bed lights

UPDATE ON PAGE 2. USED RIGID LED BARS NOT FLEXIBLE STRIP. FLEXIBLE STRIP FAILED AND SAGGED IN HEAT



I saw on here somewhere that a member used a waterproof flexible strip of 300 LED's (16 feet) and put them under the tie down rails on his tacoma... soo i found the same or similar ones on Ebay and started the project. they were $12.50 shipped. (thanks the heads up member... if i remembered your name i'd give you credit!) Edit - it was RAPR i stole the idea from.. thanks!

THESE.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Cool-Wh...136994?pt=US_Car_Lighting&hash=item2a20a25922


i then bought 20 feet of velcro from walmart and trimmed it to fit on the lights and rails.. that way if the LED's fail i can just replace them with another $12.50 strip.

I ran the power from the positive side of the battery with a 10amp fuse inline.. and the negative i grounded to the frame just inboard of the drivers side rear wheel on the frame (grounded the switch and lights there). Everything else is self explanatory. Wired them to a waterproof off/on switch with LED indicator. Where the lights bend around the front corners i put black wire loom around so it didnt look sloppy. Ran the wires from the LED's from the drivers side over the plastic push in..and into the tail light area.. (you can seeit a real little bit over the moose bottle opener. Before putting velcro on the bed rails make sure they are good and clean. i used 3M wax/grease/adhesive remover to clean them good. Also the LED's are cutable (the tail end).. i probably cut about 2 feet so there would be plenty to do a long bed.

used this switch (bought 2 incase one was bad)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/170712257652?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Lights = $12.50
Wire = $5.00
Switch = $2.50
Inline Fuse holder/fuse/random connectors = $5.00
Velcro = $15

Sooo great bed light set up for $40.00 not bad at all.

no lights

lights

switch

 

Sweet! Night and day difference (pun intended) Good writeup too. Smiley gives 1 thumb up .

 

Nice! Is the switch waterproof?

 

Not bad next time go with 5050 LEDs though. They make a huge difference from 3528s

 

Looks like a normal autozone switch to me, not waterproof.

 

says it's waterproof

http://www.ebay.com/itm/170712257652?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

those are the ones i bought.. only used 1 (bought the 2 incase one was bad or broke)

Drunknsloth- thanks for the suggestion!! hopefully there is no next time but if there is i'll for sure do the 5050's i didnt know they existed until i read your post haha

 

I'm going to be honest will you. Just looking at the pictures on the ebay site there is no way that the switch pictured is truly waterproof. There are no seals on it from what I can see and there are too many places for water to leak in. That being said, it should last you a while though as long as you don't submerge it. From what I can tell, it is not a heavy duty switch, so if it does go out on you, I would upgrade.

 

If this switch fails ill probably throw in the 2nd switch I got in the two pack. Until it fails then upgrade. The most wet it'll be is if I hose out the bed at any time

 

If you wanted to be safe, I would disconnect it from the battery, when you hose it down. That will give it less chance of failure.

 

Another good suggestion! If I hose it down ill just pull the fuse. Thanks again haha

 

That's awesome! A great idea I might one day steal!

 

I still need to do this. The "light"in my camper shell is better than nothing, but still pretty lame.
Well done OP.

 

Spent the weekend making the hood and bed lights.

I used black flexible PCB 5050 LED's with adhesive backing, bought from Ebay.

Soldered (3) 3' sections of LED lights.






The Switch is out of sight and harms way. I am going to add a black rubber cap to make it stealth.




Hood LED lights.





The switch for the lights is attached to the new fuse box.

 

looks great mattgecko! do you have an up close pictures of how you soldered the LED strips together? were they one long strip that you cut into 3 sections then soldered together or did they come in those short strips? i like the black instead of the clear i used. Also your supercharger makes me very jealous.. it's sweet.

you should consider using a hood pin switch for your hood lights. they come in different sizes but this is what they look like
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/sho...edium=cpc&utm_campaign=pla&utm_term={keyword}




since i've done mine i put on a bestop soft topper... looks pretty cool with the LED's




wish i would've known what i do now from forum member suggestions.. i would've used 5050's

 

Your lights look good and love the soft top. I will definitely pick up one of the hood pin switches. Thanks

Yes I bought (2) 15' rolls from Ebay for $19ea from China. Every 3rd LED there is a spot you can cut, I used a utility knife to cut the waterproofing off and expose the (4) copper tabs. solder one wire to the hot, the other wire to the (3) remaining tabs, then covered the connection with epoxy and shrink tubing. Came out great!

I had a 3 led strip left over I installed on the front of my RC10 buggy, I'll post a pic of the connections.

 

great! looking forward to the pics. I trimmed about 2 feet off the end of my LED strip (got one of the 15 foot rolls). Didnt think about trimming with razor and soldering. After building an RC rock crawler i think i can solder anything

 

Lights on the crawler will look sweet!

Close up pic.

 

nice! wonder if i can find somewhere to put a few LED's for rock lights on my crawler






think i can put them on the the bottom of the rear chassis brace.. but not sure about the front. maybe under the front hood skin

 

Nice crawler, now if only there was a 2 gen body.

 

I have a stupid question. I have researched and can't find my answer. I know nothing about hooking up anything electrical and I'm about to hook up LEDs to light up my bed.

The switch has three connectors coming out the back.
1 connector goes to power source (fuse box).
1 connector is grounded into the truck frame.
1 connector is hooked up to my LEDs.

If this is correct, how do I connect the wire from my switch going to the LEDs, to the positive and negative wires coming out of the LEDs?

If this is totally wrong please steer me in the right direction.