Adding off road LEDs

I strongly advise you not to take your Prius off road, or to use illegal lights on US highways. Both are bad ideas.

 

As long as the added lights are NOT used on the paved roads there is no issue. Since a Prius only has 4 inches (100mm) of clearance underneath the car, driving across the lawn would be off-roading.

Bill the Engineer

 

But the answer to your question is - Yes, the 12v LEDs will only take the current that they need.

JeffD

 

I'd double-check your local driving laws. Most states have sections which cover "auxiliary driving lights" and a good rule of thumb is if your excess lighting is within a reasonable distance of the ground (not on the roof) and only 4 lamps are illuminated at once (generally headlights + fogs), you're legal. That said, there's legal and there's "legal" so you should go out of your way to only use them in the boonies when you don't have oncoming traffic. Even if you're in compliance in your state laws, some cops will write you anyways.

Michigan allows 2 spots: 257.696

(a) A motor vehicle may be equipped with not more than 2 spot lamps, except that a motorcycle shall not be equipped with more than 1 spot lamp, and every lighted spot lamp shall be so aimed and used upon approaching another vehicle that no part of the beam will be directed into the eyes of the approaching driver. Spot lamps may not emit other than either a white or amber light.

Michigan also mentions the use of auxiliary and spots in 257.685.

(5) When a motor vehicle equipped with head lamps as required in this section is also equipped with auxiliary lamps or a spot lamp or any other lamp on the front of the motor vehicle projecting a beam of an intensity greater than 300 candlepower, not more than a total of 4 of those lamps on the front of a vehicle shall be lighted at a time when upon a highway.

In summary, you're allowed 2, they can be brighter than 300 candlepower, you can run them alongside headlights, and they need to be aimed *and* used so you don't blind other drivers. If your pods are "flood" variety, you won't be able to aim them to not blind other drivers. I know from experience that spot pods, however, are fairly worthless unless you're pointing them outside of the road as "apex" (or deer-spotting) lights. As long as you are very careful about shutting them off for oncoming traffic, this part might slide but you'd technically be in violation. Iowa and Missouri don't have aiming requirements.

Oh yeah, you won't fry your existing harness with LEDs. 100 W halogens, yes (you can make or purchase good relays which would use your existing lamps for the switch though!). The perk to replacing your fogs with them is you'll always be in compliance of the 4 lights rule (that's why fogs turn off with high beams) and you won't have to shove a switched connection through your firewall. The downside is you won't have explicit control. Lights to switched relay to both your fuse for 12 V and your interior for the switch isn't too bad either; you just have to route the wiring.

 

I have a 20in LED Lightbar behind the front grill of my gen 2 along with 6 LED pods (4 on my roof rack and 2 as fog lights) you need to remove the wiper assembly for the firewall access point. I actually use my car off road for off road rallies and when I go to the beach (which is often considering I live on an island), the LED pods shouldn't get you pulled over because most new cars are outfitted with them as stock fog lamps. Anything bigger than the 2x2 LED pods will get you in trouble though.

 

Doooo it....

 

None of my lighting is factory...AND i passed out of province inspection when I got my Alberta plates with all of this.

 

This precaution reminds me of my USAF days. When stationed in England one of our aircraft crew chiefs took a set of F4 (Phantom) landing lights and installed them on his Mini. Talk about getting dazzled, damn were they bright.