Three way wire splice/connectors?

[DAA]

I'm going to run some small LED's around my Jeep. Will just be a long run of power and ground down each side and I'll be splicing into to that one long run for each LED.

I have some cheesy looking, cheapo feeling three way wire taps. Which, I'm sure will work. But, curious if there is a better mouse trap anyone could recommend? More weather/waterproof being a prime consideration - though the wire taps I have say weatherproof on the package, I have my doubts... Will need quite a few of them, so cost is a consideration too!

- DAA

 

[I Lean]

Do the LED's have a wire pigtail attached, or a terminal or something?

 

[DAA]

Two plain wires coming off each LED.

- DAA

 

[I Lean]

What I'd probably do is just run one power wire, the solder and heat-shrink each connection to the LED. It won't look like a T connection, more like a Y that has been squished together, if that makes sense. Then just ground the other wire coming off each LED separately.

 

[DAA]

That does make sense and I thought about doing it that way - and still might. The routing of the wire under the Jeep and my current problem with not being able to turn my neck and stuff makes me not want to try soldering all those connections though. But I still might...

Grounding each one separately should be pretty easy though. Ring terminal and a self tapper for each.

 

[boogie_4wheel]

What I'd probably do is just run one power wire, the solder and heat-shrink each connection to the LED. It won't look like a T connection, more like a Y that has been squished together, if that makes sense. Then just ground the other wire coming off each LED separately.

That does make sense and I thought about doing it that way - and still might. The routing of the wire under the Jeep and my current problem with not being able to turn my neck and stuff makes me not want to try soldering all those connections though. But I still might...

Grounding each one separately should be pretty easy though. Ring terminal and a self tapper for each.

Definitely solder/goop/shrink each connection if these are going to ever have a chance of being hammered by the 'elements'. Every connection I do I solder, then smear with liquid electrical tape (or RTV), then while wet slide the shrink over and shrink it starting in the middle and working your way out so that you squish the 'sealer' throughout the heatshrink. Makes a watertight seal; you don't wanna be messing with these a couple years down the road...

If you know your approximate connection points, you could pre make the harness, then pull it in to the Jeep. Then attach the LEDs to the pigtails at an easily accessible location. Ring terminal for ground, using mounting bolt/screw if applicable.

 

[DAA]

Yeah... You guys are right. Solder it right once, be done with it. Just about every other splice I've done on the rig - and that's a bunch of them - have all been soldered. I know if I use any kind of crimp underneath the Jeep like that where it's going to see much, much pounding by the elements, it's going to end up having a problem eventually. Just not feeling real good about putting my neck in funky positions to do it right now - had a disk removed and fusion done a couple weeks ago.

And patience is not what I'm good at!

But, if I just wait another week or two and I should be ready to do it.

Thanks for steering me off a bad decision!

- DAA

 

[carsonc1974]

there are these shrink/solder/crimp terminals we use at work. They are pricey , but they to work good and maybe a little easier while you recover.


http://www.delcity.net/store/Heat-S...=38094426869&gclid=CMGB4p-xsMQCFciTfgod0LAAtg

 

[Caleb]

there are these shrink/solder/crimp terminals we use at work. They are pricey , but they to work good and maybe a little easier while you recover.


http://www.delcity.net/store/Heat-S...=38094426869&gclid=CMGB4p-xsMQCFciTfgod0LAAtg

Those are the same connectors we used on our boats. These were boats exposed to salt water (on the GSL) and we never ever had any problems with corrosion using these. I'd do those for sure over actually soldering them, just be careful not to puncture the heat shrink when crimping them.

 

[MikeGyver]

Grounding each one separately should be pretty easy though. Ring terminal and a self tapper for each.

This is a recipe for disaster.... There's no reason to not just run a ground wire along with the existing power wire...
If you take measurements of where you want to route the main branch and where each led comes off of that, you can make the entire thing on the bench and solder/heatshrink/loom everything, then just install the harness and you're done. So you'd have a long run consisting of a pwr and a gnd wire. tapped off of these is a pwr and gnd going out to each led. The harness looks like a tree, with a trunk and branches (and even branches coming off of them).

 

[I Lean]

This is a recipe for disaster.... There's no reason to not just run a ground wire along with the existing power wire...
If you take measurements of where you want to route the main branch and where each led comes off of that, you can make the entire thing on the bench and solder/heatshrink/loom everything, then just install the harness and you're done. So you'd have a long run consisting of a pwr and a gnd wire. tapped off of these is a pwr and gnd going out to each led. The harness looks like a tree, with a trunk and branches (and even branches coming off of them).

Why not ground each one? It's how I do stuff...is it just because I'm lazy?

 

[MikeGyver]

More failure points. All it takes is a loose screw or some rust and you'll get a bunch of intermittent failures that are hard to track down. It's also harder to install and takes longer since you now have to clean metal and drill holes etc. I don't think it's worth it in this situation where you can simply double up a wire run that you'll have to run anyway and have a dedicated ground.

 

[TheHardWay]

Why not just daisy chain all the lights together? That is what I did with my LEDs which had a + & - wire going in one side, and coming out the other. If your lights only have one + & - wire, you can use a butt connector an double up the + & - wires on one side (one wire coming in for power supply, and the other going out for power supply to the next light, do the same for the ground. They don't draw a lot of amps, so you can get away with doing this.

 

[rockdog]

Daisy chaining them is exactly what they are talking about.

 

[DAA]

I'm not sure if we are or not? When I hear daisy chain I think series? But I'm going to do them parallel. So all the positive wires off the LED's will be soldered to the same main power wire, and all the negatives will be on the same ground wire (I'm taking that advice too, it makes sense). Not daisy chained one LED to the next. If you do that, and one of them gets torn off or whatever, then they all go out. Like old fashioned Christmas tree lights. That would suck...

So, one power and one ground wire. Well, actually, one for each side of the Jeep will be easier.

Thinking instead of making this real quick and dirty, like I was kinda thinking yesterday morning, I'll take a little bit more time and build a nice, well protected harness that should last for many years and could conceivably be re-fitted with new/different/more LED's in the future.

- DAA

 

[TheHardWay]

Maybe daisy chain isn't the right term then. Maybe one continuous circuit??? Basically avoiding a power run with multiple taps into that run. Here's a picture to show what I'm talking about. I did it this way the whole way around my truck. These are the two under my rear bumper. Power/ground comes from the light at front driver's tire, then continues all the way around the truck until back at the driver's front tire for a total of 16 lights. Heat shrink weather proof butt connectors in between the runs from location to location.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TheHardWay]

I'm not sure if we are or not? When I hear daisy chain I think series? But I'm going to do them parallel. So all the positive wires off the LED's will be soldered to the same main power wire, and all the negatives will be on the same ground wire (I'm taking that advice too, it makes sense). Not daisy chained one LED to the next. If you do that, and one of them gets torn off or whatever, then they all go out. Like old fashioned Christmas tree lights. That would suck...

This was my understanding of what daisy chaining was. For what it's worth, it you tuck the lights up out of the way like I did with mine, you won't have to worry about ripping them off. I think I'd have to rip my axles and drivelines off well before my rock lights were at risk. And in that case, I've got bigger things to worry about than my lights not working, haha!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MikeGyver]

Daisy chain usually implies series. He's talking paralleled like (some) christmas lights. Which would work fine if the layout/routing worked.

 

[rockdog]

Mike, draw me a picture.

 

[sawtooth4x4]

Scrape some of the coating off the "main wire" and solder your lighting (+) wire to the main wire. Then cover it with heat shrink. It'll be a much cleaner install and will last much longer then some crap crimp connector.

Ground your ground wire to the chassis. Saves on wiring and makes it so much more simple.