Wiring LED Bed Lightstrips

Hello,

I am a newbie to wiring and would like to start by installing some strips a friend is going to give me.

Guess I need to solder some leads off them and buy some sort of on/off switch. Where would I wire them to for power? I have a shell with a 3rd light and no Hitch Harness.

Any advice, drawings examples etc.

thanks

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...lW4IwQZuFVcQVjxzw&sig2=BDxlfiKEe7W6blZcUHvKAQ

 

I clearly stated "some strips a friend is going to give me".

ill check out the link, thanks

 

When I did mine, I wired it so that power is drawn using an add-a-circuit fuse tap (or whatever they're actually called); the fuse tap was plugged into an always hot slot on the in-cab fuse block (I think the 4x4 slot). I wasn't worried about over drawing or anything like that because the number of amps drawn for my particular setup was quite small. Ran the power to a switch in the cab, grounded the lights to the frame. Ran the wiring down the frame and up through the bedside cubby (above the wheel well) into the bed.

 

I was(past tense) saying pics once your done.

Hell..I was being nice to post a link Google found easily.

 

I just did one solid strip and wired to battery. Switch is in bed cubby... Piece of cake

 

I spliced into my dome light switch in my shell when I added a couple extra LED strips. Is that what you mean by third light? I'm going to assume youre talking about a 3rd brake light.

Your best bet is to get an inline fuse (5amp fuse will likely be plenty) and run a 16-18 gauge wire. Connect the fuse to the positive terminal of the battery and the wire to the fuse. Run the wire down the frame and up through the bedside panel and into the bed. From there you'll want to solder (or spade connector) in an SPST switch (again, 5 amp rating will likely be plenty) located where convenient and then run wire from the switch to the positive lead on your lights. No need for a relay if you are just running low watt LED strips. You can run the ground wire to basically any bolt on the frame in close proximity to where you end up connecting the lights. Just put a spade connector on the end of the wire, scratch a small bit of the frame under the bolt for good connectivity and you're good to go.