Bed Lights... OEM or 3rd Party?

Oh cool! Wondered how well his under hood light kit worked. Which color lights did you get for the bed, cool white or warm white?
I'm helping a friend install her bed lights in the near future.

 

I got the cool white option for both. Both sets of lights do a great job helping to see things easily at night and I can't see well at all

 

Go with OEM. Very inexpensive and Super simple to install on the ‘21+ model trucks. The wiring and plugs already exist from the factory. Installing both sides takes someone even a little bit capable about 20-30 mins. No muss, no fuss.

 

That's what I was thinking of going with too.
Do you have your hood light hooked up so it turns on when you open the hood?

 

3rd party. Every time.

 

I would recommend these, I have Matt's bed light kit, hood light kit and puddle light kit. Have had all since 2016-2017, install was very easy and all still work great! And, Matt is very easy to deal with, has great installation tips and great customer service. Even had him build a custom set of puddle lights for my son's Nissan SUV. Highly recommend!!

 

No I wanted mine in a manually switched position since I don't use it that often

 

I just ordered the oem bed light kit myself, along with oem bed mat, will report back when I get them and try them out. Loving how this forum is living up to it's reputation of helping me spend my money

 

aftermarket is the best. but don't ask what it cost. between the molle panels, COB led strips, aluminum channel, weatherproof switch, wiring, and weatherproofing, and the 2 months of saturdays it took to put together...

 

I have his bed light kit installed in my 2019, while it is a great kit, all inclusive, and super easy to install, I would recommend finding a higher quality switch to use instead of the one provided. My switch ended up corroding inside and crapping out and the lights have been inoperable for almost a year now

 

Another vote for @mattgecko and his underrail bedlight kit.

Mine have been in use since June of 2015.

 

I installed the OEM bed lights yesterday, took all of 5 minutes. So far I am very happy with them, having the factory tonneau cover it makes seeing inside the bed much easier without opening the cover. They are bright and illuminate better than I expected. It was pretty dark where I was parked to check out how well they worked and I am happy with my decision to stick with OEM parts. Considering I am not using the bed for anything crazy, currently have a few folding chairs and a bag of business materials I keep with me they are more than enough for my needs.

 

How much light does one need when it comes to these bed lights? Imo, I've been able to seen everything perfectly fine with the oem ones that came in the bed. Some of these here look like you need to show the entire neighborhood what's in your bed at night.

 

Don't you have a problem with those behind you running over that extension cord and unplugging it as you drag it along?

Oh yeah... add me to the "bought cheap Amazon that didn't last a year" list.

 

When you're loading or unloading the bed, or searching for something mixed in with all your other shit in complete darkness, yes the brighter lights and more importantly the edge-to-edge coverage does make a difference. Although with your attitude I don't think that reasoning will sway you.

 

Biggest thing for me sticking with OEM is almost every electrical gremlin thread on this forum starts with......

after I installed {insert company name here}...............





.

 

^^^ this^^^

 

Yeah, you're right, even at age 70 I can still see fine at night. I aways ate my carrots.

 

I paid $67 for OEM LED bed lights. Sure fit, work great. 10 minute job. I have lots of aftermarket lighting -- mainly LED bulbs, mirror turn signals, etc. Went OEM again when I decided to bite the bullet and get LED headlights. OEM Toyota LED headlight were "ouch" on the wallet, but damn they're good.