Light bar using rear middle headrest?

I find myself sometimes needing lighting at the rear of my truck when I'm picking stuff up, and I prefer a clean OEM look instead of having a large light bar on the exterior. Bed lights aren't enough BTW.

I have the powered rear sliding window, and I was thinking I could get a small bright light to sit behind it (inside the truck, pointing outside). I'd fabricate something that slots in to the holes for the middle headrest prongs, and mount i that way. It would be height adjustable if I could find a spare headrest to tear apart (to use the prongs).

Has anyone done anything like this?
And if so - where could I get a spare read middle headrest for cheap?
This was the kind of light I was thinking of: https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...road-led-light-bar-55w-5400-lumens/1218/2859/

 

Interesting idea, I thought of mounting similar style light to my in bed storage box. What would you do in the rain?

 

Sub’d

 

If it's raining I'd probably just go another day to do the job. The night is more difficult to avoid for me.
That said, I'd get a water resistant light, and there's nothing really back there that can't get a little wet (not soaked).

I'm willing to just DIY and experiment. Sourcing a headrest with the same prongs will be the difficult part. I'm not sure if those things are universal or not. I just know the middle one is narrower than the other 4.

 

Salvage yard

 

Just make sure the switch isn't where it can be easily/accidentally turned on! While driving away night, I'd think the bright light reflecting back could be bad, especially if someone borrowed your truck.

Another idea; the led strip lights that tuck up under bed rail are bright, and can't be seen.

 

Why not just do this? Brighter then you will ever need and the light won't be shining in your face when standing at the tailgate.

 

Have you looked at the underbed LED lighting by @mattgecko?

 

I'm looking for more of a spotlight type light, instead of a bed light. My issue isn't that I can't see in the bed. It's more that I'm loading wood in the bed, and it's 50ft away and I can barely see. Bed lights aren't enough for that. Though I do plan on adding those as well.

I think I might just year apart my middle head rest and see what I can do with it. Worst case, nothing and I'm out a head rest I don't use anyways.

 

You could get something like this, it will mount a spot light to the back. Then just use the normal bed light to light up the bed and the spot to light the trail.

https://caliraisedled.com/products/2016-2018-bed-accessory-mount

 

You have an off road with a bed outlet. Why not get a led flood light that you can plug in there?

 

I thought about this thread again; just the other night I turned on the stock rear light, that's integrated with the 3td brake light, and it's blinding when walking towards the truck when it's completely dark out. I'd think you'd just make this worse. There's a thread here somewhere, where someone added a LED to the plastic filler just to the right or left of the license plate. I think that'd be much better down low, please it's barely noticeable.

 

Rig up a LED pod on a telescoping pole mount in the bed. Low pro when not in use, and then can adjust it as an overhead light (much more overhead than a LED bar at eye level) when needing to load stuff.

 

They sell them on Amazon for like 30 bucks... its just a fishing pole and a led panel.

 

I'll try this.

Thanks for the suggestion

 

I had a hand-held light with a magnetic base and a super long cord that plugged into my cigarette lighter. Worked great for a bed light, working under the hood, tire changes, etc...

 

Those are awesome!