Softopper vs Bestop

Idk why I'm against tucking it haha.

 

Yeah I'm honestly not too worried about it.

 

I use 303 products on it probably 3-4 times a year, about how many times I wash it. Staying like new for over 4 years now. Added some fresh seam sealer at some point. Last ride was a 04 Jeep Unlimited and hated those plastic rails and the fit was a pain. This is quality and well thought out.





Pre Lift:

 

I decided for the lighting I’m gonna DIY it together. Some LED strip lighting off Amazon (white) and 8 AA battery holders that have a built in switch to power them. With wires and supplies it’s about $200, most expensive bit being good quality LEDs. Then once I get the Blue Sea fuse box mounting plate from OE I’ll run the wiring up there for power with a proper switch plate (one with 3 switches, USB charger, and volt meter). Just looking at it going “I can’t justify $500 on bed lighting, I’ll deal with doing the hardwire when I do other electrical accessories”. Realistically if you already have wires, heat shrink tubing, soldering iron, dielectric grease, the PET wire sleeving, and strippers (mine rusted out so I have to get a new wire stripper), this way is about $50. The battery holder is $7 for a two pack, the 16.4ft LED strips are $12 each, and the connectors to splice into the LED strips are $8 for a 10 pack that way I can do the lights on the top bar. This is just a trial run to see how the wiring will run and so on, then once everything is together and I decide I’m satisfied I’ll hard wire it all in!

 

Another option is using this light and the block. You can attach it to the bars in the rear with the light facing forward and it lights up the whole bed.

Nebo Big Larry black 400 Lumens C-O-B LED Work Light Flashlight (3 AA Batteries Included),

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01A70W4N8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_5bL1FbAYW295J?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

$14 Two Fish Lockblocks Flashlight Holder , Black

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B001CJXB5E/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_ucL1Fb8GN44RT

 

And, I'll just mention that any jump pack with a low current output can power the LED strips also.

 

The cheap or free SMD LED flashlights at HF are pretty darn good.

 

I have that one on the water heater.

 

I have them all over the place. I miss the freebies.

 

Just doing the 8 AA thing because that’s all that would swap out when I hardwire in. It’s $7 plus AAs that I have laying unused around the house. First doing the third brake light, bed lighting is going to wait. Fabbing up diffuser bars for around the bed rail see if I even need to do any overhead at that point.

 

Paint the housing on these matte black, they come 1 meter (3.3ft) long so I’ll have to connect them together and cut down to size for bed length, bed width is a bit short as well so I’ll have to figure that out. Hard mount them to the bed with screws rather than adhesive. My logic is diffused light should fill up the bed much better than bare strips, thus eliminating any lighting needing to be on the topper (besides the third brake light). We’ll see how it works in time.

 

I went this exact route at first, just to get lighting in the bed. The HF light rattled itself apart and doesn't work anymore

 

Well it’s installed. Took me a little over 2 hours because it’s currently 21 degrees outside. Spent about 45 minutes cussing at the top until I went and got the Mr. Buddy and chucked that into the bed so the vinyl could stretch a bit easier. The bed rails are flexing a little bit towards the inside of the bed under the stress, should be alright because those clamps are clamped as tight as I could get them without too many ugga duggas and over tightening them. Going to be ordering up some additional clamps and redoing the rails in the next few weeks. Thankfully I didn’t have to do much adjusting, I did screw up and set the frame on backwards the first time, exactly what the instructions said NOT to do

 

It took me a week or so of "fine tuning" the thing, adjusting the rails in or out, tightening the straps, tugging on the velcro panels here and there. Its a small learning curve to see how it fits exactly to your truck, but it's friggin' money once you find that sweet spot.

Congrats!

 

Wired up the third brake light, pictures to come tomorrow of the setup once I have actual light. Took a few hours, but that’s because I was being kind of particular about how the wiring was done and I was doing it all with minimal light. All soldered together, custom harnesses, all sleeved with PET sleeving or wire loom behind the tail light. Came out really clean, we’ll see how the adhesive holds up on the LED bar/strip, can always swap that out down the line with a better adhesive (or a different light). Feel much better having that on there so people know when I’m actually stopping rather than the dim factory brake lights.

 

That PET sleeve is the way to go. It's used everywhere on my wires now. I did the @tonered trick and used fishing line with CA glue to hold the 3rd brake.

 

Nice! I don’t have factory bed lighting and am planning on custom LED strip, so on the driver side pop-out panel where the light would go I screwed in an SAE outlet that I wired to the brake light, with an SAE plug soldered to the light itself. That way it’s plug in when topper is up, unplug to fold down. All wires on topper frame are zip tied with reusable zip ties so I can undo them for extra slack as needed when I fold the top down.

 

Anybody actually check the voting results lately? 11:1... TW has spoken!

 

I'm probably gonna run mine the same as my 3rd brake but it'll go all the way to my switchpro. I'm debating on having red and white for different situations. Maybe red with my battery pack and white with the switch pro? Hmm

 

Couldn't you get RGB strips and then control the color with the remote or an app? That would be pretty awesome.