how to wire bed lamps:

Those white plugs you see are the connections to the dome light and the center brake light on the shell. It bugs me to no end that they're exposed this way! This is the first Tacoma where I have a chance to hide them, though, since there's that composite liner that I didn't have in previous vehicles. Have to give this some thought...

 

FYI, it's not a liner. It's a composite bed. So if you're thinking of just tucking the connector behind a "liner", forget about it. Unless you want to cut a hole in the bed to stuff it in.

 

good write-up. It will be my template for when I do something similar..

 

pt,

Good point. I misspoke. I know it's a composite bed, but the sidewalls in a sense act as liners, compared to my older trucks. There's a lot of space between the fender wall and bed wall.

I'm being pretty careful about drilling holes in that sidewall, also, especially close to existing mounting points. I don't know exactly what that material is, but I'm pretty sure it can be susceptible to stress fractures.

After drilling the hole for the 12v receptacle, I noted the cut edge was just slightly "frayed", for lack of a better word at the moment. Like drilling a hole in fiberglass. I've had enough experience with sailboats to know that over time those rough edges can feather and begin to flake apart. I'm going to look into what kind of epoxy would give those drilled edges a good, hard finish.

Much as I'd like to hide the plugs, I'll probably just live with them. I have the shell lifted off every year and have the seals redone, having the plugs hidden just complicates that for the guys who do it.

 

cool stuff santacruzer - i was just up in your neck of the woods over christmas in Aptos. My grandfather has a place right on the cliff with a 180* view of the ocean.. rough life man.

Thanks for showing a better area to pick up the hot lead. When i do it i'll update my original post and give credit of course.

 

finally someone puts those useless holes to work.. great idea man thanks. Im going to try that out tomorrow

 

ooo neat, thanks - show me pics when youre done

 

lol I love HF too.

How wide is the spread on these lights? I was thinking about about getting these exact lights for reverse flood lights. I sometimes have to back up near a wall at night, and really need more light back there.

 

they seem pretty wide. Of course i'm limited to whats in the bed.. but they look pretty good. and for $11, you can't go wrong

 

Thanks, I'll give it a shot. I just looked at their website and it looks like they even lowered the price to $10.

 

ooo shit you BETTER jump on that!!

 

Nice write-up man, I just picked up a set of these lights. I am hoping to get install this weekend.

 

Awesome! I had a lot of trouble with the grounding wires from this lighting kit. ALSO make sure and tape everything up.. the connectors dont hold themselves very well. Make sure we see pictures!

 

Thanks for the write up, I will be doing this soon! How can we wire this up with 2 switches, one inside the dash and one in the bed? can someone provide a wiring diagram to be able to switch the light on and off from 2 positions?? Thanks!

 

I'm "working" on it lately (meaning I NEED to work on it...) but the way i've got it in my head is the same way a house with a room with two doors and two switches would have it.. where you could enter one way, switch the light on, and as you leave through the other door, switch the light off.. i'm terrible with wiring for the most part, but once i get a spare weekend i'm going to mess with it..

 

Why not just do a wireless remote? One came with my bed light kit since it was an underbody kit, but you can buy wireless switches for $20 or so at Autozone. Less wiring, and you can turn them on from inside or outside the truck, and turn them off the same way. I use mine to turn them on as I approach the truck to see whats under it or in the bed before I get to it. Oh, and it also means no fumbling in a dark bed for a switch.

 

One thing I didn't get and probably sounds pretty dumb is. Did you run the wire from the passenger side to the switch under the plastic in the bed, or under the whole bed itself?

 

dan if ya ever need help doin anything, im not far away

 

Not under the pastic in the bed becuase it would end up fraying from pressure and movement and whatnot.. i ran it under the bed along a frame rail nearby the spare tire. I didnt even use any zip ties (wasnt needed), just ran it close to the underside of the bed. It will be obvious once you get to that stage.

 

Gotcha, thanks. I might do this sometime soon..