Under hood light installation

This installation uses a Rago bracket and KC Cyclone LED lights. No holes needed to be drilled and the truck was not permanently modified in any way.

To mount the bracket, I used 4 short double-ended automotive studs in the corresponding existing holes in the hood sheet-metal reinforcement. The studs are threaded M8 on one end and M6 on the other. First, I threaded the holes using a tapered M8 "body bolt." Then the studs screwed in by hand. I used a little Super Glue gel on the final threads to keep them from rotating once in place. Finally, I secured the bracket using M6 flange nuts. The rubber washers included with the bracket are between the bracket and the hood sheet metal.

The wiring harness supplied with the KC lights had to be extensively modified for this application.



I used two switches -- a toggle switch on the positive wire, and a pin switch on the ground wire. The pin switch is really a safety, so that the lights are always off when the hood is closed. Both of these switches use existing holes in the sheet metal. BTW, that's a Megatronix pin switch. Another flat had to be filed on the body of the pin switch so that it could fit through the oblong hole in the fender.

There's very little clearance for the wires underneath the toggle switch, but it can be done.



The wires are encased in a spiral loom, which fits through an existing hole in the hood.



Nice and bright!

 

Nice work, I did a similar deal using the same lights but mounted and wired a bit differently. Bought some camera pivots off of Amazon and bolted them to two empty holes on the hood. Bolted the lights to those. Ran the wiring down in loom and over to the battery and mounted the KC switch. That switch is garbage, eventually the wires stopped making contact internal to the switch so I got a very similar switch from AutoZone that uses ring terminals instead. Problem solved.

I want to put the ground on a pin switch, but haven't found one I like. I'll check out the Megatronix. My main problem is no pin switches seem to last very long exposed to the elements. If that one works better, that would be great.

Something else odd, the KCs seem to somehow be able to get ground through their base; just being bolted in place like they are, they will light up (but sort of flicker) if I apply power to them despite the ground being disconnected, so I'm not sure I can really control them via a ground switch anyways unless I wire the ground switch to a relay that controls the power side.

Few pics of my setup:





Anyways, nice job!

 

So true. KC includes the cheapest possible Chinese switch. I used a slightly less cheap Chinese switch. Let's see how long it lasts.

I tried out a couple of different pin switches. I like this one because it's so simple and sturdy. The body is solid brass, and the plunger looks like a very rugged polymer. It only needs to be depressed about 1/8" to break contact. BTW, I had to get two them (about $7 apiece) in order to get two of the flanges that sandwich the sheet metal fender. Otherwise, I would have had to drill holes in the fender.

That is odd. The Cyclones have a thick rubber washer on the back, that cushions and isolates them from the mounting bracket. There's only a single mounting bolt, that doesn't look like it makes electrical contact. Anyway, I haven't experienced this behavior.

 

AutoZone had a switch selection on the endcap of one of the aisles and one of them was exactly like the KC one (prewired), and then another one next to it that was just like it but the terminals were threaded plates for rings to fasten to. Went with that one and it seems sturdy with no signs of disintegrating, so hopefully that one is the ticket.

Yeah, don't know what the deal is here. I installed KCs on my Jeep hood as well and same condition. Actually, happened there first. I do have the V2's, and it kind of looks like yours are the older V1s, so maybe that's the difference. Who knows, I have my workarounds, but it definitely makes it a bit more work. Not the end of the world, for now I'm just using them manually. I'm not under the hood that much.

 

Looking good.

I installed the Matt Gecko under hood lights - put my switch in the same position and used plastic shielding to protect the wires. Workes like a champ.

 

What kind of switch is that? It looks like a push button on/off. I used the next hole (lower hole in your picture), and I'm not happy with the fit. Yours looks much more integrated. What kind of connectors does it use?

 

It is a waterproof push button that came with the kit. It's sealed with the two wires coming off it - can't remember if it had connectors or just wire ends.

 

Thanks.

 

Now you guys need hood struts! I got my under hood led kit from matt gecko too. I should put my switch in that position too

 

A couple bucks a piece, stick them anywhere! No wiring! Long lasting batteries!

 

Already got 'em.

 

I'm a prop-rod connoisseur, myself.

 

I find it weird that a switch is tied to ground as stated above copied below.

Something else odd, the KCs seem to somehow be able to get ground through their base; just being bolted in place like they are, they will light up (but sort of flicker) if I apply power to them despite the ground being disconnected, so I'm not sure I can really control them via a ground switch anyways unless I wire the ground switchto a relay that controls the power side.”
What if you want to switch positive, wouldn’t it be a leak?

buy good components.

should we switch the positive or the negative?

 

The light kits as KC ships them comes with a manual flip switch that is meant to be hooked to positive. The ground cable is meant to be grounded all the time.

What I have noticed, is that if I try to control the lights differently (put the ground on a switch and provide power to the lights all the time), the lights end up turning on even when the ground is not connected....because somehow, the lights are grounding through the base they are bolted to. They have a rubbery plastic housing, so I'm not sure how this is happening, but it definitely happens.

they are good components, I think they just have a small design flaw that allows them to get ground through their base even though they have a dedicated ground wire. It's not a problem at all if you use the supplied KC switch on the power circuit as KC ships the kits, so it's not really a problem as KC sees it.

I want to control the lights automatically, and doing so typically uses a switch on the ground circuit, so I have to instill a workaround if I want it to work right, by utilizing a relay, which will be operated by the ground switch, and the relay will control the power side of the lights.

 

This is a cool idea.

I could have really used these on my Gen 2 Raptor. Seemed like that thing was always giving me a problem (Cam Phasers).
Never thought about adding underhood lights, But I did permanently fix the issue.

Bought a Toyota.

 

I am currently (finally) getting to the under-hood and bed light install.

Question for you... Matt's kit has two branches of LEDs. It seems from your photo you just ran the two strips next to each other. I was outside trying to figure out how to mount them, and was always thinking of starting in the middle and branching out., but they're too long...

Also, the hole that your wires run through near the windshield base on the driver's fender... I've already determined that that hole (plus the one on the passenger side) make good homes for the plunger switch. I just had to bend the blade to be perpendicular to the travel of the plunger switch.

I am planning to install a aux fuse block for all these adds (also adding two 12V power connectors to the bed), so I bought a six-circuit auto fuse block. Anyone ever use that 3M E-Z Pass stuff to simply stick the block on top of the fuse panel cover, leaving enough room to simply pull if off and move it if one needs access to the fuse panel?