headlights cutting out.

[1972hiboy]

So over the past weekend I hoisted ye old cabover up onto the trucks back and proceeded up the the Sierras for a over due camping trip. well of course my plan was to leave late Firday night to avoid some traffic but alas the Altimont had road work and had traffic for ten miles bumper to bumper, I noticed that after awhile the car in front of me got real bright. I thought huh were my headlights off? After a couple more minutes sure enough I could see in my reflection in the back of the car the headlights had turned off then back on. I fiddled with the switch handle, felt the dash area around the headlight switch and it was hot. Great I thought, so I turned them off while we went through the traffic, did'nt think anybody would miss just one set. Traffic started to let up so switched them back on and opened the floor vent to get some air under the dash, they were going on and off and I was really about to pull over when they started to stay on more and more until eventually they just stayed on. Kinda freaked me out. continued on until we started climbing into the altitude with the highbeams and sure enought around a turn "bam" darkness, I couldnt switch on the KC's fast enough. Started to go out and back on. It really seemed like the switch was overheating and the headlights were going out to cool off a circiut breaker then coming back on. So once we started to head to our camping spot on the mountain dirt roads I just used the bumper lights and hung back so I didint blind my buddy in front of me. Ive never had this happen before here at sea level. My only theory is that my cabover didnt have any of the marker lamps working when I bought it. I did replaced all of them and now they work. I had spliced into the truck wiring mid ship for the camper marker and brake/turn lights. Could the extra load of the markers be overheating my headlight switch? THe switch is only a year or so old. Cheap aftermarket switch that could be replaced with another? Is there a place on the swtich I should grab power for the camper marker lights vs just splicing into the frame wiring? thanks for any input

Rich

[basketcase0302]

Rich,

It sounds like pretty much the same issue as this to me:
http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... =8&t=67458
It would benefit you to run a separate circuit with it's own circuit breaker, (not fuse) and use your headlight switch to "trigger" the relay. The 12V relays used in KC lighting works just fine for this and is pretty simple to wire.

[1972hiboy]

I did see that thread, in a nutshell it sounds similair, I dont hear and clicking though by the glove box. nor are my guage lights going out. I do have a isolated battery for the camper. So what im hearing is to run a seperate circuit of wiring just for the marker lights / tail lights? so essentially seperate wiring with a battery isolator "triggered" by the light switch to get power to my camper markers via straight from the battery and not sucking off the light switch itself?

[basketcase0302]

Rich,

Sorry I didn't mean the same clicking being the issue, but the pulling of too much power being the same issue. The battery isolator is not required to do this at all, but will save your vehicle battery from too much drain from the campers lighting. And yes you use your running lights powered on wire, (#984 here / I posted a random wiring / couldn't remember what year your truck was):

to "trigger" or pull in the 12 volt lighting relay which would have it's own circuit breaker. There are actually several places you can tie into that wire to do the same thing. The beauty of using a relay is that it pulls so little current to hold the relay in, (versus a bunch more lights which are high amperage drawing). I went kinda' "hog wild" when I started adding relays to my truck!

[TNIceWolf]

I have to agree on the dedicated circuit. My old flatbed runsa lot of lights. Well....not a lot....but more than the original cicuit can handle easily. Jeffs Magic box is a pretty darn good imitation of a military style wiring. It seperates the circuits and is fixed so only so much can fail at any given point.....An idea I hope to borrow to help finish off my own lighting woes.