knight light, bright lights.

[Greaves]

I recieved a nice Christmas gift this year, a reverse light for my Duelly. I had seen this product reviewd favorably in the TDR, and was excited to give it a whirl.

Finished work on Weds night and decided to put it together, seemed simple, and the truck had been laid up for a facelift. Found the wires, easy. Put the light over the reese reciever, ok so far. Ooops, you cant access the real nice metal encased 7 wire plug any more, and the pin for the hitch would be a bear to access. So, I look over the directions some more. Seems you have to relocate the real nice protected and welded plug using a real cheesy flash chromed bracket, supplied thoughtfully with the kit. Not acceptable.

So I figure Ill make it removable by having it slip into the reciever, so I can take it out when I tow. Now it sticks out way to far and looks like something found on a Ford. Now its late, I leave it there and go home.

Next morning my brothe comes in, he got me the light, and heads over to the band saw and hacks in two.

He apparently wasn't impressed either.

So we took the two halves and welded a section of hammered steel to form a cover and then welded that to the outside edge of the hitch frame. Now it works, spreads the light well, and makes sense.

Buy your own light and a cheap light switch/solenoid, This one isnt even sealed well, says if you install in a harsh enviroment ( like behind a truck?) you should seal it with silicone. Not impressed. Live and learn.

 

[TFarrell]

yup i bought one of these things too. piece of crap for the money. i mean it works good and if you dont tow anything its ok but otherwise you have to lay under the truck to see/remove the pin and you need long hitches that clear it so on top of the price of the light i had to buy a different hitch that was long enough to stick out so i could get the pin in. i would not recommend this to anyone, i could have just as easily bought 2 lights at autozone for 20-30 bucks and would have been alot more practical. boo.....

 

[RRees]

I was able to drill another hole in my hitch. However, I do like mine. They work for me.



The hitch pin removal is a pain, but I only swap that out a few times a year, so I can live with that inconvenience.

 

[Greaves]

Ive got pics comeing of what we did to mine, makes a PITA thing into something worthwhile. Soon as I figure out how to post photos.

See ya soon

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

This is all too funny!



I asked the same questions about those lights - quickly determined they were a poor design, so paid Harbor Freight $8 for a set of these, and used the hitch bolt holes in the bumper to mount:



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These come with wiring and a switch so they can be selected off or on, but I installed a relay for the higher 55 watts these draw, and ran a power wire direct to the battery. The relay control wire taps into the OEM backup light circuit, and all is well... These sit up higher and slightly back from the hitch hardware, so are well protected - plus they are totally adjustable - sometimes "simpler" and "cheaper" actually WORKS! :-laf :-laf

 

[Allnew2Me]

Here is what I came up with for mine. https://www.turbodieselregister.com/forums/showthread.php?t=173498

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

Here is what I came up with for mine. https://www.turbodieselregister.com/forums/showthread.php?t=173498

That's about as clean, OEM style as you could ask for - nice job!



Do you fimd the light pattern acceptable, and is it adjustable at all?

 

[Turbo Tim 1]

Here is what I did for lights on the back of mine



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[Camelracer]

This is how I solved my rear lighting problem. These lights are small enough to fit out of the way above the receiver. They have 55w bulbs and put out a lot of light.

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

This is how I solved my rear lighting problem. These lights are small enough to fit out of the way above the receiver. They have 55w bulbs and put out a lot of light.

One thing I found helpful with my lights - which are actually "driving lights", was to place some aluminum foil in front of the otherwise smooth and too focused OEM reflector. The OEM tended to produce a very localized spot of light, instead of a broader area of illumination - crumpling and then spreading out the aluminum before cutting to fit inside the housing made all the difference in the world with better, less concentrated light dispersal, and now the entire area behind the truck gets lit, not just a couple of smaller spots.



I use this same method on my RV tail lights as well, they were pretty hard to see otherwise, but the added reflection of the foil makes them easily seen even in bright sunlight. This is especially helpful on older lights where the internal reflective surface has dulled or rusted...

 

[Allnew2Me]

Hi Gary, thanks for the kind words. The lights are adjustable in the sense that they can be moved slightly within the rubber grommets, but they really throw a nice flood right where I need it to be. I did change the bulbs from stock to the uncoated type which really improved the flood and got rid of some of the focused quality.

 

[Greaves]

pics of my reverse light fix

here is the knight bright modification.

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pic of my brother cutting the housing. . then the steel shell



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here it is together

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all finished

easy do it your self kit. so long as you have a machine shop in your pocket.

accellorate on the corners!

 

[CRuth]

If only I was brave enough to wire these in with the regular backup lights.

 

[Greaves]

actually, with a cheapo hardware store type solinoid, about 2. 50 around here, I think you could. Use your reverse light to bring on the solinoid, grab power from wherever, and voila.

Pisser.

Charlie.

 

[CRuth]

You can't see it in that photo, but I have a heavy guage wire run back to a 12v outlet, for whatever you might want to plug in. My objection to the high floods would be blinding people unneccessarily.

 

[Greaves]

the only time they would be on is in reverse. so no worries on "blinding" someone, and anyone that close while your rig is backing down, needs a heads up.

Do it.

 

[CRuth]

Parking lots, gas stations, lots of places where it would be rude to have those lights on.