Its not like you are talking 50 foot of wire here. You could run a simple test and see how much voltage is lost with a battery and a DMM. Measure the voltage at the posts and then connect one end of the wire to the positive post and measure the voltage at the other end, keeping the other probe on the neg terminal. You aren't loosing a lot.

 

I would relays. Run 10 or 8 to the back in the cargo area behind a panel and then you can get away with smaller wire to the roof. Give me you email or get ahold of me on yahoo messenger and I can give you pics of how I ran my wires for the fire light on top (won't be much different). I plan on adding a cargo rack and roof lights as soon as I finish welding on my rack.

 

ok i think i'll be able to get the wiring down. does anyone suggest a cheep rectangle light for up on the top that goes a long dist?

 

ran mine right through the front doors and under the weatherstripping.......... some may think this looks bad, however, I did not leave exposed wires... I secured everything to the roof rack and also put black conduit around my wiring... I really dont care what other people think, but I do not think it looks bad, nor does anyone else who has seen it...lol however, you can only see about 1 inch of the black wire wrapping and it blends in very very will with the black roof rack...lol this is the only pic I have, I will try to get a better one that shows the wires (if possible..lol)



P.S. I would not waste a great deal of time or money running extra wiring with relay or extra batteries or what not... they are simple lights... simply wire them with a good switch and in-line fuse.. The main thing is make sure you are happy with it.. dont care what everyone else thinks... You do not have to have fancy wiring harnesses or extra batteries... at the end of the day, it is still a simple light..... Just make sure that your fuse rating does not exceed your switch rating or you can melt the switch (learned from experience).....

 

Hi, Ken here.

I am in the process of fitting driving lights on the roof of my Blazer.

As WolfPack says, the first couple of feet of light is lost by the time it gets to the bumper so I wanted to fit the lights as far forward on the roof as possible without drilling into the bodywork.
What I did was take aroof rack which I think came off a Jeep Cherokee, cut it shorter, made some mounts from 1/4" alluminium and bolted it onto the front of the existing racks using the existing bolt holes. the 4 x 100 watt rectangular lights were evenly spaced with the wiring fed into the rail & out on theright handside (RHD vehicle) all neat & tidy where I will mount a junction box. (in case I need to remove the lights) The wiring will go down through the roof under the rail mounting to the relays & switches somewhere on the dash as described by thegr81.
Here in New Zealand the law does not allow for more than 4 high beams on at a time with a max of 100 watt each, so the 2 center lights will be on one switch & the outer ones on another. An auto sparky friend will fit the relays wiring etc. maybe next week. I'll only be allowed to use all the lights on the beach or when off roading.
See pictures in my photo albumn.

Cheers
Ken

 

I see a lot of you guys are still online! What time is it in the states now? Here it is 7.28PM Wednesday 12th.

Ken

 

The time stamp on your post shows 3/12/2008 3:24:36AM EST. Looks like your clocks are fast by 4 minutes! LOL

And yeah, nice looking setup!

 

kiwiblazer, that looks like a good setup you have there.

 

Thanks

 

I ran 10 guage wiring on mine, into the door channels, and along the weather stripping to the engine bay, to the 85 amp solenoid... Since I'm planning on putting 2 more lights up there (for a total of 500 watts)

I'm a function over form kind of guy

Though, I did use bluewire, even if it's not the same shade! lol, if I find some loom that matches my truck, I'll snag it, but otherwise it's good.

My rear lights, go through the holes for the 3rd brake light wiring... Not a whole lot of room there, though.