Help with wiring LED lights

Hello,
I am inexperienced when it comes to wiring but have recently started making upgrades to my truck. I have a Rough Country 40 inch LED strip that I have mounted under my hood bulge. The manual doesn't go electrical at all, it comes with 3 wires:
White - Ground
Red - Amber lights
Brown - White lights.
I have grounded the White wire to a bolt in the engine compartment, and have tapped the red wire into the cigarette lighter fuse in the box under the dash. I have the brown wire capped because I am waiting for a switch to come in. Do all three wires need to be connected for the lights to work? I have tried the inj, ign, and acc fuses as well and nothing makes the lights come on.

 

Do you have a relay? You will need one if you are trying to go off an existing switched circuit. That acts as a trigger rather than the main power source. power goes from your tapped fuse and battery through the relay.


If you are not going to use a relay, then it is straight to the battery rather than off a switched circuit. The switch though needs to be rated for the draw, and that’s outside my wheelhouse.


I’ve had good luck with prefabbed harnesses that have the relay, to a switch such as this:

$16 Nilight Copper LED Light Bar Wiring Harness Kit - 1 Lead 12AWG Heavy Duty 12V On Off Switch Power Relay Blade Fuse for Off Road LED Work Light,2 Years Warranty

https://www.amazon.com/Nilight-1002...ocphy=9033785&hvtargid=pla-2281435180778&th=1

 

I actually bought a 30 amp relay, 10 gauge wire, and a 30 amp inline fuse yesterday. Unfortunately I've searched for any and all information about specs for these lights and have found nothing. I bought the relay but do not have a plug for it. Can I just wire straight into it or do I need to go buy a plug? If just wiring I assume the relay needs to be covered somehow, what would be the best way to do that? Here is the manual so you can see what I'm dealing with. The second photo is the last page of the manual and the last section is the only thing it says about wiring. Thanks for all your help!

 

I just looked these up, and since they are an LED strip and not a light bar I’m guessing you would be fine without a relay for higher power. One review said he put the Amber wire to the low beam headlights, and the white leds to the high beam headlights using fuse extenders for each.

do they work touching the red wire to the battery positive right now? If not your ground might be bad. I would then check red and white direct to battery and make sure the light strip isn’t defective.

doesn’t look like you have to use both, so I can’t imagine capping one is the issue.

 

I looked at them also. No spec given for amperage draw. The relay you can direct wire them with spade connectors or a universal relay plug.. Test the light first as you mentioned nothing happened, the ground to a clean connection or to the battery neg and the red or the white to the positive terminal..

 

No need to cover relay. I have mine mounted near the battery on fender wall. 10 gauge wire is rated for 30 amps. Overkill for that light but will work. If you have a switch that is rated for the amp draw of the light then no need for a relay. That said I would always use 1.