Topic: Wiring guru's

[swamp_fox]

I recently pulled the bed of my truck to get to the fuel pump and now that its off I really think I want to build myself a flat bed.  My question is, I want to run flush mount LED's like these http://www.ledtrailerlights.com/stt/stt_M85429R.htm .  How hard would it be to wire these up so everything would work including the reverse lights...Also want to keep the stock tag lights to put above my tag!  I read the post on Pirate about wiring these but it was like reading greek since I have 0 wiring experiance!

[All_Set]

Link to the pirate post?

You can use something called a Trailer light converter kit.  Wiring instructions will be included in the kit. 

You'll want to add anoter light(clear) as red reverse lights suck.

[swamp_fox [OP]]

well those lights in that link have an 18 white light reverse light around the brake/tail light.  Thats why I like that light.  here's the link to the pirate post. http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?p=5329844#post5329844

[swamp_fox [OP]]

no other input.  I'm planning on fabbing the bed up pretty soon and would like to do this.

[Snowtoy]

The wiring kit should come w/what you need.  You will have to splice the wires into the oem wiring, the lights will operate just like trailer lights, i.e., one light does everything brake/tail/blink.  You could also design the bed to reuse the original lights from the oem bed.  The over all look will depend on the design of the f-bed.

[swamp_fox [OP]]

Well I dont really want the OEM lights.  I was just gonna fab up a tube bed and put some sheet metal on the end and mount the tag in the middle with the led's on both sides.  And still use the OEM tag lights above it!  I'll just try it and see and see what happens.

[Hawk Thor]

What about using lights sold at big rig shops, the ones used on semis and towtrucks ? Those are usually durable, can be had as one big lighthousing or multiple lamps that you arrange the way you like. You can get those as incandescent or LED, flushmounted or fitted on the back of the bed, square, round, oval you name it. You could use most of your OEM wiring but you'll need to splice the lights and probably lengthen or shorten the wiring to best suit your mounting location and wire routing.

I would also mount some worklights/tractorlights on the back to act as back-up lamps and to light up camp at night. You could relay them via the reverse lights and to a switch, so you can either turn them on or they turn on automatically when you reverse.

[Snowtoy]

I installed these cheap plastic ones from Kragen's, nice and bright for only $20, plenty bright.

As mentioned run a relay w/its own 12volt power source and your back-up lights will be as bright as headlights.  I almost went w/100watt flood lights, but then figured it would be a bit overkill.