Next mod: My spotlight came today.
Back story: I have been wanting a red spot light for quite a while -- something to see what I'm doing at night, as well as to find mammals at night without disturbing them. It seems, though, that red spot lights aren't very common. Especially not high quality red spot lights that can be controlled from inside the cab.
I was about to give up the search forever, when I ran across the GoLight Radioray.
golight.com. It is pretty sweet, with wired or wireless remote control options, 370* of rotation, and 135 of tilt. I bought a reconditioned wired remote model and set about putting it on the truck.
Here is what comes in the box:
A light, a control panel, a gasket, and a 20' wiring harness
First, we've got to run the wire. This requires putting a hole in the cab, which I was loath to do, but there was no other option.
I marked where the light will go
And drilled a 5/8" hole.
No going back now...
Fishing time!
The wire harness on the right here has to be fished from the driver's side kick panel all the way through the column between the windshield and door, then turn and come out the hole. My fishing tool is an old garage door cable
Got the cable through the first part (it sure helps that the cab fabric is loose there)
.
Now comes the fun, getting the fishing cable down to the driver's side kick panel.
Got there!
Now we make a fish hook...
And a mating hook on the fish...
Note that this wraps around the plastic connector.
I don't want to break any wires here.
Hook the fish up and start reeling in!
The channel between the windshield and door seems to have internal braces with small holes. Getting the 1/4" cable through was not easy, needing much jiggling back and forth. Getting the big connector through was even worse. I had to track its progress by ear, and when I hit a restriction, twist the cable in the hopes that it would somehow align the connector with the hole.
I guess the holes in there were all big enough. (whew!)
Time to get it to the hole on top of the cab
Getting the connector through the 5/8" hole was not easy.
.
Fortunately, though, it was possible.
Next, we mount the control panel. It goes to the right of the steering column where there's a blank space for some gadget or other.
Good thing this truck didn't come with whatever gadget that was, huh?
Then some basic wiring and...
Well how about that. It works.
