Thread: Some advice on wiring etc on 4wd vehicle

A little while ago after feeling a it dejected not wanting to hurt my ute up the Avoca and Wilberforce rivers I decided it was time to purchase an older, but more capable rig for rattling up rivers and into hunting spots. I am now the proud(?) owner of a gen2 LWB pajero.

The previous owner had done a bit of 4wd'ing with it and had set it up not half bad so I thought it would make a good base for a hunting rig.
I'm going through a few things and first up is the light bar. When I got the vehicle the wiring had been disconnected as I was told it wouldn't pass wof with the lightbar able to be used whilst low beam headlights were on, ie: it needs to be wired in such a way that it will only turn on whilst high beam is on and not blind someone off the road when headlights are dipped.
Currently it's wired direct to the battery (it does have a fuse in the line) and has a switch on the dash.
The truck has been converted to run two 12v battery's, one as a start only battery, and everything else runs off the "house" battery. The headlights have been rewired completely and run off replacement bosch relays.


I'd like to run the lightbar through a relay and my very basic understanding has come up with the following plan:

1. Switch on dash draws 12v from the 12v supply on high beam relay (this way the switch will only actually activate the light bar relay if high beam is on... If I'm correct?)

2. Relay is wired up normally other than drawing switch power from the high beam relay.

Is this going to work? (and hopefully be legal?) Maybe I'm not making sense but it seems to work in my head. I don't want to melt shit.

I had also thought about moving the light bar to sit on the winch bar itself instead of up on the bull bar part. I'm thinking maybe it was mounted high like that for a reason? Plenty of light if crossing water and headlights are dipping below the surface? See over scrub etc?

I've been in a few trucks with the lights mounted on the roof racks or roof basket and it's bloody horrible throws light onto the bonnet and is worse than not having the lights fullstop.