Bed lights??

Just got my '12 Taco & wondered if anyone has figured a way to turn 2 of the 4 3rd brake lights into bed lights? The dome light in the "00 Nissan I had would swivel down to shine out the back slide window. I use a flashlight now, but it would be great to have a bed light. Any suggestions

 

good question!

 

How about LEDs under the bed rail? I have several kits to do that.

http://extang.com/docs/blight.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfW2vBUyJGA

 

I do not have the link forthe inverter of this set up but he is on tacomaworld.com. I have been working on this for my truck. I'm going with LED's and found a 2d set of pockets on Ebay so if it goes bad I can do it over.

 

That's awesome!

 

on my old truck, i T-Tapped the dome light wire in the cab and ran it back down the frame and up into the bed. Using a 20 foot strip of 180 degree LED light ribbon i attached them under the bed rails. it was very helpful at night when unloading gear, and when the tonneau cover was shut. i plan on doing this to the tacoma as well.

the nice thing about using the dome circuit is that you cant forget about it, it will time out, yet you can still force it to stay on. and if you drive with the tailgate open to haul long stuff a plunger wont do either...

 

Great idea...also looks like the indirect lighting it won't blind you when on.

 

How I did mine. Very subtle but they look OEM and are still plenty bright enough.

 

I just mounted a couple of fog lights to the rail system using self tapping steel screws. used one of the open switch plates for the switch. got the switch color matched from auto zone to orange like the interior lights works great.

 

[ProForce] Those look good what brand are they?

How did you do it?

You can't see much from the pictures....

 

hey, those are my lights! lol. i followed somebody else's write up on here, very simple to do. the hardest part is cutting and fitting the plexiglass.

Edit: works very well in lighting up the bed. i have since gotten a tool box though and will be taking these out and installing LEDs all of the way around the bed rail. if anyone local is interested, i'm asking $40.00 plus your cubbies.

 

They are just basic halogen marker lights. I'll take better pictures later during the day (tomorrow) and post. They are triggered by an added OEM fog light switch

 

This is what I did...

 

You did the same thing I did. OP this is with the covers on.

 

How come you had to put screws onto the cubby? Did it not fit properly after? or is it for secruity?

 

They fit just fine. While hauling a$$ on a back road one of the cubbies fell out because the lights make it top heavy. Normal driving should be fine. Just like to overdue things sometimes.

 

how did you wire these up

 

A little better day pics for you...

 

Not mine but there is one in the mods and tutorials section:
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/22753-how-wire-bed-lamps.html

 

Just installed the BLight Tonneau Lighting System. Looks pretty good except one of the light units doesn't work. For the price I paid, I expected more reliability. Hopefully they'll send a replacement light unit I can splice in.





I was able to use one of the blank switch spots in the cabin to mount the switch for the lights.