Safe place to pull relay trigger power from?

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1111ExpyEL1111

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I'm looking to add some exterior LED, I'll call them decorative lights to our twenty twelve and twenty sixteen Expeditions. I'm going to be installing a relay so that the leds pull power right from the battery. My question is i'm looking for the best place and safest place to pull the trigger power from for when I turn on the headlights or running lights.
 

FordMafia

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It depends on when you want the lights to come on
For example:
If you place the trigger with the low beam then the lights will only be on when the low beam is on and will turn off if you put your high beams on or have lows off
Or if you use the parking light wire on the indicator bulb connector (not the indicator wire) then they will be on almost all the time bc the vehicle uses those as drls if I'm not mistaken - this would be my preference

At least this is the way I understand it and I'm not an expert

Take a look for yourself: charm.li
This is a diagram for my 2010 but you can get an idea of what I mean
I'd say don't make your connection very close to where the wire meets the connector and do it further back so it's easier to repair your wire if you do damage it - 3 or 4 inches back should be plenty (in my opinion, do it how you see fit)
Also people are very against the crimp connectors but if you do a solid crimp and then just tape it afterwards so there no tension where the wire meets the connector, or even use heat shrink, then it should be fine (in my opinion, do it how you see fit) but solder is definitely the best

Pretty interesting that you're doing this. I just got a bunch of stuff on black friday sales to do some similar lighting things and will be doing a more in depth write up sometime next week.
 
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