Ditch lighting without Ditch Lights. An alternative mounting

Stocklocker · Jul 1, 2019

erok81 said: ↑

I don’t know if that piece came with the little protector bars or you added them, but that’s pretty slick.
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Thanks

Those are repurposed drawer handles from Home Depot. I just wanted to keep cargo away from the switch that turns on the USB ports and the voltmeter.

erok81 · Jul 1, 2019

Stocklocker[OP] said: ↑

Thanks

Those are repurposed drawer handles from Home Depot. I just wanted to keep cargo away from the switch that turns on the USB ports and the voltmeter.
Click to expand...

Ha. Perfect then!

I have the same thing but without the guards. Really good idea.

Tommyb08 · Jul 1, 2019

Stocklocker[OP] initial post: ↑

So I got my ditch lighting project done. I did not want to mount traditional “ditch lights” on the A-pillar locations as I find the view out the front of the Tacoma challenging enough already, especially in tight off road spots. I don’t want light pods or even a hood scoop in the way. I also did not want any light glaring on my silver hood.

At the same time I really wanted lighting to fill in the darkness right beside the front of the truck when navigating tight trails at night, skirting ditches, boulders, holes etc. A secondary motivation was to have lighting to shine sideways into campsites if arriving in a unfamiliar spot at night.

My solution was to mount lighting to my Rhino Rack that is on top of my Century camper shell (canopy/cap). Sideways facing lighting on a rack is not a new idea at all, but I don’t see too many people with ditch-aimed lights on a rack so I thought I’d share this here.

I went to great lengths to experiment with this mounting location to achieve 3 goals with the “ditch lighting” in particular. I was extremely sceptical that a forward facing light, mounted behind the roofline of the cab, could be effective without being annoying, so I did a few test mountings to verify the results.

My goals:

1- I did not want any light coming back into my eyes from my side mirrors or glare off my window sills or hood.

2- I wanted useable light that would be worth the installation effort and clutter on the truck (I’m a bit of a minimalist). I’m not using these lights for high-speed running, but for being slow and careful at night around obstacles. The area I was looking to illuminate is what is right outside the drivers window and forward.

3- I wanted a discreet and clean install. I don’t like a bunch of crap sticking up off my truck to catch on tree branches. I drive some pretty overgrown trails.

I achieved all of these goals reasonably well in my estimation.

I used Baja Designs S2 Sport pods. The “ditch lighting” pods are the dual-pattern beam with the spot lens inboard to minimize wasted light (the beam passes by the side of the truck perfectly). For the side facing lights I used the wide driving pattern. I wired both together to one switch and relay. I won’t be using these on the road so I’m happy with an “all or nothing” lighting approach.

Here are some photos:

The mounting location is below the roof rack. All wiring is internal to the roof rack cross tubing and molded channels in the rack frame:

I’m surprised they work as well as they do, being mounted so far back.

The “ditch lighting” is mounted on the forward corners of the rack. It faces roughly 45 degrees off center and is angled slightly down.

The resulting pattern is shown here (truck has low beam headlights and KC Gravity Amber G4 fogs on in this photo as well). The effect of the ditch lights and side lighting can be seen where the amber light of the fog lighting ends and the white light of the Baja S2 Sports starts:

Note that the hood stays dark:

In the photo below I am standing on my back bumper looking down on the truck. The ditch lights face forward at an angle. You can see the “spot” from the dual combination S2.

Below is the view out the window (there is only a touch of light on the upper edge of the mirror)

It’s a reasonably discreet install:

Here’s the power wiring coming out of my canopy and into the rack.

I keep black covers on the lights in town. You hardly notice they are there:

Have a good Saturday night Tacoma people. Thanks for checking this out.
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Nice work man, looking real good!

Flatliner · Jul 13, 2019

Seriously well done!

JoeCOVA · Jul 13, 2019

Nice I like it though they are more camp lights than ditch lights. But someone can adjust them to however they like.

bagleboy · Aug 28, 2019

Sika is great stuff but... you can’t use it with everything. It can cause some types of plastics and gasket materials to rot.

Couesfanatic · Oct 8, 2019

Baja Designs White Wide Cornering in place of stock fogs.
Pics are all lights off, lows only, lows and Baja design wc.

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Ditch lighting without Ditch Lights. An alternative mounting

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Ditch lighting without Ditch Lights. An alternative mounting

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