I ordered some Recon low profile cab lights and was wondering what kind of screws to use for the mounting on the roof? I was going to try and get some Aluminum screws with rivet nuts. The rivet nuts seem to provide more grabbing area for the screw threads. Might give it more strength? The screws seem pretty small, about 1/8". I think that may equate to about a #6 screw. Thoughts?

Thanks,
Paul

 

You could always use am aliminum rivet. Not much harder to remove than a screw if you had to.

 

Check out the attached document.

 

Good information Tom. Seems we will need to make some small concessions when installing accessories for sure.

 

Awesome, thanks guys!

 

In case anyone needs it, here's a link to show you the wire to tap into for the parking lights circuit. This site seems to provide free wiring diagrams of any truck. Very nice details too and high quality drawings:
http://revbase.com/BBBMotor/Wd/Resul...WdSubsystem=37

 

After doing hours and hours of research and initially ordering lights that wouldn't fit, here's what you will need to install roof clearance lights on your 2015 F150. I have the Lariat package with the moonroof.

Recon 264143AM cab LED lights:
RECON Part # 264143AM - AMBER LED Cab Light Kit Ford Superduty 99-16

I initially ordered smoked led lights (they looked cool) and when they came in, I found out the bottom of the lights were completely flat and also they were too big (front to back). If you look at our roofs, you'll see that a flat light won't fit properly. The roof line has quite a curve to it. The link to the lights that fit nicely is above. They have a slight curve at the bottom and they also have a small front to back footprint, allowing them to sit nicely against the roof. Those lights also have a pretty thick gasket on the bottom and also under the orange cover, which should help to prevent water leaks.

The wiring harness it comes with is pretty nice too. I did however make some changes to it. First I butt spliced a longer ground wire on it, enough to make it down to the fuse box area. I then wrapped the whole harness with good quality electrical tape, for the entire length, which held the positive and negative feed wires together cleanly.

After you remove the sun visors and "A" pillar grab handles, and roof console unit - you can pop the front clips down to drop the front section of the headliner.

You will then be able to shine your drop light in there and see the bare under roof area that you'll be drilling. Since I have the moonroof, I opted to use that bare area, which is about 4" forward in front of the moonroof. The 3 center roof lights mounted perfectly in that area. As for the last 2 outer lights, those were more of a pain. I used this layout (the letter x represents the 5 cab lights):
x 13" x 8" x 8" x 13" x

For those 2 outside lights, there is some roof structural support I had to drill through (which probably wasn't such a good idea). I would recommend drilling more carefully in that section and bring the lights in, to under 13" to get away from those supports. I used ten #10-24 aluminum rivnuts (also called nutserts) and a special rivnut tool. The rivnut is basically a threaded rivet which will allow you to screw the Lights in to to securely hold them to the roof. For the larger center hole under the light where the wires go through, I used a 7/8" hole saw.

To prevent water leakage, I used 10 tiny rubber O-rings on those #10-24 riv nuts, so that the O-ring ends up pressed firmly against the top of the roof and under the lip of the riv nut. For the 7/8" holes, I used 5 large rubber grommets and RTV silicone to hold them. I also squirted a thin line of silicone in a circle around the bottom of the lights. I also used 5 small rubber o-rings to secure the orange cover to the light base. BTW, you won't find those rivnuts at Lowes or Home Depot, so just google for them online. You will also need ten #10-24 aluminum machine screws - get those online too. They should be 3/4" long.

After you run the wires down the passenger side "A" pillar, you will find a good bolt to attach the ground wire. You will need to get at the body control module / fuse box to feed VCC to your lights, only when the parking lights or headlights are activated. This part is painful, as you need to unplug the truck wiring harness and pull out the multi-wire connector from that fuse box.

There are loads of wires and connectors down there, but you are only interested in the large C2280C connector. It is also labeled "J3" on the plastic fuse box. You will need to then peel back some of that black, sticky wire loom to expose a few inches of wire to work with. Use the Blue wire with the Gray tracer. I gently exposed enough copper to attach my positive wire onto and then soldered it in place.

The lights work well and look really nice and are plenty bright enough. Be prepared to spend about 8 hours on this project. BTW, don't just put stainless steel screws and nuts in there, due to dissimilar metal corrosion over time. It must be Aluminum screws and nuts (nutserts).

Good luck,
Paul

 

Why didn't you just order OEM cab lights and a harness for a 2017 Super Duty? The F150 cab is the same, so the light bases should have been contoured correctly.

You know that pictures are a must with a post like that.

 

definitely need pics. I don't know why, but I've always loved the cab lights!! Just not sure if I have big enough grapes to drill into my new roof

 

Picture attached


New cab lights!