I added some 20" LED strips underneath my doors today. They light up whenever a door is opened, or when I activate my keyless entry. It's a pretty slick mod, if I do say so myself.


Activated:


I'll try to get some night-time shots of them tonight, but they lit up the ground in my garage really well.

MikeR

 

Looks good! It'd probably work well with step bars to light them up when getting in.

 

Thats awesome. Did you just tap into the dome light or what?

 

Nice you should get together with the guy who did it with the bed lights and do a how to for it. Would be a good write up.

 

I did this a long time ago

 

Looks great Mike, what did you use for strips? I need to pick some up for puddle lights and bed lights.

 

I used the same strips as the guy who did the under-rail bed lights. They're tapped in to the dome circuit.
I'd say they're brite enuff:

MikeR

 

what wires did you tap into so that they only operate when the door is opened? do you have a How-To tutorial?

 

The problem with wiring into the dome light is that whenever the dome light is on, both puddle lights are on.

My design uses transistors to observe the behavior of the doors (open/closed) and light up each side independently. Turning on the dome light will NOT activate my puddle lamps. In theory, you could easily mount the LED strips anywhere, and use this trigger system.

I don't have a "how to", but my kit (with instructions) is for sale if you would like it.

 

Do they come on with the keyless entry when you unlock the doors, thats kind of the point of a puddle lamp. Seems kind of pointless otherwise.

 

You could tie them into the relay that unlocks the door when you push the button on your key fob. But I would say its easier to wire them up to the dome light since it comes on when you unlock the truck anyway....

 

Nice, Think it'll hold up in the winter up here lol

 

I don't have those power features on my truck(s). It would be easy to modify my circuit to do that though.

It does not help the fact that they are tied to the circuit output, instead of the input.

 

That's pretty much my biggest concern with them-they're in a pretty vulnerable spot.
MikeR

 

I'm going to use 4 LED mud flaps with white and red output as puddle lights and turn signal indicators
Anyone have a best practice method of wireing them?

Thanks,
Richard

 

just gonna x2 others and say what wires are yall tapping into as far as connecting them to the dome light?

 

Run the positive lead up the driver's side A-pillar, across the headliner, and tap into the power for your dome light. I ran the ground to a factory ground under the dash. Test light or volt meter is your friend.
MikeR

 

whats on your frame?

 

I bought the longer pigtails with my LEDs. I ran those (in wire loom) along frame rails, spliced them together near the transfer case, and hooked them into the main power wire that I ran up into the cab (thru a grommet in the firewall). Factory-looking install, which is the way that i do things.
MikeR

 

How much is the kit JP?