Wiring auxillary back up lights

[mwilson]

Exactly. Trucks are still very custom creations. That's why there are so many actuators available.

 

[mwilson]

Well, I screwed that one relay drawing up...That's why it won't work......must of had a piece of mac-n-cheese loaf in my eye....:-laf

I will see if I can correct the damage, just sitting here tending generator as the power is out. Can't believe that the cable / wi-fi is still up, usually that craps out along with the power. Wind is blowing hard so probably will be out until tomorrow.....gotta' love Maine..

 

[mwilson]

See Post # 31 for REVISED wiring instructions ( I'm an idiot...)

Here is my blurry eyed draft...

 

[CCiatteo]

Success!!!! I went out this afternoon and attacked it fresh with the "revised" single relay options and it works like its supposed to. I will put all the good info together with pics and post it up. Big thanks to mwilson for the countless hours spent engineering a solution and providing the part numbers. I'll snap some pics tonight as well to see how much light they throw.

The only thing I have to do is mount the switch itself, but that shouldn't be difficult, just gotta cut a hole.

Thanks again.

 

[mwilson]

Waiting to see the completed project.

Just want to mention to those following along with this ( waiting to see if I correct it again) that this set up can only be used for standard garden variety LED floods or spots. If you go with incandescent or extremely high lumen LED's a second relay will have to be added to take the load off of the factory circuit.
We don't want to be messing up anybody's fuse panel or circuit protection module...

 

[CCiatteo]

So here's some pics of the install.

Here's the wires I intercepted down along the driver side frame rail. On my 2004.5 its a white wire with a light green trace. Becareful because there are a couple white wires with green/light green traces, so I recommend a test light to probe and find the correct wire before doing any cutting. Its a 16/18 ga wire nothing too heavy. Pretend there's shrink sleeving on the connections, I forgot to slip it on before crimping. So i taped them individually, then together, then tucked them back into the loom.

These are shots taken from my back looking up along the frame rail and into the engine compartment. I followed the factory harness along the frame rail, under side of cab and inner fender and up into the cab.

Harness behind inner fender liner

Into the cab, under the column through the woods and over to the center of the dash area. I used a factory ground for the relay and the switch.

I may flip flop the cig lighter (don't smoke) with the switch position, so its closer to the driver. But I need to investigate how the cig lighter is mounted?

Relay zip-tied out of harm's way behind the kick panel under the steering column.

Fused power from battery to a power strip (from local marine shop, tin plated copper) for future stuff if needed and doesn't clutter up the battery

I then ran the single hot lead out the same way I came into the cab and down along the frame rail to the rear of the truck. No pics of that, but its pretty straight forward except in the area of the fuel tank, that's tight, but doable.

Money shots of the lights in action.

This is the perspective sitting in the driver seat and looking at the driver side mirror, factory lights only versus the factory lights with auxiliary lights. I tried to turn off all other ambient light for full effect. I think a motion light might have tripped on, but the effect is clear.

This is looking out the passenger side mirror, same conditions

This is the perspective standing at the rear of the truck, factory only versus factory with auxiliary lights

This what they look like from the rear looking forward. I may have a spacer made to angle the lights up slighty as the contour of the bumper tends to drive them downward a little bit, but its not a deal killer because they throw so much light.

Regarding mwilson's concern about load on the factory wiring, here are specs for the lights I installed.
LED Quantity: 6 pcs CREE LED
Current Draw: 1.8A@12V
Lumens: 1620 LM
Color Temp: 6000K
Beam Pattern: Spot
IP Grade: IP67

I assume that current draw is for the entire light, not each individual LED. I installed 1 light on each side of the bumper so I figure the total draw is only 3.6 Amps.
I ran 12ga from the battery to the power bar with a 20 amp fuse, then all other wire is 14 gauge. If the lights were NOT LED then I would probably have run 12a out to the rear of the truck (as well as used a second relay somehow to carry the power) or if the LEDs were intended to be "ON" for extended periods of time, like in a snow plowing type environment or a recovery operation. I anticipate extended "ON" times to be 5 - 10 minutes while hooking/backing up a trailer, otherwise normal use.

I am working on putting a color PDF together with all the wiring (switch / truck harness tie in point / relay / lights) together.

 

[crispyboy]

Chris,
Looks like a nice job.
Where did you get your LED backup lights?

 

[CCiatteo]

The lights were from Santa, but I believe they were gotten off Amazon:

http://amzn.com/B00LIZALL4

I think these are it.

 

[mwilson]

Great Job!

Those look great. Nice looking switch BTW.....