I have a 2009 Ford Ranger four-cylinder 2.3 L
I would like to wire my fog lamps to my parking lights what is the safest way to do it.? Can I tap directly into the parking lights and is it safe to do so ? Any help would be much appreciated

 

You will probably have to use a relay to do that. I doubt the circuit going to the parking lights is rated high enough to handle the fog lamps too. The fog lamps should have its own power source through a relay that is controlled by the power going to the parking lights.

 

Welcome to the forum

You can use the Parking light 12volt wire WITH a relay, relays only draw about .5 amps, 1/2 and amp

Adding fog lights directly to the Parking light wire would blow parking light fuse, best case, melt wires first, worst case.


Relays are very easy to work with, not much of a learning curve to get the basics

A relay is just a remote on/off switch, but instead a switch you move with your hand, the switch is moved with a "magnet"

When you wrap a metal bar with a coil of wire, and then run power thru that wire, the metal bar becomes a magnet, an electro-magnet
It doesn't take much power to do that on a small scale, like 1/2 amp of power

The switch part of a relay is totally separate, just in the same "box"

Diagram of automotive relay here: https://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/user/...diagram_Lg.png

A spring inside pushes "switch" open, when "coil" gets 12v and Ground, its magnetic power pulls switch closed against spring pressure.

You would add a FUSED wire to battery terminal, maybe 15amp fuse, look at the Fog Lights watts or amps needed
That fused wire would run to the relays Switch contact
Then a wire from the other switch contact to the 2 fog lights
Ground the fog lights

Battery-----fuse-----------------------------------relay------------------------fog lights-------------ground

A fuse ALWAYS goes as close to the Power source as possible/practical


Then you need to ground the relay's Coil
And now cut a Parking light's 12volt wire, and add another wire then twist the now 3 wires together, run the 3rd wire to relay's other Coil connection

When you turn on parking lights the relay will activate and power up the fog lights

Now you could also add a GROUND switch in the cab to disable fog lights
The relay's coil won't work without a ground wire, so you could run that 1 smaller wire into the cab and put it on a CAB GROUNDED toggle switch



Relay's have a VERY old numbering system
Seen here: https://faceitsalon.com/wp-content/u...iagram-13a.jpg

85 and 86 are the Coil(magnet), there is NO Polarity, either can be + and the other -, as long as there are BOTH then coil will become a magnet

30 and 87 are the switch, there is no direction, either can be hooked to battery and the other to the Load(fog lights)

A 12v 30/40 amp automotive relay with base is usually under $8, often you can buy 5 for $15

These will usually be 5 wire, don't let that through you, the 5th wire is for 87A
seen here: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...fPfzdLuBLV2Fg-

30 and 87A are connected when relay is OFF, it is a two position relay, which does have it uses, and cost the same as one position so..............
Everything is laid out the same just an extra pin and wire