LED Flood light wiring path

The topper on my Tacoma has both the rear window and front window factory tinted making it absolutely impossible to see through when backing up. I've even upgraded the reverse lights to Sylvania Zevo LED's and still can barely see.

Anyways, I bought some 3" cheap Chinese flood lights off of eBay as well as a wiring harness as I am keeping my investment to a minimum on this. I'll be bolting them to the underside of the bumper and use them only when backing up if needed so the minimal use (hence minimal cost) isn't too worrisome to me.

I have my Honda apart in the garage and can't move it out so I was wondering if anyone has recommendations/pics on how they've run their wiring so i'm not spending more time than needed under my truck on the snow covered ground. I'd assume just follow the factory wiring but wanted to see what you all have done.

Thanks!

 

I can get pics later if needed. I have some backup light pods I wired to a switch in the cab. If you’re just tapping into the existing reverse lights as a trigger and running to the battery for power without using a switch it’s easier than running a relay into the cab for a switch. Basically from the battery I just zip tied the wiring up along the frame all the way back. Had to move the wire around a few things along the way but overall a very easy path. It’s totally invisible unless you’re underneath the truck

 

Are these common size 4.8 x 3.6 pods like for example these:



I have two sets and trying to figure out how to mount them on the standard chrome bumper like you have. Do they sit flush with the bumper, not sticking out on the edges? I'd love them to place as far outwards as possible.

 

Yes, those are the same size as mine. They sit flush all the way in the bumper except for maybe 1/4” where the face of the lights sticks out for mounting.

The mounting was pretty easy. The lights I got came with a cardboard stencil. I traced it with a sharpie on the bumper and cut the bumper with a metal cutoff grinder and a sawzall with a metal blade. I used a metal drill bit to drill the holes for the mounting screws.

One thing I can say is make sure you check the clearance on the back side of the bumper before you cut. There is a thick piece of metal for support with towing from a bumper pull that runs through the bumper that would be a serious pain in the butt to cut through. Just take your time and make sure it’s level and placed the way you want it. Once you cut the bumper there’s no going back. Luckily the face of the light covers up blemishes so your cut doesn’t have to be perfect but it’s better to make the cut too small the first time and have to widen it than to have to too wide and have a gap between the light and bumper.

 

If you want them as far out as as possible just make some brackets and install or if you want to get fancy enclose them in some rectangular tubing on the surface of the bumper

 

That's the key. I am not able to source that bumper here in Poland. If anything happens to it my only option would be something fabricated locally. Unfortunately 4-wheeling is not as popular as in USA. I mean there are some organized groups doing mostly "swamp driving" on old military ranges but noting like doing desert or mountain trails. So the off-road stuff is not easy to get locally. My idea is either relocate revers lights or rear fog lights to the bumper. But I still did not find "perfect fit" for clean install and look. Your reverse pods are the cleanest I've seen so far.

 

@TacoTaco02, what's the amp draw of those flood lights you got?

You MIGHT be able to get away with just tapping into the reverse wire for the stock lights. If you went to LED "stock replacement" reverse lights, that can give you a little more amps to spare before blowing the fuse, too.

You say they came with a harness, does that include a relay and a switch too?

Simplest would just be to wire direct to the battery, and pull the wires thru the cab to a switch on your dash. This would create an "always hot" scenario (might be nice when at camp or something to have some flood lights), or you could wire the switch/relay into the reverse wire circuit so it can only turn on when in reverse.

 

In my truck I have somd crappy led lights that came free with front blinkers. I connected them to bakup camera override switch - they turn on when reverse and when I turn on cackup override (to show vackup camera when not in reverse). For that I had diodes in series to prevent from current feeding back.

 

Just want to confirm that on my 1998 Tacoma there is reinforcing steel directly behind the rear bumper and if it is where you are thinking about installing the flush-mount lighting, it will be tough to cut through. If that's the case, I would remove the bumper so I could work on it in a position other than my back .

 

I'm trying to run this scenario as well. How do i figure out how to tap into the reverse wire circuit?

 

I don't know the wire color or anything, but if you have a volt meter, just take out one of the tail light housings, find the plug and see which one gets ~12v when in reverse. Actually, it's a separate plug, so it should be pretty obvious, lol. Just figure out which is ground and which is power.

then use a quick splice. They sell them almost everywhere. Autoparts stores, Ace hardware, Amazon, etc... Super easy, you don't need to cut and rewire anything, just clip it over the existing wire and go.




I find it easiest to draw out a simple wiring diagram just so you can figure out the physical connections and what wire needs to connected to what. Just take some paper and draw some boxes for all your components (battery, switch, relay, new lights, existing lights, etc...) then draw color coded lines for the wires to where you need to connect them.

As for the specific relays or switches, that all depends on the lights you have, and how much power they need. If they are low amperage lights, you can probably just splice directly to the reverse light wire for power. I did that for some LED turn signals when I built my front bumper. Bumper had LEDs, so I just spliced in to the + and - of the stock (incandescent) blinkers. Works great and was super easy. But they have so little amp draw, they don't come close to overloading the fuse on that circuit.

For higher power aux lights, a relay + a power wire direct to your battery is probably the "best" option. Splice into the reverse wire to power the relay signal. Typically the 12v (battery) wire and the signal (on/off) connect to the relay, then you have wires that go from the relay to the lights. Just match up the instructions for the lights you get with the instructions for the replay, and then draw out your wiring diagram.

I would highly suggest you use an interrupt switch (just a switch between the stock reverse wire and the relay), so that you can choose when the aux reverse lights go on. I'm pretty sure these super bright pods are not road legal in many areas, so it'd be good to not have them go on EVERY time you back up. All you need to do is make sure that all your components (switch, if you use one) are rated for higher than the fuse for the reverse light circuit (10-15amps maybe?).

That said, I replaced my reverse lights with LEDs: direct replacement, no pods or extra wiring or anything: here's a post I made a while ago about it. Link for the lights I have are in the post.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/led-backup-lights.638522/#post-22020215

 

A dab of dielectric grease in those clip connects will save you some grief weeks/months/years down the road, keeping corrosion at bay.

 

Yeah, I live in CA, I don't have to worry so much about that!





(it's not a bad idea, tho)

 

awesome @jbrandt thanks for the response. the more i read about automotive electronics, the more I realize i dont know. this made it pretty simple. however, i think I'll just go the route you went and pick up those plug in bulbs for some better reverse light for now.

 

Yeah, once I did this, I cancelled any plans for aux backup lights.

The only advantage to a switched set of lights is if you're in camp or something. But for that, it'd be better to have some lights up high, like on a rack or something, and have a couple lights facing both sides/rear, then each one have its own switch (weather proof switch next to each light would be most convenient).

Electrical is pretty confusing at first, but it's not that bad if you draw it out and take your time. I'm certainly no expert, but even with the wiring I've done, I haven't managed to blow up my truck (yet?). Most of the electrical components you'll get will have some sort of wiring diagram, so as long as you follow that and draw it out how you want it first, it'll make much more sense.

 

First year out of CA and these splice went to hell very fast. For 19 years I had them in my camper wired for third stop light. After one winter in Poland third stop light in the camper failed to operate. I thought that finally I got burned bulb - wrong, it is all LED. The splice turned green corroding the OEM wire at the same time. That showed me me why I hated these quick splices.

Really the best way to tap into tail light is by using adapter between OEM plug and the light (like some trailer adapters have) or remove one spade connector from the tail light plug, cut it off and crimp a new one with two wires (original and new "spliced in"). Both will be as close to OEM quality as possible.

 

"best" way is to use solder and heat shrink, not crimp connectors...

 

Actually not . There is an issue with soldering copper multi-strand wires. Solder converts it into solid wire and the spot where the solder ends is prone to breaking. Few layers of heat shrink tubing enforces the spot a little but unless it is totally water tight it will not prevent the corrosion to start (Galvanic corrosion) - I've seen some wires that were badly corroded all the length under the insulation.