Wipac spotlights

Hello, I recently bought a 1996 defender 90, and I am having a problem getting spotlights working on it. It already had 4 spotlights fitted above the windscreen when I bought it. These were wired to switch on to the full beam. I have bought an a-bar with 2 wipac spotlights (100W) and tried wiring them through a relay but cannot get them working. I used the live from the spotlights already fitted to switch the relay, and then took a live directly from the battery (with an in line fuse) to feed the new spotlights. The problem is that the new spotlights only work for about 2 minutes before blowing the in line fuse, I have tried using fuses up to 30 amp but still have the same problem, even though there doesn't seem to be anything shorting it out. A local mechanic has advised me not to try a fuse bigger than 30 amps as it could be dangerous. Has anyone else had the same problem, or know of anything I'm doing wrong? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

well assuming the roof bar lights are 55watts times 4 = 220w + 2x100w = 440w 440w/12v = 36amps if the top lamps are 100w then that jumps to 600w which at 12v = 50amps

Wire em to a seperate relay. & switch as roof bar lights are illegal for use on a public highway anyway and will need to be switched seperately from main beam

The roof bar lights (55W), have 2 seperate relays (1 relay to 2 lights) each with 20 amp fuses, the other relay does just the 2x 100W spotlights so I thought a 30 amp in line fuse would be more than enough. Didn't know that roof bar lights were illegal, but they have a seperate switch so can be switched off for road use, thanks for that!

n321bounce said:

The roof bar lights (55W), have 2 seperate relays (1 relay to 2 lights) each with 20 amp fuses, the other relay does just the 2x 100W spotlights so I thought a 30 amp in line fuse would be more than enough. Didn't know that roof bar lights were illegal, but they have a seperate switch so can be switched off for road use, thanks for that!

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in that case there's a problem either with the relay (try one of the roofbars relays) or there's a short in the wiring to the Abar lamps somewhere. Also try taking the live feed to the relay direct from the headlamp mainbeam feed