Outer Limits 4x4 Board

just wanting to know how hot they get,

i can just hold my hand on it before it gets to hot,

Are you running a relay

yeah, running big wire, 30amp fuse and 2x narva 100watt

you probly have a bad connection somewhere as the fuses should not heat up at all
,that is all the power is going through one tiny point of contact , check all your connections along the circut and clean them up with some emry paper and even crimp or squash the plugs a little to make a tighter fit
or the other thing it could be is a bad earth or the wire is too small for the current being drawn

its aford not a nissan wrote:you probly have a bad connection somewhere as the fuses should not heat up at all
,that is all the power is going through one tiny point of contact , check all your connections along the circut and clean them up with some emry paper and even crimp or squash the plugs a little to make a tighter fit
or the other thing it could be is a bad earth or the wire is too small for the current being drawn

Fuses do heat up when they are near thier rated current. A 30 amp fuse blows at 35amp because it melts the metal connection. At 29 amps the metal connection will be very hot, but just no enough to melt.


My calculations say that 2x 100watt lights will draw about 16 amps at 12volt. At this current your fuses should not even be warm.

The fact that your fuses are too hot to hold, means your drawing about 25-30amps. As aford said, there is probably a short or bad connection somewhere.

I'd be looking at two areas if you are using heavy gauge wire already.

1) Earthing, Pays to check the bullbar (assuming that is what they are mounted too). If your lights use the mounting bolt for an earth (Or the earth wire is slipped over the mounting bolt) try putting another earth strap between the chassis/body and bullbar especially if you have an airbag compatable bullbar as the mounts aren't as straightforward and cold be restricting your earth.

If the lights have an external earth wire run a new heavy wire back to the vehicle and bypass the bullbar if you can.

2) Try soldering all of your crimp joints they are often the cause of bad/internittent connections. Could be as simple as one of these isn't conducting properly

Just my 2 cents worth and where i'd start!

when wiring extra lights up on my trucks i always run the earth back to the battery, that way you know that its earthing aswell as possible
cheers hugh

If the Fuse holder is hot then the problem is normally with the fuse holder, If you are running Blade type fuses check the holder is clean and is making good contact. heat is normally generated from poor contact(Resistance).

If you are running a glass type fuse holder do the same, check connection in the holder.

BTW a standard blade fuse holder is lucky to be rated at 20Amps so if you have one of the standard ones i would replace it with a heave duty one that will have atleast 2.5mm2 cables already attached to it.


Cheers.

84ZOOKSTA wrote:If the Fuse holder is hot then the problem is normally with the fuse holder, If you are running Blade type fuses check the holder is clean and is making good contact. heat is normally generated from poor contact(Resistance).

If you are running a glass type fuse holder do the same, check connection in the holder.

BTW a standard blade fuse holder is lucky to be rated at 20Amps so if you have one of the standard ones i would replace it with a heave duty one that will have atleast 2.5mm2 cables already attached to it.


Cheers.

X 2

Bazzle