Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Hi guys,

Im wanting to put in some reversing lights into my hilux. I have 2 spotties that I would like to mount on the rear bar.

What I need to know is how to wire them up. I have bought 8metres of 2mm cable a 15amp inline fuse and a on/off/on switch.

What I want to do is to be able to turn on the rear lights whenever I like, be able to turn the off whenever I like, and be able to have them come on automattically when I put the 4by into reverse.

How do I do it? I know for the reverse bit it needs to go into the relay or something but I dont know what a relay is.

Thanks for your help!

to do what you want to do your gonna need a changeover relay. if you dont know what a relay is you might be better off taking it to an auto leccy. but heres an explanation anyway.


the supply for the spotties would need to be controlled by the changeover relay. ill use the narva 5 pin change over relay to explain. this relay would use the two pins 87 and 87a as the two suplys. 87a would come from the reversing light circuit existing and 87 would come from a fused supply through a cabin mounted toggle switch. pin 30 would then control a 4 pin N/O contact that the spotlights run through. pin 86 would go to ground and pin 85 would be connected to pin 87.


the other relay would be pin 85 to pin 30 of changover relay, pin 86 to ground. pin 87 from fused supply and pin 30 to the spotties.

ive done a drawing in paint and ill try to attach it here.

i tried to attach it but you cant attach a .bmp pm me your email adress and ill send it straight there

Just in case you don't know, it is also illegal to have reversing lights on a separate switch. They are supposed to be only on your reversing switch circuit............Pete!

its a work light though...........

lift the non-reverse light feed from the 4wd light-then the cops can't bitch. your not gonna engage 4wd on bitumen are you ???

Wire the lights direct to the battery through a standard relay and just switch them on and off whenever you please.
Whole lot easier than going through your reverse light circuit.
As said before, spotties at the rear is illegal but ADR's permit work lights which would probably be better for reversing as they spread the beam around more evenly and are available in a wide range of beam lengths and widths. And they're plenty bright enough too! Not expensive either.

If you're using spotties in the rear, you can't power them off the wiring for your existing reverse lights. They'll draw too much current.

The will have to work off a relay and have their own seperate power wire from the battery.

It is then pretty simple to trigger the relay with either your existing reverse lights, or a switch on the dash.

To have the option of both, you have to use a diode to make sure your low current switch doesn't try and light up the standard reverse light.

Without being rude, "if you dont know what a relay is you might be better off taking it to an auto leccy" was good advice but a mate with some basic electrical knowledge can do it too

I came accross a wiring diagram some time ago for exactly this, can't remember where I got it from.

Here it is