Great job as usual. May I suggest to all who read this to use black zip ties instead of white. The white ones tend to get brittle and break after a short time especially when exposed to heat.
Very nice tidy work! I totally get the double-insulation with heatshrink tubing. Appreciate your neat routing of wiring for a professional custom look. You could add a pin switch to the tail gate, connect it to the ground wire, which breaks ground so that the light would turn off automatically when your tail gate is closed and auto turn on when your tail gate is open. Then the power switch serves as main disconnect whether the gate is closed or open.
Update - I found out that there is a large gap between my tail gate and the truck bed thus preventing me from installing a pin switch. So I did the next best thing to install a magnetic switch, normally closed, in line with ground. That works well too.
@@tinkeringeekkissimmeefl4495 can you link the switch you used? I think this is a great idea and the way that I would want to try. I think I would also use a switch somewhere else, if I plan to have to have the bed down for an extended period.
An extremely well-done video! Not excessively long or wordy, gets right into the process, and is very thorough with GREAT attention to detail. (Nothing more irritating than a 5 minute intro of nonsense before the intended content eventually begins!)
I did a similar install on my Ranger but as I’m prone to forget to turn things off I put a timed relay between the switch and the lights so the light is only on for 15 minutes before the switch has to be powered on again.
Great Video! The ford ranger has a factory power connector/plug located at the back of the truck on the frame. Wolf Haus has a connection that plugs into the power connector for $30 bucks and uses OEM quality connector/plug. Might simplify having to connect all the way to the battery.
Hey Chappy - Thanks for the heads up! I considered that factory connector for this project, but I believe the ecu controls when it is on / off. For my use-case, this is not what I wanted. I preferred to always have power available, regardless of whether the truck is running / on ACC power, etc. If you prefer to not worry about "did I leave the lights on in the bed of the truck?" then the factory connector is a great option, as the truck will cut power to it after a set period of time. Thanks for watching!
do you guys think its ok to just tap off the parking break circuit? so much more convenient to grab power from the trailer hitch harness than to run a line from the battery. I dont think these LEDs use a ton of amperage.. what do you think?
Depending on the make of the truck, the trailer hitch harness may not always have power, so keep that in mind. You may want to test your specific truck to see what does or does not have power when you want to use the lights. For example, do you only want the lights available if the ignition is on? Or do you want to be able to use them when the truck is shut off completely and parked? Just verify the power is available when you want it before you tap into anything. You are right though, these lights draw very very little current.
Nice video. Those low temp solder heat shrink tubes don't need to be pre-soldered. We use them on boats, side by sides, ATV's & trucks all the time with no failures yet. I was skeptical of them at first but have learned to love them. If you have a 7 way trailer connector @ the bumper you've probably got a +12v constant hot wire to tap into instead of running that power cable all the way up front. I believe it's pin 4 on the receptacle. It's used for charging the trailer battery. Most vehicles keep it as a constant hot all the time but some don't so you'd have to check it.
"Astrophotography" - no red set of lights? )) Thanks for this. It put me more at ease about rewiring the cap on my old Ford Ranger, and I'm glad to see someone else soldering crimped connectors and putting heat shrink on everything. Based on another RU-vidr, I've started covering solder joints with liquid electrical tape before heat-shribking.
Yeah, red lights would be needed if I was using these anywhere near where setting up my scope / camera, etc... but I usually park, haul all the gear out of the truck and hike a little ways to actually set up / shoot. These lights are awesome for when unloading / loading the truck.... but yeah, they will destroy your night vision.
I honestly don't recall. I have an old coffee can full of random bolts I've collected over the years. I pulled a handful of those out and tried a bunch until I found one that fit. Sorry I can't be more help!
U can save all the extra electrical work by using the extra pigtail that comes hidden under bed on drivers rear. That way u don’t need a switch. It will run off if your cargo light switch in cab
Pretty sure that is intended to run a 12v bed power supply. I didn’t want to use that so that if I decide to add the bed power supply in the future it’s still available. Thanks for watching!
Nice work...thanks for the info...My ranger came with a drop in bed liner so I'll have a few other things to deal with. I could just rip the drop in liner out an have a spray in done.
With a drop in liner, yes there will be a little bit more to do. Mostly you’ll need to drill some holes through the liner at various spots for the switch and the wiring. If you decide to switch it for a spray in liner, I really do recommend bullet liner. They were cheaper than the others, have a lifetime guarantee, and seems to be installed thicker than the others as well. Good luck!
@ 6:43 - 16:13 - 16:23 - aren't those self-soldering connectors you used? On your already soldered connections? And you didn't heat them enough to melt the built-in solder ? ? ? ?
Hi Jeff - yes, those are self soldering connectors. I mention them in the beginning, at 1:22. If you look back at the spots you mention, I *am* getting them hot enough to melt the solder - it's a little hard to see with the footage sped up. I should have mentioned this in the video, but I did some early testing with these heat shrinks, and found that they didn't really have enough solder in them to make a great connection. So I soldered the connections initially, then added this heat shrink (which melted the solder in the heat shrink and blended it with the solder already in the joint), then covered the whole mess with yet another sleeve of black heat shrink. I did put a note up at 1:20 about how I go a little overboard with the heat shrink. Thanks for watching!
I did enjoy the video. My only concern is the fact that although you did use automotive double-sided tape, I am not a fan of using double-sided tape on an exterior surface. Also, I did somewhat cringe when I saw the switch that you used. It is not weather resistant.
Hi Dennis! Thank you for the feedback and for sharing your concerns. I also don't love the 3M automotive tape, but in this case I was sticking it to the Bullet Bed Liner surface, which is FAR tougher than paint. It's been nearly a year, and the lights are still stuck well in place. As for the switch: I had to balance between not wanting to drill new (larger) holes in my truck bed with getting a waterproof switch. Given the switch location, and that I always have the tonneau cover over the bed, I opted for the switch I used, as it was the only one I could find that fit that opening perfectly and since the circuit is fused I'm not overly concerned about the switch shorting out if it gets wet. However: if you know where I can get my hands on a waterproof switch that will fit in a 15mm diameter mounting hole, please let me know where to get one. I'll gladly swap it out. Thanks for watching!
@@AmplifyDIY i plan on setting up a system in my bed (14 Silverado). I'm going to tap into trail light circuit with 2 magnetic switches via the tailgate. I will be posting a video if interested. No, i don't know where to get a switch. Good video though.
That's an interesting idea! I put the switch in the rear because I figured that's where I'd already be standing when I'd need to turn them on... but having the switch in the cab would make it easier to tell if I'd accidentally left the lights on. Thanks for watching!
@@hughwynn6193 if wiring the lights in this fashion, it is absolutely not a bad idea to put the switch inside the cab of the truck. I realize that this setup was mostly shielded from weathering, but putting that type of switch in the bed is not a good idea.
Excellent idea! Thank you so much for sharing and instructing how to get light to the bed of the truck. I am curious to know if there would be too much light lost if you were to mount the lighting to the very back side of the truck bed railing or under-side of the truck beds top rim, so that the lighting hardware is not visible. I don't know if this would light up the bed enough, but would sure look snazzy..😉
Glad I bought a Toyota, purchased plug and play LED bed lights that connect into existing wiring that requires no switch and run off the bed light that’s mounted to the cab. Think Ford making trucks all these years would figure this out by now, it’s these little things
Hi Sean - to each their own, of course. There are lots of little things that I prefer from Ford over Toyota. Glad to hear you are happy with your truck. Thanks for watching!
This is a Ford option. The wiring harness is already there. Inside the top of the left rear wheel well there is a 12 volt connection for optional bed lights. Rather than running a new wire all the way from the battery you should use that built-in circuit - it has a fuse already installed in the fuse panel. If you had of used that connection, you can install your switch in the punch out next to the switch for the fog lights and connect your switch to the existing connector under the dash board. The bed lights will also automatically turn off when you lock the truck with the key fob in the event you forget to switch them off and the whole setup will operate just like the Ford option. Another bonus by using the existing bed lighting harness the bed lights will stay on for the preset time in the dashboard settings menu when you turn off the engine after driving - same as the headlight delay off setting. So when you park your truck, get out and retrieve your items from the truck bed, there's light to see for that preset time and the lights will then go out on their own. Ford option: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nOxJ0HEKeVw.html But you can DIY it by using the harness rather paying the $$ for the touchlink system. The only thing you wont have is the capacitive switch if you DIY it. The timer off will still function.
Thanks for bringing this up. I actually considered using the built-in factory harness, but opted not to specifically because I sometimes need the light to be available for a long time after the truck has been shut off, and didn't want to have to go back to the cab to cycle the ignition all the time. The way I have it set up works great for my needs, but if you only need the lights to be on briefly after the truck's ignition has been on, the factory harness is a great option. Thanks for watching!
I have a 3 connector switch, i put a ground with the leds negative to a connector, a current from my trailer connector with an fuse (30 amp), and a connector with current from the switch to the lights, all connectors have a housing to protect from shorting but when i turn the switch OFF , the fuse blows up, why would this happen?
Somehow when you flip the switch, you *must* be shorting one of the + wires to ground somewhere in the circuit. I suggest drawing out a diagram that shows exactly what is connected where... that may help you identify where the short occurs. Good luck!
Great video! I got a set of lights last December, but haven’t had the free time to install them. However, I’ve had this video saved for over a year waiting! What size bolt is this that you’re using at 15:56 for the ground location? Please and thank you for your time.
Heya Dirty McCurdy - I'm sorry I don't know the exact size of that bolt... but everything on this truck is metric, and I am pretty sure it's either an M6 or M8, fairly short (as you can see in the video). I'm pretty sure I just pulled that out of my coffee can of "random bolts I might need someday". Good luck! I'd love to hear how your lights turn out.
I have those lights sitting in a box in the garage. Got them on black Friday for the interior of my Tundra but now I'm thinking that your idea is better. However, I would rather the lights come on every time I open the tailgate and go off when I close it because I see myself forgetting to turn them off.
You can get a proximity switch which detects when the tailgate is open vs. closed and have it control when the lights turn on and off. Something like this should work well: amzn.to/45ttufs Good luck!
Did this a while back as well on my own truck but it might also be a good idea to use a door jamb switch hooked up to the ground so when say the Tonneau Cover or Tailgate (personal preference) is open the circuit closes and turn them on automatically as well as being able to shut them off by the switch if necessary at will
Hi Bullwolf - you could, I suppose, but in order to get up there you'd need to run wires into the cab, up along the side pillar of the rear of the cab, and into the lighting harness located there for the upper brake light/rear cargo light fixture. Honestly, I think wiring straight through to the engine bay where the battery is was actually a little easier - though it's entirely up to you if you prefer to be able to use the switch in the cab that is already there to turn on the cargo lights, or put a switch in yourself like I did. Great question - thanks for watching!
If ya havent yet , you should wire in 2 short strip of Red LED Strips in that lil space under the tailgate and wire 1 side to left turn signal and 1 side to right turn signal .(and both to Break light )
Hi Kameron - the lights will pull power whenever the switch is on. If the switch is off, they don't use any power at all. Great question, and thanks for watching!
My bed has 2 stock lights but I want to add more. Thoughts on tying into those 2 lights to add led light strips and not having to run a wire to the battery.
That is certainly an approach I'd start with. Do you have access to the wiring for the existing lights? Do you know the size of the fuse on the circuit that they are already using? As long as the lights you install don't draw a ton of current, you likely will be just fine to add them to the existing circuit. Good luck!
What fuse amp is recommended thinking of doing this for the bed liner, inside, and underbody. So three switches to control which ones I want to turn on. So I would have to have the inline amp fuses anything to look out for?
Mainly just make sure that whatever lights you install pull roughly half or less than half of the rated amperage. You can likely look this up on the manufacturer/seller site.. but if you use LED pods on a string like this, they draw VERY little current. A 5A or 7.5A fuse would be plenty. You can either fuse each strand individually, or put them all through 1 fused line - just plan for the amps the lights will pull and use fuses sized for the load. Good luck!
@@AmplifyDIY could you give me a recommendation on how you would install these exact lights?. What I’m trying to do is have two strands to one switch ( for interior), two strands to one switch (for bedliner like you did and under hood), and then two strands for under the truck to one switch. All these would have to have their on inline fuses right? And would it cause a problem if they are all touching on the post of the battery? Or is there a simpler way to wire these where at least one wire from all the switches could be connected with a higher fuse possibly? No clue about wiring. Thank you for your response and time. Don’t know if a diagram would help me more
Hello Chris, I'm not very good at electrical work. Do you have to use the relay? I thought you could just connect to the reverse light positive wire? Am I wrong? Would it be energized constantly without the relay? Thank you in advance. Great videos you post.
Hey Joe - Not sure if you intended this comment for this video ... I'm not Chris, and I didn't use a relay... but I'll still try to answer your question: Any time the lights are on, they are drawing current. Any time the lights are off, they are not. There are a variety of ways you can use to turn the lights on and off - a relay, a switch, or hooking into an existing circuit. In my video, I opted to use a manual switch in the bed of the truck which has worked very well for my purposes. If you are not confident with electrical work, I'd suggest a switch is the simplest both to set up in the first place and to troubleshoot should any issues come up in the future. Best of luck with your bed light wiring!
Hi Tom - sorry for the late reply. No cutouts in the bed at all? Not even for drainage, anchors or anything? Are there any little plugs covering some cutouts? There may be some cutouts hiding in plain sight... one way to try to find them would be to have someone crawl under the truck in a dark garage with a strong flashlight. Then you stand in / near the bed and look for light leaking through. If there truly are no access points at all in the bed, then you'll have to find the best place to drill a hole yourself. If you do have to cut your own hole, I'd recommend using a step bit and then putting a little bit of rustoleum primer/paint combo onto the edge of the hole as a rust preventer. You can use a q-tip - just spray the paint onto the q-tip away from the truck and use the q-tip to apply the paint to the freshly drilled edge. Good luck!
Very true. I did leave them on once overnight, but luckily they draw such little current there was no problem. I’m careful about them now. Thanks for watching!
WalMart kit is awesome. Alpeena brand. An actual kit. $25 and as good or better than his. Actually better because he has 15 places the wires could fail/ corrode.
@@AmplifyDIY I will also say, I have been doing automotive electrical for all of my adult life, but I learned about running wire inside the length of the frame rail. Great idea!
Wow, love this idea, thank you for sharing! Question as I'm not an electrician expert- I have a '15 Chevy Colorado which has a factory switch for cargo lights. I want to hook this up but also this manual external switch when I'm outside, say camping. How would I do this- relay? Would love your input and feedback! And thanks again for a wonderful video and ideas!
Hi Robert - thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you found this video useful! I'm not super familiar with the Colorado... do you know if that factory switch has power available *all the time*, or only when the ignition is on (or for a short time like 5 minutes after ignition has been turned off)? My Ranger has a button to turn on the cargo lights as well, but that light is mounted at the rear top of the cab, and is useless with a bed cover. It also only works when the truck ignition is on. That's why I came up with the solution that I did, as I wanted the switch to work in the bed of the truck *all the time*. The only way to do that is to wire it all the way back to the battery. Hope this is helpful - I'm happy to try to answer any other questions you have. Thanks!
Wow Very Well done ! You can use a 10mm to insert the cable inside the protector by using the round side of it and its just gonna go inside but itself ! If you ever find the 10mm ..
LOL - I actually bought a 3 pack of 10mm deep well sockets that I keep in reserve in my socket set.... When I get down to only 1 extra left, it's time to buy another 3 pack!
Just a thought but, instead of running the positive all the way to the battery cant you just T into a positive tailight wire and have alot less wire to run? I mean in most cases your taillights will be on when you will need bed lights anyway so there will be power there. Plus when you truck is off you wouldn't have to worry about someone flipping your leds on and draining your battery. Just a thought. God bless!
Yes, you can certainly wire it like that. I opted to run it all the way to the battery because there are certain times I wanted the lights available without any other circuits in the truck live. I have had a couple times when the lights were left on though, so I may re-think how I have it wired. Thanks for the suggestion, and for watching!
What type of heat shrink did you use? I have never seen heat shrink tube shrink that much. And the zip ties after you cut them, you can slightly melt or file the sharp end.
Hi Daniel - good tip on dealing with the zip tie ends. Thanks! The heat shrink is not anything out of the ordinary as far as I know. Here are the affiliate links to the exact heat shrink I used in the video (same links as in the description): Heat Shrink With Solder: amzn.to/2XE8KR2 Plain Heat Shrink: amzn.to/33HCekI
Yes, I use these little guys for that: amzn.to/48xGket You'll want to check the fuze size of your vehicle before you grab the add-a-fuse to make sure you get the right size. Good luck!
Can you please make a video of you making a DIY bed cargo divider? If you take a look at the Ford Ranger cargo bed, around a foot from the tailgate, you can use a regular 2x6 block of wood and have it divide your cargo bed. Useful for quick grocery runs! Thanks.
Hi Isag - I already built a divider for my truck - It's literally a piece of 2 x 6 that I cut to the right length to fit into the slots you describe. I keep meaning to build something better that fits nicer with my swing-out tool case. I'll add that to the list of video ideas. Thanks!
Hey Seymour - it's been quite some time since I completed this install. There have been zero problems or issues - the solder connectors have worked perfectly, and the lights have been a fantastic addition to the bed of the truck. Thanks for watching!
Hi Harley - A few reasons: First off, I prefer it to be on its own circuit, so troubleshooting is not extra complicated. (Hmm... problem with my trailer wiring... maybe something with my bed lights is messed up?) Secondly, it's not universally true that you will always have a hot at the trailer connector. For most installations this is true, but specifically on Ford there are some years / models that have the hot tied into the ignition: www.etrailer.com/question-150591.html
Hi Jennifer - this depends entirely on how much current your lights will draw. The specific lights I installed hardly need any current at all. I did the math back when I filmed this video to determine how much current they would draw normally. Looking up those lights again, it says they draw .5 watts per LED. There are a total of 24 LEDs across 2 strings, so that's a total of 12 watts @ 12 volts. Using this calculator (www.rapidtables.com/calc/electric/watt-volt-amp-calculator.html) you can see that works out to just 1 amp that they will draw normally. Install a fuse that is at least double what your regular current draw will be. I went bigger and used a 5 amp fuse. Good luck!
What are those wire covers towards the front of the bed for? Just bought a ranger and have the same things coming out of the bed going up toward the tonneau cover
Hi GoldRush - It's been a while since I installed them, but as I recall those are actually drain tubes that go from the underside of the front of the tonneau down to drain holes in the bed. There should not be any wires in them at all. I hope you love your Ranger!
Ahoy Capt'n! I wanted a power source that is *always* available. On this truck, I believe the tow package electrical connections are only hot when the ignition is on. If you don't mind that restriction, pulling from the tow circuit will save some headache for sure. Great question!
The switch I used is a simple single pole switch. If you wanted to have 2 switches, you'd need to use a 3-way switch, and run the correct wiring to both the cab location as well as the bed. 3-way switches are a little trickier to wire, but it could certainly be done, yes. Interesting question!
Bought similar lights. The company had the positive and negative reversed. Realized this after installing all the hardwiring for it. Once the wiring was changed, the lights worked very well. Great work explaining all of the steps, I followed them as close as possible and it made for a simple install
Hey Michael - Great job figuring out the reversed wiring! I've run into that a few times myself.. super odd that standards for stuff like that don't seem to be universal. Glad the project worked out for you - hearing from viewers like you who found my projects useful always makes my day. Thanks!
Very good video project! Thank you for this.I do have a couple questions though. They may have been answered and I may have missed them, but here we go..... 1) Couldn't you splice your positive wire into the positive wire in the harness for the trailer power ports? 2) How is the tape holding up the lights given hot summer heat and weather conditions (even though it is covered by the bed cover). It still gets real hot in there (I'm in Florida). 3) Same for your power switch. Thanks in advance for any additional comments about this project, and again, many thanks for this video!
Hi Dan - great questions! 1) You can certainly splice into anywhere you can get a reliable positive power supply. Keep in mind that some trailer wiring is only hot when the ignition is on (depends on the model/year of the vehicle) and you need to be careful not to overload the existing circuit or you'll pop fuses. 2) The tape has been great! We've had record high heat this summer (multiple triple-digit days back-to-back) and the lights are very secure. I was careful to make sure and clean the mounting surface with a mixture of isopropyl alcohol and water prior to mounting, to remove any grease/wax/dirt, etc. That mounting tape is incredibly strong. 3) As for the switch - it is not mounted with tape. It clicked into the hole I showed where I mounted it in the bed of the truck, and has been perfectly secure. All in all, this has been one of the best upgrades I've done to this truck. Thanks for watching!
I have the same truck and I like that you put a switch at the back of the truck where it would be more practical. Thank you for taking the time to make this video it's very helpful
Hi Edward - apologies that the video was not very clear about this: I did cut 1 light off of one strand, but then I spliced in the next strand in a Y so that the light I cut off would still be in the circuit. Hopefully that makes sense - you can check the video carefully at the 1:50 mark to see this splicing again, and note that I'm connecting 2 wires into 1 at each of the solder joints: one goes out to the light I cut off, the other goes on to the next string of lights. Thanks for watching!
Hi Daniel - you really don't need a very large fuse as these lights draw hardly any current at all. I believe I used either a 5 or 7.5 amp fuse. Good luck!
Hi Alex - Off the top of my head I believe it was just a 5 amp fuse... but it may have been 10. These lights hardly draw any current at all though, so it does not need a very large fuse. Thanks for watching!
Routing all the way from the front to the rear is not all *that* bad... certainly not as convenient as if there was something already back there, but with 2 people and a fish tape it's not terrible. Good luck!
