Rovers North headlight wiring harness - any tips?

Rh32

Member
Hello everyone - recently bought a 1990 ROW Defender 90 with a 200tdi. First time posting here, but have been slightly more active (although not much more) on the other site. Have been lurking both though, and learning as much as possible.



My exposure to working on cars in general is pretty much non-existent, but I'm looking for a first project. In doing so, I bought the Rovers North Performance Headlight Harness for H4 bulbs, and some H4 bulbs. They show up in a couple weeks.


Here's the link for the harness:
https://www.roversnorth.com/ProductDesc.aspx?code=RNA0330&type=0&eq=&key=it


The install is supposed to be relatively easy, I'm told. So I thought it would be a good first project to start with. My question is this: does anyone have any experience installing this harness? Any photos of your installation? Anything you'd do differently if you were going to do it again? Any tips to make it as clean and professional-looking as possible?


I realize this is a super simple project for most here, so thanks in advance for your patience with my questions.
 

BarryO

Well-known member
If you're sticking with conventional incandescent/halogen headlamps, this is a good idea as it will save your headlight switch. I haven't done it myself but it should be pretty straightforward.

As for tips, I think most would advise to make no (or as few as possible) alterations to the stock harness. This kit makes this much easier to do. 'probably also a good idea to get the electrical manual for your rig, although you should be able to get this done without problem
 

TravelinLight

Well-known member
This is on my winter to do list as I purchased the generic kit off eBay and need to get around to it.

The biggest issue I see is cutting the harness to get the pig tails through the headlight buckets then re attaching them. Then running the hot wire to the battery.
 

NPT90

Well-known member
these use the existing H4 plugs as relay feeds, all you need to do is run the positive to the battery and the negative to a suitable ground. I used the same kit (boomslag) and my only complaint was that the harness to both lights is a little short meaning that I had to run by loom over the radiator support to reach the other light. They seemed to be too short to run under the radiator.
 

TravelinLight

Well-known member
these use the existing H4 plugs as relay feeds, all you need to do is run the positive to the battery and the negative to a suitable ground. I used the same kit (boomslag) and my only complaint was that the harness to both lights is a little short meaning that I had to run by loom over the radiator support to reach the other light. They seemed to be too short to run under the radiator.
Did you have to cut the pig tails to get into the bucket?
 

NPT90

Well-known member
Did you have to cut the pig tails to get into the bucket?
I am a little confused as to what you are talking about.

Why would you have to cut anything? The headlights have an H4 connection (I am pretty sure). The relay is really self explanatory, you plug one side into the existing H4 harness on the loom (since both sides turn off and on at the same time there's no reason to plug both sides in) and the other runs to the 2 lights.
 

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WreckITFrank

Technical Excellence Contributor
Did you have to cut the pig tails to get into the bucket?

I just replaced mine with the same setup and my light cups were rusty so I replaced them with the plastic open back type. if you don't want to cut the h4 harness, you can pull the grommet and run each of the 3 headlight wires through individually. you have to unplug the bullet connectors first on the other end.
 

Uncle Douglas

Well-known member
Callsign: delete
A suggestion, pull the power for the relay to the positive starter lug instead of to the battery, shorter run and just neater and cleaner. As far as buckets go, we ditch the metal or plastic bowl types and use the NAS 90 and RRC type buckets that are open in the back
 
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TravelinLight

Well-known member
A suggestion, pull the power for the relay to the positive starter lug instead of to the battery, shorter run and just neater and cleaner. As far as buckets go, we ditch the metal or plastic bowl types and use the NAS 90 and RRC type buckets that are open in the back
Thanks Doug, that seems like a much better solution as I really did not want to cut this new harness.

NPT90, I have closed buckets on my ROW 110 that the plug for the bulb would not fit through.

(I was thinking about this some more last night when I was trying to fall asleep. The better solution to cutting the harness would be to drill holes to allow the connector through or replace the buckets as UD suggested. Not sure why I did not think of the drill earlier)
 
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Uncle Douglas

Well-known member
Callsign: delete
Fwiw, if you are running any kind of 2 part headlight with a replacable bulb the early enclosed bucket designed for sealed beam headlights are a royal pita if you have a filament burn out.
What would be a 2 min bulb replacement with the open back headlamp buckets (designed to accomodate H4's) is more like 20-25 if you have the early crap if everything cooperates.
 

ghoregon

Active member
Fwiw, if you are running any kind of 2 part headlight with a replacable bulb the early enclosed bucket designed for sealed beam headlights are a royal pita if you have a filament burn out.
What would be a 2 min bulb replacement with the open back headlamp buckets (designed to accomodate H4's) is more like 20-25 if you have the early crap if everything cooperates.

Doug,

Is this the right part for the open back buckets?

https://www.roversnorth.com/productdesc.aspx?code=PLI239&type=0&eq=&key=it

Thanks,
Greg
 

Rh32

Member
ghoregon - Those are the buckets I bought yesterday actually. Confirmed with Rovers North that they replace the old style enclosed bucket.

O2batsea - You are definitely correct, I considered the LED route but at the end of the day, I just like the look of a traditional headlight on my particular truck a bit better. They're less expensive than Trucklites or similar. I also like that they generate heat and therefore may be better at preventing any ice buildup on the light. A cheaper easier route could have been to swap out the current bulbs in the current headlights for LED bulbs too--that's probably the easiest, but they don't generate heat either. This seemed like a good first project on the truck that is both easy and makes it just a little nicer. But yeah--easiest and probably better in a lot of respects, would be to just put in LEDs and call it a day.
 

TravelinLight

Well-known member
ghoregon - Those are the buckets I bought yesterday actually. Confirmed with Rovers North that they replace the old style enclosed bucket.

O2batsea - You are definitely correct, I considered the LED route but at the end of the day, I just like the look of a traditional headlight on my particular truck a bit better. They're less expensive than Trucklites or similar. I also like that they generate heat and therefore may be better at preventing any ice buildup on the light. A cheaper easier route could have been to swap out the current bulbs in the current headlights for LED bulbs too--that's probably the easiest, but they don't generate heat either. This seemed like a good first project on the truck that is both easy and makes it just a little nicer. But yeah--easiest and probably better in a lot of respects, would be to just put in LEDs and call it a day.


Do I need to order 2? The picture shows two but I assume that is a different angle shot. The price seems too good to be for a set?

I would like to go with LEDs, but ice is a concern in CO and I do not want to have 7 to 10 percent of the trucks value in headlights.
 

Rh32

Member
Installed the harness today. Headlights are functional, but now I'm not getting side indicator lights on the wings, or lower front amber lights. Any guesses what I might have done to somehow screw this up?
 
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