Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Hey guys, quick question for the electrical gurus

 

I'm planning to overhaul a few things starting in December, but first comes the bumpers and light bars. I plan to get rid of my current light bars and replace them with 2 curved 30" 4D optic bars that will run 300W EACH, so total of 600W. I currently have a wireless harness that is rated for 500W

 

Here's my question:

 

Is there anyway I can upgrade the relay and the blade fuse to allow me to get the harness to handle 600W? I really want to keep the harness since its wireless and I love being able to turn the bars on and off from outside the truck and not deal with another switch in the cab

Can I upgrade the current harness or do I have to get a second harness and just wire the trigger feeds together?

I personally think that upgrading from a 40W relay to say a 60W would be more than sufficient, but wanted to see what you guys say

Just want to get some opinions!

I also plan to get 4 extra light pods that will go in the bumper and angle slightly outward and be on their own harness

Posted

Mike,

 

You will want to add a second harness for the other light bar, but it is easily controlled by the remote harness. Just need to trigger the relay on the second harness with the output of the remote harness.

 

Some quick electrical math:

 

Power (Watts) = Voltage * Amperage

 

So that 500 watt harness at a "nominal" 12 volts DC is just over 40 amps. To get up to 600 watts, you're looking at about 50 amps. That's a big increase, and I doubt that the relay or harness could handle it for very long. Better to run an additional simple harness that is triggered by the first harness.

 

On electrical systems, amperage is the current flow... think of it like water trickling down a stream for low amps, or a raging river for high amps. Inside the wire, the electrons are doing the same thing, only when they bounce around they cause fiction, which heats the wire up and increases the resistance of the wire, which cuts down on the amount of power you can get out of it.

 

Let me know if you need me to draw a diagram that shows how to make it work.

Posted (edited)

I had traded the SLT for a Denali and get to start all over with projects. Already did reverse light LED PODS. I went to dual 8 inch pods (12 LED per pod) set up. Much better then 3 inch ones I had before.

 

So my question is..... has anyone successfully installed dual 32 in curved bars behind grill? In went back till in started seeing post I remembered from before.

 

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

Edited by Toddfather
Posted

I had traded the SLT for a Denali and get to start all over with projects. Already did reverse light LED PODS. I went to dual 8 inch pods (12 LED per pod) set up. Much better then 3 inch ones I had before.

 

So my question is..... has anyone successfully installed dual 32 in curved bars behind grill? In went back till in started seeing post I remembered from before.

 

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

 

Are you asking about installing a DUAL ROW curved 32" or dual as in 2 light bars?

Posted

 

Are you asking about installing a DUAL ROW curved 32" or dual as in 2 light bars?

No I did that on old truck. I am talking adding 2 dual row 32 in bars. d0fb5200ab33dfcef97b2aa0de91856e.jpg

 

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

Posted

No I did that on old truck. I am talking adding 2 dual row 32 in bars. d0fb5200ab33dfcef97b2aa0de91856e.jpg

 

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

 

I scanned just about every thread and forum and anything else I could find when doing research for my install, but I can't say I've ever seen someone install 2x dual row light bars behind the grill. Not saying it can't be done, but I personally haven't seen it. I did see on another forum of a NNBS silverado with 2x single row light bars behind the grill. Might be able to find a pic if your interested, but that probably doesn't help.

Posted

I like the challenge. It will fit with some light being lost behind emblems and lower grill. But if I aim them right it will be ok. Also plan on shim one leg on each bar help widen beam out.

 

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

Posted (edited)

I like the challenge. It will fit with some light being lost behind emblems and lower grill. But if I aim them right it will be ok. Also plan on shim one leg on each bar help widen beam out.

 

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

Well since you have the Denali grill you've for more space to work with in placement of your lights. That grill has the same pattern all around vs SLE/SLT and A/T grill you have to work with the spacing of the grill to fit between slats. You'd have to put both down low. Definitely wouldn't fit up top with the grill mount tabs. Even still on the bottom it would be really tight, but looks doable. Maybe consider one double row and one single row?

 

51d2dcc9ac8c001b664cfa4fe5d5ce28.jpg

 

My AT grill compared to Denali grill

0d061e6e9873d66e79d400c13b4d04dc.jpg

51bb27fe516661f6eef0f46c0fa13cdd.jpg

Edited by Kerrslight
  • Like 2
Posted

Well since you have the Denali grill you've for more space to work with in placement of your lights. That grill has the same pattern all around vs SLE/SLT and A/T grill you have to work with the spacing of the grill to fit between slats. You'd have to put both down low. Definitely wouldn't fit up top with the grill mount tabs. Even still on the bottom it would be really tight, but looks doable. Maybe consider one double row and one single row?

 

51d2dcc9ac8c001b664cfa4fe5d5ce28.jpg

 

My AT grill compared to Denali grill

0d061e6e9873d66e79d400c13b4d04dc.jpg

51bb27fe516661f6eef0f46c0fa13cdd.jpg

9fb0bf592d38d8515b9ca35b7ba72bff.jpg

 

Pardon my crappy copy paste. But that's my idea

 

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

Posted

9fb0bf592d38d8515b9ca35b7ba72bff.jpg

 

Pardon my crappy copy paste. But that's my idea

 

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

 

Well measure how much spacing you have from just under the GMC emblem to the bottom of the grill. You should have an extra inch, inch and a half on the inside of the grill than what you can actually measure from the outside. Get that measurement down and measure how much space you'd need to stack both bars and go from there. Chances are you'd have to put the upper light bar partially behind the GMC emblem to give you enough space to mount the lower one.

Posted

Well since you have the Denali grill you've for more space to work with in placement of your lights. That grill has the same pattern all around vs SLE/SLT and A/T grill you have to work with the spacing of the grill to fit between slats. You'd have to put both down low. Definitely wouldn't fit up top with the grill mount tabs. Even still on the bottom it would be really tight, but looks doable. Maybe consider one double row and one single row?

 

51d2dcc9ac8c001b664cfa4fe5d5ce28.jpg

 

My AT grill compared to Denali grill

0d061e6e9873d66e79d400c13b4d04dc.jpg

51bb27fe516661f6eef0f46c0fa13cdd.jpg

How has the honeycomb grill affected light output? If any. Thanks

 

Sent from my SG Note 4 on Tapatalk

Posted

How has the honeycomb grill affected light output? If any. Thanks

 

Sent from my SG Note 4 on Tapatalk

I haven't noticed any affect on mine.

  • Like 1
Posted

I haven't noticed any affect on mine.

I have the same grill on my 15 Sierra Denali 5.3L... Was thinking about doing this but wasn't sure about light output being overly blocked.

 

Sent from my SG Note 4 on Tapatalk

Posted

That was another option I was looking at. I know on my SLT there was some plastic in the way. Looking at pics on the Interwebs I see a pic of it done on a SLT. So in theory it may work.

 

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

  • Latest Articles

  • Posts

    • Hey guys, sorry for the confusison about this. This wasn't my experainnce, it was copied and pasted fom the net. 
    • The problem with failure rates or increase failures are there’s people who don’t have a problem. What are you doing wrong they say. We had 4 5.7 GM diesel’s in the family when they came out. One was flawless. My uncle who happened to be the most abusive. Early rotary engines were known to use oil. I abused my first car so bad in six months I replaced the clutch, transmission and rear end. It didn’t use oil. My brother in law has a 2013 Tahoe and an older Yukon. The Yukon has 280K miles. The Tahoe around 175K. He runs them to about 300K. If his lifters fail before that time he would consider it a failure. My Hondas, I know people hate it when I mention them. Identical engines. One with cylinder deactivation one doesn’t have it. One shudders when the eco light goes on or off. Cylinder deactivation. But wait! According to the web. It can happen with lock up too. So now people in the know are changing the oil and transmission fluid more often. Then you read it could be a programing issue. So what do you do? There’s lots of money involved. I see three ways to deal with it. One only works if you don’t drive lots of miles. Lease, never get out of warranty. Or only buy older vehicles with a good track record. They all have bad runs. Usually when there’s a change. Even Toyota and Honda. 
    • Question @diyer2 on this line if you please. Are you saying the shudder is the system turning on and off at the frequency of the shudder? Guess I'm asking if you are saying you have seen it do this with the bi-direction scan tool in graph mode? If so have you been able to discern the 'trigger'. Something is telling to cycle rapidly.    My truck just started doing this recently. 197K on the clock. My response has been M5 anything under 55 mph. I treat it like a lugging stick shift. Gear down and let it spin a bit. Engauge M5, then tow mode and then M6 lets the trans stay in 5th but the AFM is active. Smooth like Skippy.    My thought was that as a machine ages the friction gets lower and as the system is load based, the lower friction would allow it to turn on at ever lower rpm until it reaches the lugging point. And yes I am ignorant of any minimum rpm requirement for the system. If you know that would be useful information.    As you know I run a Scan-Gauge II which allows me to watch the On/Off of the signal to the VLOM. While in the shudder mode I'm not seeing is cycle at that frequency or at all for that matter outside the triggers @newdude posted a few years back. Now is it possible that the refresh rate isn't fast enough to catch it? Maybe. It is why I asked my first question about graphing and trigging parameter.     As we have observed from members here the failure point is all over the map miles wise as you note yourself in your opening post. That by itself begs a few questions like fellows that comment on these lifters failing even after the system has been disabled. Long after. 😬   https://www.enginelabs.com/news/tech-tips-replacing-ls-active-fuel-management-lifters-with-melling/   The Gen5 lifters operate the same as the LS versions. In fact they are the same lifter.    https://www.enginelabs.com/tech-stories/sorting-out-gen-v-lt-lifter-failure-with-a-simple-valvetrain-fix/        
    • UPDATE 2: Steering wheel control backlights and control of the cluster can supposedly be achieved by adding a wire to pin 20 of the cluster and tapping it to pin 2 of the main clock spring harness. I'm going to give it a shot - will update  
    • GM Global A pickups 2019-2022 can do OTA programming for the radio.  GM VIP (GM Global B) can do OTAs for almost every module on board.  So a 2022.5 and newer pickup can do OTAs for recalls like the 2.7 fuel flow recall.  EVs get OTAs that improve one pedal driving, radio issues, HVAC issues, updated battery management software, etc.     So age of the vehicle/what GM electrical platform its on will alter what amount of updates can be pushed on OTAs.  
  • GM-Trucks.com Clubs

  • Popular Contributors

×
×
  • Create New...