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.
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!)
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.
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.
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!
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
"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 TH-camr, 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.
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!
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!
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!
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
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..😉
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.
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!
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!
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!
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: th-cam.com/video/nOxJ0HEKeVw/w-d-xo.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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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!
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!
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.
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
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!
@ 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!
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!
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!
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
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!
Awesome video! Good quality instructions. Wired everything up exactly like this today and turns out something went wrong. I have power on my switch when it’s on. But no lights turn on, I disconnect piggy tails from first set of lights and the first led pod lights up just barely. Any suggestions? Thanks!
@@AmplifyDIY yessir! Spliced them up, tested them and they lit up perfect. Thought it was bad ground at first but ended up switching spots and still nothing. Does running a longer length wire make a difference ?
@@AmplifyDIY I used 14 gauge wire. I appreciate your response! Ended up finding out I’m using a rocker switch ( 3 prongs ) that got sent with the lights, and not a toggle switch. ( 2 prongs)
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!
Did you have any issue getting the switch in? The switches I’m finding and what came with my lights are 19mm. But the factory hole in my ranger is much smaller, what did you do to get the switch in?
Hi Natalie - I purposely bought a switch that exactly fits the smaller hole in the ranger: amzn.to/3gKc6ta Note that these are sized to fit in a hole that is between 14 and 16.4mm. I believe the ranger hole is right at 14mm. See the links in the description for all the other exact stuff I installed, if you are looking for anything else. I'm happy to try to answer any other questions as well. Good luck!
@@AmplifyDIY Thank you for this. I was planning to drill out the same hole that you used in order to fit the larger switch that I had purchased. I'm going to return it and buy the same one you used for my ranger.
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!
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!
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!
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!
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!
Great vid. Clear explanations. I’ve been looking at doing this on my ‘19 F150 but would like to tap into the power supply feeding the rear cargo light. That way I can take advantage of the factory cargo light switch inside the cab AND have the LED bed lighting that I install switch on when a cab door is opened (my cargo light comes on when a door is opened). Looking for an F150 wiring diagram. But thanks for the video, love your attention to detail and the use of heat shrinks. Who wants to redo wiring because one cheaped out on taking the time to protect the solder joints? No one.
Initially I wanted to do the same thing with tapping into the wiring for the factory rear bed light - but the only way for me to get to it would have involved pulling down the headliner and pulling off most of the rear interior panels... and I just didn't want to do that to the interior of a brand new truck. In retrospect, I suppose I could have pulled off just the dash panel that has the manual override switch and probed the wiring there to see what I could tie into - but then I would still have to get from inside the cab all the way to the back, likely through the firewall into the engine compartment, then down along the frame as I did. I'm super happy with how this install turned out, but would have preferred to be able to use the factory switch. Good luck with yours!
@@AmplifyDIY Thanks. I was watching an install video for a kit sold by F150leds.com and they tap into the wires found under the door sill plate on the passenger side rear door. I’ve ordered an F150 service manual that is supposed to include wiring diagrams. It did not seem too invasive but I’m not a fan of using a cheap plastic tap. And I don’t really want to solder onto a factory power wire in such a location. I like how you did it and will likely go that route. The other option is a power distribution system like SPOD, but they are expensive, but very effective at simplifying the addition of non factory lights, etc.
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 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.
And UV
Attention to detail really elevated this job into a lesson in craftsmanship. Good work
Thank you, JS!
Exactly what I'm going to do to my truck. Thanks for showing us the proper way.
Good luck with your install, and thanks for watching!
The pickup truck cargo light works well enough, but this help giving more light which is very helpful, thanks
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!)
Glad you enjoyed it, Michael!
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.
Very professional installation; well done
Nice video. FYI I test my led light projects with a 9v battery works perfect every time
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.
That's a neat idea. I may add one in the future. Thanks for the feedback, and for watching!
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.
If you think you need to have the tailgate down for an extended period, just turn on-off with the power switch manually.
This was very well done. Nice overall format, perfect ratio of little details to big picture, music wasn't overbearing. Good job, man!
Thanks, Adam! Really appreciate the feedback. :)
This is one of the best tutorials I've ever seen on TH-cam. Thanks for the info.
Wow, Plas - thank you!
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!
Thank you sir for that detail instruction and a great how-to video, clearly and precise 👍
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
Hey Carey - thank you for watching and giving me some feedback!
"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 TH-camr, 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.
Wow in depth and extremely professional all the way around! Thank you!
Wow, thanks, Jonathan!
Excellent workmanship.
Thanks!
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!
Love the detail! Thank you!
Well explained. Thank you. By the way, I drop things like that all over the floor too. I could open a store.
Nice work dude, super clean!
Thanks!
Very detailed and great video. Thank You!!
Glad you enjoyed it, Ernie!
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!
Great video....I'm going to try this on my truck.
Thanks.
Good luck!
Great job, on describing how to installing the lights
Thank you
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for the video.. I was using glow sticks and bubble-gum for the longest time... This seems much better ❤
LOL! Glow sticks and bubble gum is a new one, and conjures up a pretty funny mental image. Thanks for the chuckle. :)
Well done. Helped me understand how this process works. Thanks.
Great, Steve! I'm glad it helped. Feel free to hit me with any questions if you are working on wiring up something similar. Thanks for watching!
What a great video! Super informative!! I will be subscribing!
Great video, super detailed.
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!
Very thorough. Good work.
Much appreciated!
Excellent detailed video
Thank you!
Hey my friend. Excellent excellent work. I especially liked how clean you did the soldering, heat shrink wrapping and still added the black casing.
Thanks, Esteban!
Great job, thanks!
Excellent Tutorial!
Very precise directions. Thanks
Glad it was helpful!
Wow - thats awesome. I don't even need lights in my F150 and may consider doing this.
Go for it! They make a huge difference. Thanks for watching!
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
Great idea, Omar. Thanks!
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..😉
With how bright modern LEDs are, I think you'd actually be fine to mount them in as hidden an area as you'd like. Good luck!
Nice work man! 👌
Thank you! Cheers!
Great job! You got me the info I was looking for!
Glad I could help!
flush cut pliers work best on tywraps
AMAZING VIDEO THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
Very helpful thank you very much. I also just bought a Ford ranger and need to put lights in the back box 🇨🇦
Best of luck with your lights! I’m happy to answer any questions that come up for you.
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.
Great video!
Thank you, Stephen!
this is gonna help me alot once i get a 2018 gmc sierra 1500 truck and ima add a air suspension
nice job this was great presentation.
Thank you!
I have been using solder sleeves for decades. They are not new used them in the USAF in the 80's
Great video, thanks for all the work you did to help us out!
Thanks for watching!
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!
my god. I will not be this detailed LOL Well done!
Details... both a blessing and a curse. :) Thanks for watching!
Nice job sir, thank you for sharing
Thanks for watching!
It was a total pleasure
Great vid. Very helpful. Also, that's a great shirt! I have the tappy tap tap hoodie, myself. :)
Thank you, great info. Question, 2020 Ram Rebel, I don’t have cut outs or holes in the bed. How do you suggest I snake the power wires to the lights?
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!
@@AmplifyDIY Hi, pulled part of the bed liner, right next to U bolt, snaked and worked great. Thanks for the video.
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!
Thanks Brother!
You bet!
The heat gun splices were being used by the USAF in the early to mid 1970s.
Great video, thank you so much!
Glad you enjoyed it!
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: th-cam.com/video/nOxJ0HEKeVw/w-d-xo.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!
Great video, although I believe the last light disconnects in the middle of the wire to add an extension.
Good video
Thanks!
Nice video I'll be doing that to my new ranger after I put my swing boxes in so I know where to mount the lights
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!
@@AmplifyDIY
Thank you very much for your reply.
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.
Really nice work. Maybe putting the switch inside the cab would work out better?
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!
Frankie Knuckles
- that's not a good idea
Why? Kinda stupid. My engine hood light only needs to come on when . . never mind.
@@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.
Awesome vid man. Installing this in my truck this weekend!! What amp fuse do we use?
Heya Jilly - I believe I used a 5 or maybe 7.5 amp fuse. These lights only draw a few hundred milliamps. Good luck!
Thank you very much for doing an awesome how to video!!!
My pleasure!
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.
Heading over to a buddy's house to do his now. Shame he has no place in the rear of his truck to grab power. So we will be doing it the way you did.
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!
Use the trailer wiring.
What size is the bolt you used for the ground
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!
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!
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!
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.
Great video 👍 can you tell me the fuse amp ?
Hi echo - I believe I used a 5 amp fuse. These lights hardly draw any current at all. Good luck!
Nice how to. Wondering how the tape is holding up on bedliner? Any of those lights fall off?
It’s been perfect so far! No lights have fallen. Thanks for watching!
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
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!
@ 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!
Nice job. I'm just wondering, why didn't you just tap into your 12V source at the towing package electrical connection?
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!
@@AmplifyDIY hey swab, thanks for your reply!
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 )
Great idea!
@@AmplifyDIY maybe wire in some square LED offroad lights into the backup taillights mounted under the rear bumper
The way this is wired up do you have to worry about the LED lights pulling power even when turned off?
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!
You sir are super!!! Gracias!!!
Love the heat shrink. Someone else gets it.
Awwsome
Great explanation and awesome results! The bloopers were pretty relatable!
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
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!
Awesome video! Good quality instructions. Wired everything up exactly like this today and turns out something went wrong. I have power on my switch when it’s on. But no lights turn on, I disconnect piggy tails from first set of lights and the first led pod lights up just barely. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Hmm. Maybe defective LED lights? Did you test the LEDs prior to the install just to make sure they work? Possibly a bad ground connection?
@@AmplifyDIY yessir! Spliced them up, tested them and they lit up perfect. Thought it was bad ground at first but ended up switching spots and still nothing. Does running a longer length wire make a difference ?
The longer the wire, the more resistance. What kind and gauge wire did you use?
I believe I used 16 gauge copper stranded. I was careful to make sure it was 100% copper, and not copper clad aluminum (CCA). That stuff is terrible.
@@AmplifyDIY I used 14 gauge wire. I appreciate your response! Ended up finding out I’m using a rocker switch ( 3 prongs ) that got sent with the lights, and not a toggle switch. ( 2 prongs)
Great video , we have some new auto lighting, could you help us to test it , thank you.😐
Possibly - feel free to reach out to the email address on my channel's "About" page. Thanks for watching!
Is there a way you can connect it to a fuse tap on the fuse box?
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!
Did you have any issue getting the switch in?
The switches I’m finding and what came with my lights are 19mm. But the factory hole in my ranger is much smaller, what did you do to get the switch in?
Hi Natalie - I purposely bought a switch that exactly fits the smaller hole in the ranger: amzn.to/3gKc6ta
Note that these are sized to fit in a hole that is between 14 and 16.4mm. I believe the ranger hole is right at 14mm. See the links in the description for all the other exact stuff I installed, if you are looking for anything else. I'm happy to try to answer any other questions as well. Good luck!
@@AmplifyDIY Thank you for this. I was planning to drill out the same hole that you used in order to fit the larger switch that I had purchased. I'm going to return it and buy the same one you used for my ranger.
What size fuse is recommended?
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!
@@AmplifyDIY Thank you! This is a really great video. Very helpful!
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!
BTW, that Ranger is a sharp truck. I’d love to see a V8 in it, but Ford’s direction seems to be small displacement with turbo charging.
I know that there is no replacement for displacement, but this truck is sure a kick in the pants to drive. :-)
Yeah imma just go ahead and buy a torch 🔦. Thanks though great work.
Heh. To each their own. Thanks for watching!
What size fuze did you use for the inline fuze/fuze holder?
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!
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!
Is there a way to have a switch inside the cab and a switch in the bed so a person could use either switch??
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!
Great vid. Clear explanations. I’ve been looking at doing this on my ‘19 F150 but would like to tap into the power supply feeding the rear cargo light. That way I can take advantage of the factory cargo light switch inside the cab AND have the LED bed lighting that I install switch on when a cab door is opened (my cargo light comes on when a door is opened). Looking for an F150 wiring diagram. But thanks for the video, love your attention to detail and the use of heat shrinks. Who wants to redo wiring because one cheaped out on taking the time to protect the solder joints? No one.
Initially I wanted to do the same thing with tapping into the wiring for the factory rear bed light - but the only way for me to get to it would have involved pulling down the headliner and pulling off most of the rear interior panels... and I just didn't want to do that to the interior of a brand new truck.
In retrospect, I suppose I could have pulled off just the dash panel that has the manual override switch and probed the wiring there to see what I could tie into - but then I would still have to get from inside the cab all the way to the back, likely through the firewall into the engine compartment, then down along the frame as I did.
I'm super happy with how this install turned out, but would have preferred to be able to use the factory switch. Good luck with yours!
@@AmplifyDIY Thanks. I was watching an install video for a kit sold by F150leds.com and they tap into the wires found under the door sill plate on the passenger side rear door. I’ve ordered an F150 service manual that is supposed to include wiring diagrams. It did not seem too invasive but I’m not a fan of using a cheap plastic tap. And I don’t really want to solder onto a factory power wire in such a location. I like how you did it and will likely go that route. The other option is a power distribution system like SPOD, but they are expensive, but very effective at simplifying the addition of non factory lights, etc.
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!