I wanted to avoid tapping it at the dome light and running from the roof, A bit out of the way! Ha!

I found it behind the drivers side Jumpseat. I'll grudgingly take it from there

 

that was a total pain in the ***...

I tapped the Green with Blue dome light wire right under the drivers side jumpseat.

i used 20 feet of wire loom and ran the loom from inside the cab, through the drivers firewall pass through. down, then into the frame. outside the frame, along the underside of the body, then back inside the frame, before the bed, then stayed inside the frame all the way back to just before the rear bumper, out an existing hole, up into an hole that lead up into the brake light area, then up and into the bed through a hole and added a grommet where the loom went through. no holes had to be drilled!

These LEDs are awful. they are marine LEDs so i ran a dedicated ground from a bolt at the bed, into the main wire loom and added terminal connections onto the wires.

i need to find a long LED rope like what wayne used.

The hard part is done. adding better lights will be a piece of cake. its great having some light under the Tonneau cover, when the cargo flood is on as well.

once i find proper suitable lights i'll remove these pieces of junk and add some new photos.


green w blue is the dome, the yellow one goes to my cargo flood.


the wire bundle at the drivers jumpseat


tapped the dome wire at the jumpseat


red wire runs from the tap to the bed inside the loom. no splices.


looking up at the drivers firewall. loom runs down into the top of the frame.


then out the side of the frame and along the underside of the body briefly. before the bed, i went back into the frame.




out the frame, up through the holes under the brake lamp cavity.


on the right is the ground. ground wire goes into the cavity and then inside the main loom, They exit into the bed on the left. not shown at the end of that is the terminal connectors. but that piece hanging on the left just sits behind the bed liner.


awful LED lights from west marine :(

but they work! :)

 

U got the wires outback, nice job.

What R U using for a sw, if any ?

 

Man, there is a hole under the rail on the front of the bed. I ran it through that,(between the cab and bed) down to the frame on the passenger side and through a gromment that was in the floor already and tapped into the fuse panel.

I'll try and get you more pictures today.

Wayne

 

I used these lights in my F350. I mounted them in my topper, but they will work under the rails. They turn night into day. http://www.autoanything.com/hitch-be...A5616A0A0.aspx

 

I saw that, but i didnt want to put anything between the cab and the bed, or see any wires spanning that gap either. i almost came up at the bed rail on the left front of the bed where there is another hole but its covered with a rack system i have.

no switch, i just tied it into the dome circuit. but i added some extra wire inside the rear bed corner in case i do want to wire in a switch later.
coming on and off with the cargo flood is perfect. sometimes the battery saver kicks in a little early if im unloading a full bed of gear but i can easily reset it.

---Edit---
no luck locally. the 2 foot strips i was finding at marine stores were ridiculously over priced (to the tune of $65), and anything at automotive stores was complete junk and also too short.

I ended up ordering the same ones Wayne got on ebay, they are only $6 come in 4' lengths, and are 'waterproof', the beds not too bad an environment, so they may end up holding up just fine. gonna do one down each side, and one across the back, underneath the tonneau cover mount lip facing down.
"120cm 120 White LED Flexible Light Lamp Strip" http://r.ebay.com/9M3X8G

 

all done!
finally.
Although i received the set i bought on ebay, i ended up finding a much better product. The LED strip is one flexible piece that's encased in a resin type material. the LEDs are about as non-directional as you can find, they have a light pattern thats about 180 degrees. The 5 meter strip was the perfect length to go around the entire bed in one shot. I had to cut 3 LEDs off the end to actually get it to fit perfectly.

These are completely waterproof and super bright. they are white LEDs on a black ribbon.
This shot is during the day time, i'll post again tonight.

I almost mounted them under the lip of the tonneau cover mounting rails but i wanted to maximize the output. With the days getting shorter, this is going to be a tremendous help unloading the truck at night.

They have 3M tape on the back but i ended up securing them with fasteners and stainless screws as well.





i'll get a night shot after its dark
thanks for the help with this project guys.

(pardon the black foam protector blocks on the rails)

 

Turned out good.

I'm trying to come up with a creative way to mount lights in my camper shell so it can be removed when I'm not using it

 

Nice !
Give us info on the strip lights ?

These are a good idea too.

http://www.autoanything.com/hitch-be...A5616A0A0.aspx
Same as above !

Need to do something like this...

 

Looks awesome! If that pic is in daytime those are going to be ridiculously bright at night!

 

Nice job man. I'll be starting a similar project of my own this week. Mine will use a waterproof switch mounted back near the tailgate. My bed is line-x'd and I plan to drill no new holes :). I'll post up what I end up with once I'm done.

 

here are the night shots, these photos do no justice!
i threw away the box but will try and dig it out to find the make and model of the light ribbon.

 

You need to make a how to for this and submit it! Nice work! It's been added to my list of things to do!

 

I finished up my setup this afternoon as well. I ran constant 12v to the bed just behind the driver's side taillight, then wired in a waterproof pushbutton switch into the existing hole up high near the bedrail. I've got more pics and I'll put a how-to together eventually.







Night pictures were taken with a tripod, so they are pretty consistent with the way the look in person.

 

NICE!!!!

 

Looks good, clean, good amount of lighting.

Now for the run-down on the strips.

Where did you get them, how much, how do they mount ?

Thks

 

This looks great. I'd probably add a second set in front of the wheel wells, but I really like how the light covers the area without being too overbearing. Nice work.

 

They are oznium Waterproof SMD Bars, they are $20 each, seen here:

http://www.oznium.com/smd-bar

I would suggest buying their $2 extension cables too, because the pigtail they come with is pretty short, and you have to be sure of your cuts/splices with so little lead wire to work with. I mounted them with 3m double-sided automotive "mounting" tape, and they seem to hold quite solidly. 3m makes an even stronger/stickier product if these ever come loose, but I didn't want to go overkill.

I considered a second set, and it would be easy to do as you can string these together with the included male/female plugs on each end. I chose not to, however, because I often carry firewood in the front of my bed, and I figured I would end up damaging them. They pull such little power it would no problem at all though.

 

Sweet! I am going to be installing those soon!

 

Will any waterproof pushbutton work?

 

Damn ! this looks really good. My wife actually has been asking me to install some like this in her´s truck (she has a tonneau cover and uses it as a car trunk).

Great job !

 

im too lazy to read the whole thing.. but I used a door pin switch for mine. On older vehicles (notably ford trucks) in the door is a push pin switch which activates the interior lights. I used that on my tail gate. It worked well until the 6th load of dirt I pucked up LOL

I need to rewire it. I mounted mine in the corner, on the bed portion so when you open the tail gate the lights turn on...

I have so much to 'do' to my ranger and ZERO ambition to do any of it LOL!

 

Mine arrived on friday, I'll install them this week, I also picked up a flood light to test it and see how I like it, and picked up some other stuff for the wife's car, the Jeep, and the boat.... Yeah, I spent way too much knowing that I will not get it all installed for months....

 

I like your ideas BUT the Steppie is a different animal.
There are small pockets on the sides of the Steppie not a long open space.
I have looked for some sort of LED Light for the pockets but have no idea abut light output.
I am working one now and have asked a few LED Suppliers to put in their comments; waiting to hear back.
Great ideas here and it has me going, I will start a new post WHEN and IF I get some news on the Stepside Bed.

Anyone ever do the bed lights on a Steppie ?

Ltr

 

for a step side with all the curves on the inner bed, your best bet would be to go to with a single continuous LED strip like mine. but it wasnt cheap, around $90 but its one flexible strip with LEDs that have a 180 degree light spread so they distribute light very well. Most other LEDs are more directed light. packaged as 'super leds' but who knows what that signifies.

The ribbon i used was 5 meters, went all the way around, is flexible enough it could be wrapped around your finger, and its one sealed strip. It had 3M adhesive on the back but i ended up securing it with fasteners as well.

The ribbon will give you the flexibility you need to conform to the contours of your bed.

I wish i saved the box :( the guy i bought my LEDs from is an electronics dealer who did a lot of work on my 328 and installed the cruise control on my Ranger.
Don at Unexpected Creations in NJ is where i got my LED strip from, mypearltpi AT aol.com