Rough country ditch Lights install with wiring harness that has a relay, black diamond bronco already has AUX switches

Johnny Mo

This might help -

DRV

Thanks for the video yes I watched this one and one other video that are pretty good because they get more into the wiring aspect. But this one does not tackle the issue of a relay which complicates things. So I went and quickly hooked up the wiring yesterday without any modifications and the lights worked. I hooked up the red wire to the aux switch 6 grounded the grounding wire and did nothing else and it worked (I did not cut out the in-line fuse on the red power wire just yet like in the video). Here is the kicker though, the wire to the included switch does have an inline quick disconnect, but if I disconnect the switch the lights don't work. I can just bunch up the wire to the switch with a zip tie and leave it in the engine compartment, but I have to leave it on all the time, a small power draw when vehicle is parked or turn it off and open the hood when I want to use the lights. This makes no cense at all. I did see another video and read some comments of individuals that had this same issue. What they did was completely butcher the wiring harness and basically cut everything out the fuse, the switch, and the relay and just connect the two red power wires from each light together and to the aux switch wire and connect the two black ground wires together and ground in one spot. Not sure why rough country or its affiliate sellers would call this a bronco compatible lighting system for all broncos 2021 - 2024 because this is not not not meant for vehicles with Auxiliary switches. Maybe there is a work around splicing the white and blue wire from the switch together and connecting it to the aux wiring and grounding the black wire ????? Oh and I call rough country and they say we cant help you if you modifying our stuff which we said was bronco compatible!!!!!!!!! Thank you for the video suggestion.

DRV

Thanks for the video yes I watched this one and one other video that are pretty good because they get more into the wiring aspect. But this one does not tackle the issue of a relay which complicates things. So I went and quickly hooked up the wiring yesterday without any modifications and the lights worked. I hooked up the red wire to the aux switch 6 grounded the grounding wire and did nothing else and it worked (I did not cut out the in-line fuse on the red power wire just yet like in the video). Here is the kicker though, the wire to the included switch does have an inline quick disconnect, but if I disconnect the switch the lights don't work. I can just bunch up the wire to the switch with a zip tie and leave it in the engine compartment, but I have to leave it on all the time, a small power draw when vehicle is parked or turn it off and open the hood when I want to use the lights. This makes no cense at all. I did see another video and read some comments of individuals that had this same issue. What they did was completely butcher the wiring harness and basically cut everything out the fuse, the switch, and the relay and just connect the two red power wires from each light together and to the aux switch wire and connect the two black ground wires together and ground in one spot. Not sure why rough country or its affiliate sellers would call this a bronco compatible lighting system for all broncos 2021 - 2024 because this is not not not meant for vehicles with Auxiliary switches. Maybe there is a work around splicing the white and blue wire from the switch together and connecting it to the aux wiring and grounding the black wire ????? Oh and I call rough country and they say we cant help you if you modifying our stuff which we said was bronco compatible!!!!!!!!!

mike8675309

Bronco's are not built by Apple. Not everything in the aftermarket that you buy is going to tell you exactly how to make it work on your specific version of a Bronco. Wiring is one of those big things that generally requires you to have or build some knowledge about how to install things. Here is a great thread that goes over wiring offroad stuff with relays. There are more all over the internet.

Aux Switch 6 is 12v power feed on a ten amp fuse. It's ok. to have multiple fuses on one line. If it is powered by the aux switch why is it on all the time? Something isn't setup right.

Generally lights are wired to a high power relay with the power coming directly from the battery. The signal side of the relay is driven by a switch. If you use the Aux Switch 6, that only has power with key on. So the relay should not be energized when the key is off. If the key is on, then you are putting power battery power into the signal side or somehow don't even have the lights hooked into the relay.

https://www.therangerstation.com/tech/using-relays-to-wiring-off-road-lights-and-accessories/

DRV

I assumed that the switch on the harness would be lit up all the time and I was wrong,. In fact, if the auxiliary switches is off the switch on the harness is not lit up and is off also. I hooked everything up and got it set up in the vehicle yesterday and it’s working without any alterations to the harness. On the red wire, I snipped the ring connector and crimped on a male and and connected it to a female crimped on auxiliary wire six, and I connected the black wire to one of the existing ground spots in the vehicle on the driver side, I zip tied up all the excess wiring harness and tucked away including the relay and the switch. The switch on the wiring harness is set to the on position, but if it ever gets bumped off, I can easily reach it and turn it back on where it’s tucked away I realize having all this excess wiring in the engine compartment, zip tied up and tucked away, it may not be ideal, but I didn’t want to completely butcher the harness. So when I bought this set up, I assumed it was going to be similar to the set up in the video you originally referenced but in the photo of the product when I bought it the wiring harness was all bunched up and you couldn’t see the relay in the picture so I guess it’s my fault that I didn’t know that there was a relay included. I guess my point was that this harness wasn’t really bronco friendly because you either have to do what I did or completely butcher it to get it to work. I did run across a video of installation of.KC lighting, and they did have a relay for cars without auxiliary switches, and then a separate wiring harness for Broncos with existing auxiliary switches. It just surprises me with all this plug-in play stuff that they wouldn’t have a separate bronco wiring harness cause there would be less crap involved, and it would cost them less money to produce but your point is well taken. Not everything perfectly fits or works and there is a required amount of knowledge to do things with wiring. So thank you once again for responding and giving me an attached link I really do appreciate it and I am looking to acquire more knowledge with this wiring and the bronco so all the free information and education I can get I will take thank you.

DRV

It just surprises me with all this plug-in play stuff that they wouldn’t have a separate bronco wiring harness cause there would be less crap involved, and it would cost them less money to produce but your point is well taken.