LED Bed Lights

I want to install leds in the bed of my truck so that i have light at night. I want to hook them up to my dome light so that the come on when i unlock my truck and turn off when i lock my truck.

I have a 2013 Tacoma, double cab, long bed. I'm not sure where i should tap into power for this. At the light? at the relay? I dont know...

Also I am not sure how I am going to route the power cord from the bed to INSIDE the cab...

Any input on this would be nice and appreciated.

 

Do you have a canopy? You could get power from there if so.

 

Welcome to TW!

 

No i do not have a canopy... :/

What I need to find out is how to tap into my dome light.

Im not sure where the wire is ran/located... I assume its probably ran up with my rearview wires. But i also do not want to mess up my headliner trying to get to it.

Or if there is a relay i can tap into... That would be alot easier i would think.

I will probably just install a switch until i can get it figured out.

 

I do not have a 2nd gen, but I'm sure the process will be simalar...

To get started from the bed, I think you will have three options:
-drill a hole in the floor big enough to get the wire through
-run the wire over the backside of the bed close to the cab (what I did with my CB wire)
-find a firewall hole under your bed liner(not sure if there is one, idk again I don't have a 2nd gen)

Depends on how pretty you want it. Run it from under the bed to under the cab. There should be a couple grommets under the cab that you can take out and lead to the inside. Drill a hole in one closest to the back door to run the wire through, but not to big to keep it sealed. To get to that from in the cab you're probably gonna have to pull up one of the running boards and find it. From there it's a matter of pulling out panels and making your way to the headliner where you might be able to get away with fishtailing it through to the dome light to get to that wire!

Hope this helps to at least get an idea of what you'd be doing

EDIT: there should be a dome light fuse that would be much easier to tap a wire into

 

I had the same idea to just tap into the wire under the dash after the fuse box...

I was looking at fuse diagrams and trying to locate the interior fuse by means of the interwebs. No beans... I will have to check my owners manual tomorrow and see if it has any information on fuse location. Maybe on the back of the fuse box cover or something.

I hope its that easy... just run a power cable and tap into the dome light and done! Would be nice.

As far as the power cable i am going to drill a hole just under the bed rails where the end of the LED strip will be and run the wire down, join it with the brake light wires up to the firewall in the engine compartment, to get access inside the cab. I do not mind drilling into my bed, but i prefer not to drill into the cab. I will see if i have any rubber grommets near the back that lead inside without drilling through. Maybe save some wire in the process.

I will post any discoveries i come across..

Thanks for the ideas.

 

That's what I meant drilling through the rubber grommets. I couldn't drill in my cab either! And good idea with the tail lights, you just need a lot of wire!

 

Yeah but wire is cheap and i can use electrical tape to secure the wires to the existing harness.

With all the electrical mods that i want to do... im thinking i may need to run dual batteries....

I want to install a few led flood lights for off roading. I want to install a 4 channel amp and upgraded door speakers, no sub though, i ve had them before and they are nice but there is not a place for it in my truck. I would like to install a power inverter so i can have some 110V plugs in the cab. And probably a few others.

 

If I remember correctly the connector is the black 1E connector on the driver side fuse panel, where you can tap into the dome light. Pins #9 and #2.


Just follow the stock wiring when routing your wires. Can't miss em on the frame.

 

Nice!!! Thanks man! This will be a good place to start.

These are some pretty small fuses. Should i just tap into the wire that is coming out of the back of the fuse panel? I have seen a few people get some spade connectors and bend them and then wedge them in with the fuse... I am not sure if that would be the best thing for me or if i should just tap into the wire...

Also do you think i will need to tap into both fuses to get the power i need?? I was thinking that i could just find the wire that goes to the dome light after the fuse panel and tap directly into that and i should be good, right??

Thanks again for the help.

 

That 1E connector doesn't have any type of fuse in it, it's just a connector that has wires coming out of it that plugs into that fuse box. When you see it, you'll know what mean.

You can always tap into the wire, whatever's looks clean to you.

You'll need to tap into both pins. I got that diagram from wiring up a bed light. I don't see any problem following the wire to the dome light and tapping into it.

 

The ultimate goal here is to have the lights come on when I unlock the truck. The dome light turns on when the when I unlock the truck and turns off when I lock it. I want my bed lights to do the same.

 

Then you shouldn't have no problem ones you tap into the 1E connector. I tap into that same connector when I had 4Runner side mirrors on my 08. They work fine.