire gauge.

[mbarroso12]

thanks, all i would need to check is the wiring from the battery to the lights, right?





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[doublejfj]

Yep, everything else is the same.

I put in 13.8V and 130W to the Ohms Law equation I (current)= W (wattage) / V (voltage)

I get 9.4A per 130W light. According to the American Wire Gauge, you should have a minimum of 16ga (per light) to run 10A safely. Keep in mind, the high-current, source wire going from the battery to the relay will need to be able to handle double that (because it feeds both lights) -- this means (according to the AWG) that the feed wire coming from the battery needs to be at least 12ga.

A quick re-hash: if you've got 12ga or better (10, 8, etc.) feeding the relay and the wire going to each light as 16ga or better (14, 12, etc.), you should be fine.

[mbarroso12]

many thanks, much rep to ya

[doublejfj]

Anytime