Hoping someone on this forum can help me out. I have two Baja designs lamps (s2 sport) that I’ve mounted to the rear of my camper so that I can see while reversing at night.
The lights came with fairly big bulky wiring connectors as well as a set of connectors and wiring that allows you to plug each of the two lights into a single set of wires. I don’t like these bulky connectors and want to remove and replace with my own. The ones that I don’t like look sort of like this
Main question here is what is the best practice to take two positive wires and two ground wires from the lights and convert that to one positive wire and one ground wire to actually run to battery/ground (or relay as appropriate)?
Any info on wire gauges and preferences on connectors would be really helpful. Thanks in advance
So this is more of a personal preference than anything. But I have a tendency to steer away from using connectors to join wires. I’ll put small heat shrink on, then if the wires are to be grouped together, I’ll put a bigger heat shrink over the bundle. I will then solder the wires together. Then slide the single heat shrink over, heat it up, then slide the big one over the bundle and shrink it. If it’s going to be exposed to the elements, then make sure you get sealing heat shrink and split tubing.
As for gauge/draw/length there are tons of charts and calculators you can use. Such as the following:
As for connectors, for those I’ll solder them as well if possible. This eliminates the possibility of them pulling out of a ‘crimp’ connector. Also, heat shrink those to create strain relief.
Read up on your lights and understand the total peak draw for each in amps - then make sure the 1 wire in your 2:1 split is sized appropriately to support all the stuff drawing on it. For example, my googling shows the s2 sport as a .9 amp light and you have 2 of them, so draw for the pair would be 1.8 amps (2 for convenience. You will be looking for stuff rated to handle 2 amps or more.
You could basically get away with anything in terms of wire size - I would probably personally run a 12g marine wire because that is what I have laying around. It would more than handle these two lights!
As for the connectors and that debate - everyone has an opinion. I personally like the convenience of quick disconnects so I like connectors. That said - I have had wires pull out of them and it can be a pain to fix. Some say soldering wires makes them more brittle - but I have never experienced this. If a permanent connection is what I am after, I saw an instagram ad for these and have since been fully converted: heat shrink / sealed / soldered butt connectors
As for connectors - you could always look for smaller connectors to get the job done. When I was building my motorcycle harness, connectors were a big challenge as they are massive and you have small amounts of space to hide wires in. I ended up buying the mini connectors from Revival and a handful of these. The whole motorcycle is lit in LEDs so I suspect it is similar amperage. The larger ones say they can handle 40amps, the small ones can handle 4amps but can’t take 12awg wire. These are tiny though - not much larger than a regular crimp fitting male/female disconnect you would buy at the auto parts store and that only connects 1 wire. Here is a tiny little harness component I did - this is the 3 or 4 pole mini Mizu style with some 20awg, a crimp connector, and heatshrink.
Can you share photos of your lights mounted to the rear extrusion? I’m looking to do something similar on the rear or possibly sides. I have the S2 work lights and the antenna brackets - just wondering about where up route the wire.
