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hello,
I just had a headache rack built for my truck. looking to wire in 2 very bright reverse lights, 2 not so bright lights to help me deal with stuff in the bed of the truck at night, and also mounted a receiver hitch so I can hook a winch up back there when needed. looking to yall for suggestions and opinions on wiring for all of this. never wired stuff like this so I'm shooting in the dark. my wiring skills are adequate but not great. thanks in advance!!
I installed these on my truck a few weeks ago. They are the Tuff LED 4" square lights. I use them as backup lights and work lights. They are extremely bright (much brighter and whiter than they look in the picture) and I got them for around $45. Wired them to an upfitter switch.
The only thing I didn't think about when mounting them was that they cast a pretty good shadow on the ground directly behind the bed. But they still work really good to light up far behind me and to both sides as well.
With something like this you probably wouldn't need separate work lights and backup lights.
If you want to have the reverse lights come one with the normal reverse lights you will either need a relay or some very low amp draw LED's. I'm not sure if reverse lights go through the BCM or not but if they do and it senses too much current draw it will shut them off. The work lights I would wire through up fitter switches. As for the winch, you will need some very large, maybe 0 gauge or possibly larger going from the battery to the winch, or mount a battery in the bed with a charge wire going to it. If your not sure how to do the wiring, try to find someone who can show you how. It would be a good learning experience.
From your sig it appears you have an '03, and if that's the case then it's understandable that you don't know what upfitter switches are! They were factory installed accessory/auxilary switches that became optional in 2005. They were installed right in the dash and provided 4 switches total, two 30A circuits and two 10A circuits. They're great for accessories and wiring in extra lights, so much so that I installed a second set in my '06, but in your '03, you won't have them. An option for a factory installed look for switches is swapping in an F-650 lower dash panel and installing switches. If you install a fuse box, some relays, and switches, you'll be able to wire all the lights into your truck that your heart desires! You'll want to run a heavy gauge wire from the battery to a fuse block, and from that fuse block you can run some switches and relays to power your accessory lights. Locate the fuse block and relays up under your dash or behind your back seats, and that will be your power source.
Never mind about the upfitters. I looked at the truck in your sig. You can probably wire some LED's directly to your backup lamps. I don't think 03 had a BCM. For the work lights I would probably just hook a fused wire right to the battery and run it to a switch in the cab. I wired up a few things in my old 01 and it seemed to me to be the easiest way.
I like the brightness. I will check into those lights. That location won't work on my rig though. It sees far too many oilfield roads and mountain trails. I had some mounted under the bumper like that on my last Truck but they didn't make it through the first hunting trip. That's why these will sit up in the rack. Looks like the light is fairly focused with those lights. Definitely a plus.
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