Batboard

Just got a dodge dakota sport 1998. Just wondering if the headlights are postive switching or ground sided switching. Planning out my lights an radio install. Its going to be sweet when i get done with it. Just for reference this is what im planning on doing.


Radios.
Motorola cm300 vhf
motorola spectra uhf
radio shack scanner.
chargers for mt2000. saber

lights
blue/blue talon infront of rear view mirror. love that light.
wigwags
blue grill lights halogen
to the rear:
federal led signal tech one on each side wigwaged.
rear brake an tail lights wigwaged.
and maybe a mini light bar.

dont use wigwags on that era durango or dakota.
Umm.
I dont remember why.
But its bad.

Oh. and talon good. bright little sucker.

The 98 is safe to do wigwags on.

The '00 went to the "logic" style, which requires its own flasher that's available from Sound-Off.

It wasnt anything haveing to do with the type of switching, it was the fact that the wiring and bulbs could not handle the low beam and high beam on at the same time, causing them to burn out the bulbs faster, and damage the wiring.

Dodge says no wig-wags on that era dakota or durango. Ask them.

You can do it.....trust me. You aren't going to overheat a standard Halogen insert lamp in a large housing like that. Besides.....this same lamp# is used in many vehicles that engage low and hi beams at the same time.


The housings haven't chaned in these trucks for years and I've never seen a melted one yet, let alone a burned lamp and I've done quite a few Durango/Dakotas. If you believe you'll cause a problem, don't do it, but I wouldn't worry about it.

Do to some techinicalltys i ended up getting a 99 dakota with 4x4 instead of 98. An i believe the 99 uses negative ground side switching. so thats changed. Also I had a led slim lighter the new version. an I wanted to put it in the back but the sliding middle window rails blocked the light so i decided to put the federal ones in. but I was bored yesturday so i decided to take my slim lighter apart. well to make a long story short i mounted each light head in a radio shack project box an know i can have one light on one side an the other on the other said. I try to get a picture of them. it worked really good.

yeah,. i've seriously consitered either splitting a slimlighter, or getting one old style and one new style, and swapping a head between the two.

Well I built the console an installed it. I installed my saber vhf convertacom in the console. I installed my corner strobes in the turn signals. I split the slimlighter apart an mounted those to the rear. I have my firebeam mounted on the front dash. All wired to one relay under the rear passengers seat in the compartment. All the lights are on a light switch in a radioshack project box with a locking key switch. I will try an get some pics up here. Im going to be adding more radios when i get them.

With the console i made it out of 3/4 plywood. we uninstalled the original middle seat an arm rest. I painted the new plywood box gloss black it looks sweet. then reinstalled the arm rest on the console. So when the arm rest is down you can only see the convertacom but when you lift it up you will see the rest of the radios when they are installed. its really nice.
I also have a rapid charger for my mt2000 uhf mounted under the dash.

I will be installing my talon as soon as it gets fixed by the factory. I accidently reversed the polarity an it blew a chip on the circuit board in the light. I emailed whelen an they told me they have never had this happen before an they would warrente it this time. they wanted to investigate why it blew the chip. So im waiting for my baby to come back to me.