Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and 
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2014
- Messages
- 503
- Reaction score
- 22
- Points
- 18
- Age
- 31
- Location
- Madison, IN
- Vehicle Year
- 1995
- Make / Model
- Ford Ranger
- Engine Type
- 4.0 V6
- Engine Size
- 4.0L
- Transmission
- Automatic
- 2WD / 4WD
- 2WD
- Tire Size
- 215/70R15
Awhile back (2 months ago) I installed some LED lighting in my Swiss Wedge camper shell. I neglected to post in the mean time... I don't know why. Maybe because some of the details didn't turn out as good as I wanted. Anyway, I'll post what pics I do have and tell about what worked and what didn't.
First, an overview of the lights in action:
(yeah that's a manifold gauge set hanging there)
I also installed some lights above the hatch, which I apparently haven't gotten pics of.
The LEDs are sections of a 16.4' waterproof strip from ebay. They're side lit, as I wanted to mount them on top of the frame tubes to keep them from getting smashed when hauling stuff. To do that, I broke them down to the 10 20" soldered sections, leaving two soldered as the upper light. I then soldered wires between the sections, making on strip of 4 wired sections, and another of 4 with the final two on a longer bit of twin wire. This was to get around the vertical frame tubes; I laced the wire between the sheet and tube to prevent future damage.
To control them, I double pole wired it with switches by the rear hatch:
... and above the front sliding window:
Originally I was going to string the wiring through the frame tubing, but that proved impossible on the side (too many sheet metal screws). Instead I used adhesive wire clips and hung the wiring from the tube, again routing the wiring behind the tube on the side run.
To connect it and the brake light to the rest of the electrical system I used a good old AMP/Molex plug:
I chose that because they are one of the few plugs I have covers for (off dell computer PSUs) in case I ever have to run the truck with the topper off. Even the IP-67/68 rated plugs on mcmaster-carr were only protected when connected.
The LEDs are powered off an aftermarket fuse box on the left front fender and fed by a harness I added to the left frame rail (16 gauge extension cord).
One issue I did run into was adhesive not sticking. Neither did hot glue... until I found the trick to hot-gluing aluminum: preheating. A bit of heat gun magic allowed the glue to adhere before hardening... otherwise, it cools as an unadhered blob.
Since I installed the lights, I've had a few of the individual LEDs fail... Stupid chinese crap. It's what I could get for side-lit LEDs though... You get what you pay for
. That said, they do work and on a couple of ocassions they have paid off (like having to disassemble a desk back there at night).
Also, if you're running cable along the frame and you happen to have DVD headunit, you are pretty much obligated to also install one of these:
That's a metra backup cam. They do make a good product which I was very pleased with. The only issue was a broken bracket... but mine was a Best buy RMA'd one I got for peanuts on ebay, so that was expected. Broken spot weld, easily fixed with some soldering.
The picture quality is good and the night performance isn't too shabby (and that's with stock backup lights).
What is slick about the design is that it minimally obscures the plate, which makes it pretty much legal anywhere. One less thing for cops to have issue with.
Also, I like is how they designed the harnesses; the camera end has a low profile quick plug with two snippable wires to flip the image and turn off the distance marks (which I prefer to the ones my sony headunit offers). The other harness has a plenty long video harness which includes an extra wire for the trigger input on one's headunit/monitor... the power and ground are separate (same plug to the camera) and are a good length for tying into the reverse light circuit.
I did "cheat" a bit by cutting a wire slot in the bumper cover to allow better (out of the way) cable routing through the bumper hole behind the licence plate.
Something else I did awhile later (after that pic was taken) was drill out the bumper and cover and use rivet nuts to mount the camera and plate... the old screws into the cover alone were crappy and too saggy to keep the camera aimed right. In addition, this allows the use of tamper resistant screws if one cares to (I didn't; I just used Stainless button heads).
All in all, both additions have been pretty useful. Not bad for under $100 investment (although I got lucky on my ebay scores).
First, an overview of the lights in action:
(yeah that's a manifold gauge set hanging there)
I also installed some lights above the hatch, which I apparently haven't gotten pics of.
The LEDs are sections of a 16.4' waterproof strip from ebay. They're side lit, as I wanted to mount them on top of the frame tubes to keep them from getting smashed when hauling stuff. To do that, I broke them down to the 10 20" soldered sections, leaving two soldered as the upper light. I then soldered wires between the sections, making on strip of 4 wired sections, and another of 4 with the final two on a longer bit of twin wire. This was to get around the vertical frame tubes; I laced the wire between the sheet and tube to prevent future damage.
To control them, I double pole wired it with switches by the rear hatch:
... and above the front sliding window:
Originally I was going to string the wiring through the frame tubing, but that proved impossible on the side (too many sheet metal screws). Instead I used adhesive wire clips and hung the wiring from the tube, again routing the wiring behind the tube on the side run.
To connect it and the brake light to the rest of the electrical system I used a good old AMP/Molex plug:
I chose that because they are one of the few plugs I have covers for (off dell computer PSUs) in case I ever have to run the truck with the topper off. Even the IP-67/68 rated plugs on mcmaster-carr were only protected when connected.
The LEDs are powered off an aftermarket fuse box on the left front fender and fed by a harness I added to the left frame rail (16 gauge extension cord).
One issue I did run into was adhesive not sticking. Neither did hot glue... until I found the trick to hot-gluing aluminum: preheating. A bit of heat gun magic allowed the glue to adhere before hardening... otherwise, it cools as an unadhered blob.
Since I installed the lights, I've had a few of the individual LEDs fail... Stupid chinese crap. It's what I could get for side-lit LEDs though... You get what you pay for
. That said, they do work and on a couple of ocassions they have paid off (like having to disassemble a desk back there at night). Also, if you're running cable along the frame and you happen to have DVD headunit, you are pretty much obligated to also install one of these:
That's a metra backup cam. They do make a good product which I was very pleased with. The only issue was a broken bracket... but mine was a Best buy RMA'd one I got for peanuts on ebay, so that was expected. Broken spot weld, easily fixed with some soldering.
The picture quality is good and the night performance isn't too shabby (and that's with stock backup lights).
What is slick about the design is that it minimally obscures the plate, which makes it pretty much legal anywhere. One less thing for cops to have issue with.
Also, I like is how they designed the harnesses; the camera end has a low profile quick plug with two snippable wires to flip the image and turn off the distance marks (which I prefer to the ones my sony headunit offers). The other harness has a plenty long video harness which includes an extra wire for the trigger input on one's headunit/monitor... the power and ground are separate (same plug to the camera) and are a good length for tying into the reverse light circuit.
I did "cheat" a bit by cutting a wire slot in the bumper cover to allow better (out of the way) cable routing through the bumper hole behind the licence plate.
Something else I did awhile later (after that pic was taken) was drill out the bumper and cover and use rivet nuts to mount the camera and plate... the old screws into the cover alone were crappy and too saggy to keep the camera aimed right. In addition, this allows the use of tamper resistant screws if one cares to (I didn't; I just used Stainless button heads).
All in all, both additions have been pretty useful. Not bad for under $100 investment (although I got lucky on my ebay scores).
