How To Get Better Bambi-Vision With Your 2004-2006 F-150

or how to hot wire your fog lights on with your high beams, stick it to stupid lighting laws and see what you're doing in the dark

If you live in a rural areas you understand the necessity of throwing as much light down the road to light your path and spot any critters in lemming mode that are waiting alongside the road to end it all by casting themselves in front of your cruel tires.

Nowadays there are government laws that require manufactures to turn off OEM fog lights when the high beams are switched on. Annoying since most people turn on their high beams because they want more and not less light. All the more unfortunate since late-model F-150s leave something of a "dark spot" right in front of the vehicle with high beams on that the fog lights would illuminate well.

After hitting five deer, one skunk (that was bad), a porcupine, and whatever else, my contribution toward animal conservation was to convert my fog lights so they stay on with my high beams to help me better see and swerve around the little buggers that dive out in the road.

This is how it is done with 2004-2006 Ford F-150s:

First, disconnect your battery.

Behind the passenger kick panel on your late-model F-150 is your fuse box. Pull the access cover off, locate the relay in the top center and pull it out.

To make your fog lights stay on with the high beams, you need to provide a permanent ground to one of the pins. At your work bench carefully bend over the tab you see in the photo above. Try to be gentle but bend it over so that it nearly folded over on itself and follows the contour of the relay case. Then get a length of wire (I used 20g) and crimp on a female blade and stick it and the attached wire on the relay pin you folded over. When you're done you'll have what you see in the photo above.

Before you push the relay back into the fusebox, use a side-cutter to nibble away or notch the plastic to the right side of the relay socket on the fusebox to gain clearance for the folded over pin. Then pop in your relay and make certain that it is secure.

Now locate the green grounding bolt located below and rearward of the fusebox. You'll want to pull the door kicker panel partially out to gain clearance for more space to work in (that pannel has two two clips: pull straight back and the panel will lift out of the way). Route the lose wire coming off of your relay behind the big electrical plug on the rightside (rearward) of the fuse box, cut off the excess wire and crimp on an eyelet. Remove the green grounding bolt and reinstall the bolt with your grounding wire.

Button the two panels you pulled out of the way back up, and then connect your battery. You're done and should feel pretty good about yourself because your fog lights will now stay on with the high beams!

Eric's Motorcycling Do-It-Yourself Page

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