Roof lights

I’m looking to put some roof lights on my rig. I like the look of the round lights rather then a bar, but I don’t want to pay the price of the KC lights. I think I wanna mount then upside down on a on a roof rack. My question is has anyone done this before? If so or has any ideas on wiring them up?
Photos for reference. TIA

 

The wiring comes down to the amount of current draw ? size of the wire and circuit protection

If you want to use a Relay or not and where do you want to mount the switch

just how do you want to run the wire.

I have done up through the door pillar to the roof .

Out through the floor up along the right or left rear of the cab

never a double cab

 

I’d for sure wire them to a relay. Pretty simple other than that.

 

If I were to get something like this and solder them together to plug in, would that work?

 

Yes, so long as it says it’s rated to handle the amount of watts you want to put through it with the # of lights you want.

ie: if you want 4 of the 33wat pods, make sure the harness is rated to at least 132watts max.

 

I see. Thank you.

 

Look for amps, not watts on the relays and wires. You'll probably find things are more expensive when marketed with watts since people dealing in those terms don't know what they're doing - easier to take advantage of.
Also, almost all LED wattages are overrated for marketing - sometimes by as much as double. 100W/12.8V = 7.8A.

 

Unless you mount those Amazon lights really far back, you’re going to get bad hood glare. The KCs have a highly engineered optic with no forward escaping light that isn’t reflected, giving incredible control and all but eliminating hood glare.

 

Okay, could I buy wire and a relay separate And make my own harness? Or would that be to complicated? Thank you for your tip

 

I was wondering about that.. maybe I’ll have to look at some better lights

 

In round there are not any other LED options I’m aware of. In non-round there is products by Diode Dynamics with their TIR optics, or reflector light bars as posted here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-sae-j581-aux-high-beam-thread.696597/page-17#post-26216012

In halogen round Hellas Black Magic lights have internal shields minimizing light spill and causing the reflector to look black.

For your criteria the KCs will be the best fit, but are not inexpensive. You can buy the Pro6 lights in pairs though, if you wanted to say put 4 lights up there vs a full bar. The Diode Dynamics bar will likely be the best value, but not offer the round look you are going for.

 

Lights are definitely something where you get what you pay for.

The guys over at donut (I can't believe I'm recommending this) are currently building out two 1st gen Tacomas, and they just did a segment on "adding lights." They compared a cheap light bar (which is going to be like what you're looking at on Amazon) with KC lights (at ~20x the cost).

It was interesting to see how, at the beginning - even when turning on the light bar and KC lights at night - they initially were fooled by the "better light" of the light bar. However, by the end (spoiler alert), they said that "More money is more better" and both said that it was "a better value" to go the KC route. The reason is that the most important thing for lighting isn't actually the power or amount of light coming out. The most important thing are the lenses and reflectors that aim the light down the road.

Essentially, I recommend checking this out because even a couple guys who don't really know anything about trucks or lighting, came around after their first experience of "hi" and "lo" lights.

Unless you're just going for daytime looks, then it doesn't really matter.

 

Yes, you can absolutely buy separate wire and relay to make your own harness, if done correctly it's the best option because you can make it the exact length you need it to be. Cost wise it'll be a wash however due to the cost of supplies for your first one. However each harness you make out of those wire spools ultimately reduce the cost of each harness lol

If you're really interested in learning and aren't scared of reading to learn this page is very informative to a beginner

https://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/relay-guide.html

 

Yep. I did 5 for like 20 bucks

Like this, but mine have inline fuse holders as well:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/371624481987

I should note that it helps to have spare wire and switches around, I guess not everyone does, so maybe that original screenshot you sent is fine

 

OP it comes down to your current skill level and what your comfortable with doing.

I have been building Custom harnesses most of my life to me if your not going to be doing a lot of harness building you may as well just buy what you need.

Which does you no good if your doing something really outside the box.

just remember whatever circuit you build the parts you select are determined by the maximum current draw

 

Why not buy 4 sets of highlighters and wire them all seperate to 4 different switches so that you can adjust the amount of light you require?

https://www.kchilites.com/6-dayligh...MI_IfwhayB8wIVgbbICh1RPgaVEAQYAyABEgKsbfD_BwE

 

Do you actually do a lot of night wheeling where these would actually be useful? Or are you just going for looks?

Nothing wrong with going for looks, but if that's the case, just get the cheapest shit on Amazon.

But if you actually intend to use them off road, spend the money on the good stuff.

 

What I HATE about that episode, and essentially all of these "light comparison" videos is they don't actually stop and consider if you actually NEED lights in the first place.

*Especially* for a "low budget" build, why waste even $90 on a crap set of lights you never actually USE? I bet the vast majority of people with bars or pods on their trucks haven't turned them on since the night they installed them.

 

Oh, they are on. Just not when they are offroading.

 

Same folks who throw those sweet ass LEDs in their stock housings.

"Dude, bro, these lights are epic. Check it. RGB lights in the fenders too, bro.