All done, finished in approx. 6 hours (much of that was electrical dinking around because my neighbor and I are apparently mental midgets...or the harness was just a b*tch...one of the two to both).

Setup:

2 each 30" single row LED mini-suns in the grille, top and bottom of the big "C's".

1 each 20" double row LED eye-of-god in the lower bumper opening.

Findings:

1) Do yourself a FAVOR and buy some nylon splice tap connectors for doing the under-hood pass-thru wire work...I did not, and really wish I'd known about them, those damn wires are in the worst spot, and are only about 3 inches long in the engine compartment...awful.

2) Buy these lights. They are AWESOME. Bright as you can imagine, build TOUGH, three year warranty (confirmed...lenses, housing, bulbs, water penetration...all of the above...covered).

3) Think ahead about resistor location. There is ZERO room under the hoods in these rigs, and where you mount these is going to be a big deal, especially when it comes to distance to the battery terminals. I mounted three bars, and had three resistors...tight. They're not big, 1x1x1.5"...with a harness hanging out, but still need to think this through.

4) Blue is your magic wire. The harnesses comes with a switch...it is a POS, and you have up fitters...throw it away. Cut the connector off the switch length and splice the ground into the other ground wires, deadhead the white (this is the constant power line to the provided switch...you won't need it, up fitters are powered), and connect the blue wire to the pass through wires for the up fitter in-cab wiring to come. By splicing the ground into the other grounds that will go to the battery terminal or other ground location you don't need to ground in cab...1 wire in.

I have cleanup work to do under the hood...now that i see how things go together, i see the opportunities. need to shorten the light runs (coiled) and replace a few connectors. All in all, not too bad though.

I will post pics today, has been a busy weekend, these are just the highlights of the install, really nice well built lights at a great price, highly recommend.

Also replaced the rest of the in-cab lights with the Amazon LED bulbs...awesome. the rear dome takes 3 - 42mm festoon bulbs, and the front map lights are 2 each shorties (think they're 168's)...that was a bear, theres a reflective tin piece in there like heavy tin foil...looks like the factory installer struggled as much as i did, crap design, but i got it. I bought everything from the same MFGR i mentioned above. very nice bulbs.

 

Hey NStorm have you seen this thread about modding the Dome lights?
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...light-mod.html

Looking forward to the photo's of your light install.

 

Looking forward to seeing the pictures of this completed both in the daylight to see the look and the in the dark pictures.

Who did you use for the 20" bar? Double or single stack?

 

Hey Tim, thats pretty slick right there...I'm going to send a copy to my electrician neighbor...maybe help me decipher this "code" LOL.

All bars are Rough Country, cheaper than Rigid, and still a three year bumper to bumper warranty. Double stack.

Here are some daytime pics...night time to come....after the sun goes down.





31,600 lumens in total








Hard to photograph...so bright.





interior with LED lights.

I'll grab come more next weekend, at night...buzz out in a field a take some length and width shots. The do throw the light out a long way...not like the earlier generation LED bars that were tight...these shoot the beam.

 

Looks freaking awesome!!! Great job!

Definitely want to do the dome and interior lights now. You mind linking some of the LEDs you purchased? Appreciate it!

 

Looks good. I really wish the platinum grill was available for less. Did you wire the 30" bars to the same switch?

I'm planning on at least the dual 30 bars in the front. And then maybe changing the factory fogs for LED driving lights. And I know a LED bar off the back is in order.

Haven't sold myself on if I'm doing the 20" bar too. I'm really wanting to add a Grover Air Horn on a switch. So, I almost have the upfittwr switches full, if I don't already.

 

Thanks! Fun project for sure.

Here are the bulbs:
Reverse and cargo lights - 4 total (two reverse, two cargo)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00MUF1APW

Map Lights - Front - 2 for this fixture
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00OH0S5Y2

Rear Dome Lights - 3 for this fixture including the rear courtesy lights
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00NTOJU28

Have fun!

 

Good call, that'll be sweet!

I wired the two grille bars to #1, the lower bar to #2. I think you could do everything to one switch, all you're doing is activating a relay, that then activates the power from the battery to the lights.

The air horn is a great idea!

On the grille cost...even after I cut it up for the bars, it was hard to tell I'd done anything. You're just cutting out matte black plastic fins. It looks good even without them.

 

Thanks NStorm, reps sent!!

 

Thanks brother!

Best,
Nels

 

Bummer, I was hoping you were going to report that they aren't worth it. Now I'll probably be spending more money...

 

Ha! I know what you mean. I'm trying to talk myself out of a 12" single row bar for above the license plate in the back.

I guess when you've come this far, a few more steps aren't a big deal.

Have fun! I'll work on some projection distance and peripheral photos this weekend.

 

I like that, A LOT!!!


Are the upfitter switches easy to connect to? I've got LED lights for my running boards, my bed, under the hood and all the interior and some of the exterior, but these look killer.

 

Thanks Mike! The switches are a breeze. There's a bundle of 4 wires above the driver footwell. I can't remember the exact colors, but they're on like page 414 in the manual. Piece of cake to wire to, they're powered already, so small stuff like led pucks in the bed will run directly off of them (with a ground, of which there is one right next to the foot well, on the right side, grounding the radio and such), bigger stuff like the bars run off the battery and a wire from a relay runs into the cab to the up fitter wire. There are pass through wires against the firewall in the engine compartment (SUPER short, I recommend clam splices), then these can be wired to the upfitter wires on the cab side. The pass through wires are different colors than the upfitter wires, but are also easy to identify.
Happy to take more pics if it would help! Good luck!
Best,
Nels

 

Thanks Nels. So if I understand this correctly, if I use the pass through wires, I still have to connect them to the wires in the cab, or I can go directly to the wires in the cab. Also, the owner's manual shows the wires in the cab as being in the passenger foot well. Are they accessible in both places?


If you could explain how you wired the two 30" bars to upfitter #1, maybe it would be clearer to me.