Going Broke the Fun Way

Trump approves of this!

 

I have a question about the led lights on your door, i have tried doing that a different way but it failed. Can you tell me where exactly I need to wire it up to?

 

There are a couple ways to do it but I used a standard hot wire that I ran from my fuse block. I used a 2amp fuse because its the smallest I had. I then connected the light strip ground to the blue wire in the wiring harness that is inside the drivers side A-Pillar. The blue wire is the dome light ground that is activated by the door switch. This will allow the under-door lights to activate whenever the dome light comes on.

 

is there any way you can send me photos? i tried wiring my lights through the door jamb switch itself but it actaully cut the lights off when the door opened.

 

I dont have any pics but you are correct in that you cannot wire it into the switch itself, it will provide the opposite action than is needed (i did that also). The wiring harness with the blue wire is directly behind the oh-shit handle on your drivers side A-Pillar. Your hot wire can be connected to any constant hot wire or fuse block. The ground is the important part. Connect it to the blue wire in the A-Pillar and it will work correctly.

Toyotas are a bit weird with their wiring. Tapping into the dimmer wires will have the opposite effect also. Instead of dimming when theyre supposed to, theyll brighten. I heard a guy once call it reverse circuitry. Technically that makes no sense but it makes it easy to understand. Tapping into the correct wire in the wrong place will give you the opposite effect to what youre wanting.

 

Toyota vehicles and their dimmers work with switching the neutral. That is why people always have the issue

 

so can I just a t-tap to connect the blue wire to the ground on my led strip?

 

I enjoyed your write up. Have you come across any others that are similar to this? If so please send me the link! Good looking Tacoma.

 

Thanks for the info and write up. Finally got my lights working. On to the next thing on the bucket list which grew bigger after reading this post

 

So i had a bit of a problem wiring the ARB fridge. The dilemma: the drawer the fridge sits on slides out 60". That requires 60" of slack in the power cable for the drawer to fully extend. I thought about many different methods but finally decided on something that makes perfect sense but i couldnt find anywhere online where someone had tried it. I figured i would be the test subject. This is where me not being married paid off since i dont have a wife to murder me. I went home and tore the vacuum cleaner apart for one if its parts. It had an automatic spring loaded cord reel. It took a little bit of modifying the reel to make it work but it works like a charm.

Sorry the pictures suck. Now the spring loaded reel keeps the power cable taut and the drawer with fridge is allowed to slide freely for the full 60" extension. Its probably the worst looking mod ive ever done but im having a very hard time finding a reel that i can replace it with. If i find a better one ill switch it out. Now i need a hoover sticker to put on the fridge to honor the vacuum cleaner that gave its life for such a good cause.

 

Oh man, now my clothes iron with retractable cord has a very concerned look on his face.