True Mods IP65 Waterproof Pre-Wired Fuse Relay Box Install

[Hound D]

Isn't it funny how one modification leads to another, and so on.....Well that's half of the fun right? The story begins like this. A couple weeks ago I had all my components assembled to install my CBI low profile stealth bumber. Before I go any further, many thanks to Trail4r's excellent tutorial on the install found here- CBI Super Stock Covert Bumper Install 6th Gen 4Runner It saved me alot of guessing and grief. The other changes/additions-

1. Cali Raised fog light replacements- these really are an upgrade from the stock white TRD Off Road lights
2. A pair of Baja Designs S2 Pro Amber Wide-cornering light pods to mount recessed in the bumper-pricey, but Baja designs does make some really great lights
3. Rough Country 9500-Lb Pro Series Winch with synthetic rope- A less expensive option, but the bolt pattern on this winch is the same as Smittybilt 10k and fits up nicely. (I don't get a ton of use out of a winch, and I try to save where I can)

My first thought was to wire the Bajas in with the plug and play Calis and run them off the tree switch, but although I wanted to run those four lights off the same switch, I also wanted to run those lights independent of my headlights. We get alot of dust where I play around and this way I can kill the headlights when following and run the amber fogs, the dual function roof rack light bar, and ditch lights I'll install later. It will just give me some additional flexibility in lighting combinations.

Since I had already figured out what my future lighting needs would be, I decided to do things right and set it up nice an clean from the get go. I set out to keep my wiring looking as close to an OEM/professional look, heat shrink, loom and wrap all my conductors, bring all future switch wire into the cab in one penetration through the firewall, and mount up a weatherproof relay box.

I looked around and found this box-IP65 Waterproof Pre-Wired Fuse Relay Box.
A cheap generic tray I could carve up- Auxiliary Power Fuse Block Bracket
And a ton of loom and electrical tape from Harbor Freight

The box has 6 relays, all fused of the load side of the relay, and I needed 5 for my purposes ( 2-dual function light bar, 1 Fogs& bumber lights, 1 Ditch lights, and 1 Roof rack 360 degree lights) with one extra relay for future. The price was steal at $42.

Installing the tray
I took the tray down to size and cut out a square (as much as i could without removing a mounting point) on the bottomot open up the bottom fro the relay box. I'm not installing onboard air, so I utilized the open space on the drivers side between the existing fusbox and the CPU. There are two threaded holes existing and a bolt on the fender side of the engine bay. I used threaded rod and couplers for support struts. I also installed a 30 Amp circuit breaker. I don't plan on running more than lights, so 30 Amps is plenty.

Prepping the Relay Box
The relays are bosch style 5 pin, so the yellow wires are all the normally closed power outputs. I'm not running anything but normally open switching, so I clipped off all those leads as close to the silicone base as possible and sealed them up with some black silicone RTV. I wasn't crazy about the six red common leads on the output side power supply and the six black ground wires on control (switch) side of the relay, so I step spliced both into longer 10 gauge wire with terminals to the breaker and the grounding lug. The long leads give the relay box to allow easy dismount for future wiring.

Next steps in follow up post

 

[Hound D]

Pulling in the wire

I used 18 gauge 8 conductor colored wire, loomed and wrapped it, and ran it from the box to the cab for all my switches. I only want to through the firewall grommet once, I'm lazy like that but it also looks cleaner. I also brought in the wiring from Fog/bumper lights ready to wire into the box/switch wire.

Wiring it up in the engine bay

I'm bringing power to the Cali Raised OEM style Fog Light switch ( and all other to follow) on the red wire with an inline fuse and bringing the ground wires (once again for this and all future switches) back to the grounding bar on the box tray. You may have noticed I used a grounding bar commonly used for household breaker boxes. That will also be my grounding point for all the leads coming from my future lights or devices. So on the 8 conductors I ran into the cab, Red will be the common (positive/power) side for all my switches and Black be the common ground for all switches. As with everything else except for leads to the interior switch, it all gets loomed and wrapped; branching off the loom as it goes along. I removed all fuses except what I am currently wiring in.


.

Continued-

 

[Hound D]

Wiring in the switch
All my future power and ground leads are ganged together and the unused futre leads are capped off. I am powering the switches from the cirucit breaker on the tray, but I want the switch backlighting to come on with the headlamps just like the OEM switches. I installed an add a fuse on the 5 Amp PANEL circuit and the backlighting will work with the headlights. I fished the wire through and ganged up my future leads just like the common power and ground.

Leads to the Battery and buttoning it up

I almost forgot. We have to get power somewhere, so we will run a 10 gauge lead to the battery and I might as well wire those leads for the winch to it while I'm doing that and finish up mounting the relay box.

I've gotten this far and somehow lost the money shot pictures of the lights and switch working. I'll take some photos this evening and update. It was alot of work but I'm really pleased at the outcome and it's all ready to go for my future lights and switches. The hard part is done!

 

[Archer80]

Nice writeup.


.

 

[Hound D]

these photos show the function of lights and switch. All lights off, lights on without headlamps, and both on.