mhchockey84 said:
Went to turn on my lights after installing them today and my grill/fog lights would t turn on. I went and checked the fuse and it was blown so I went and replaced it. Blown again so I checked my wiring at the connection point where i connected my lights and it was all good. Tried moving the wire over to another switch button blown again. I'm using a 30A in-line fuse holder and have tried using 15 20 25 v fuses
The fuse blows, so let's use a bigger fuse. :thumbsup:
Fuses exist to protect the wiring and whatever surrounds the wiring from thermal damage (you can read that "fire"). Fuses should be sized for 125% of the maximum expected steady-state current consumption of the load - but never bigger than what the wire (size and length) is capable of carrying. Whelen has a very nice wire gauge/amperage/length chart if you haven't seen it. In this case, your wiring isn't entirely clear... is this fuse only servicing the four lightheads, or is this the input to your siren? If it's just the 4 lightheads, 5A should be more than sufficient.
BTW, automotive fuses are sized based on amperage - so the number on top indicates 5, 10, 15, 20 amps... not volts. Your fuse holder is rated to handle, at biggest, a 30A fuse. Voltage doesn't matter in this instance since we presume you're working on a nominally 12V system... but most blade fuses are designed for 30 volts maximum.
Please - if you don't understand the basics of electronics, find someone to help you who does. Chances are there's someone on your department, a local ham radio operator, a local radio tech, someone who will gladly help you. It might cost you a few bucks, a lunch, or a case of beer (the beer should be delivered *after* the install is done, not before!). The concepts aren't hard, but you need to understand them before you damage your equipment, damage your vehicle, or wind up with your ass hanging out when you're trying to protect a scene with your lights and they fail on you. If you're going to trust your safety to this stuff, it needs to be done right.