These lights are from Oznium.com. The lights are great, cheap and come packaged very well and Oznium has everything you need at a cheap price to get this working. I wired everything very nicely behind the bedrug, zipties every 3 inches or so and it looked great. I ran a hot lead to the bed with a 5 amp fuse and might use that same lead to wire a 12v outlet back there for lights, etc. I think it turned out remarkably well, underneath the bedrails are perfect hooks to wire 3 lights, I stuck the 4th on with heavy duty double sided weatherproof tape and they all fit perfect (it's one hook short for 4 lights, each light required two hooks).

To mount everything I zip tied all the lights with clear zip ties to not diminish the light passing through and wired everything behind the bedrug. There is also a perfect space in between two lights to mount the transformer with doublesided tape, there was not room for the second transformer on each side (4 transformers for 8 cathode tubes, 4 tubes on each side). I purchased LED's from SuperBrightLeds.com I think it was and they were nowhere near as bright however I might mount them towards the back of the bed up high (although LED's blind you when looking right at them). Anyways, my gf was with me during part of the install and suggested some holes that were near the tailgate on the bedsides to mount the switch. I was floored when I tested those holes out, they were PERFECT. Everything seemed like it was made for my truck. I cut a + sign into the bed carpet and just pushed the switch through and wired it all up. If you guys like this mod a little reputation points wouldn't hurt, thanks. I got the idea from Myst a long while ago and have found myself in need of it many times, works VERY well. Here is the result:

Video of Lights

 

looks great man- good write up- man this site's a money hole.
i'd give you a point, but i gotta spread some around first...

 

Man, that is very cool! What did that setup cost you? I am wondering if it would work ok without a bedrug to hide the wiring and switch as easily?

 

It would certainly be a little trickier but you can extend the wires from the transformer and mount it somewhere safe (under the truck?). It needs to be waterproofed (use silicone) though. The second tranformer needed to be mounted on the side of the bed behind the bedrug as there wasn't enough room, the other transformer went perfectly underneath the bedrail. One way you could do it is to only mount 3 lights on each side and you'll have room for the 2nd transformer. It was about $45 for everything, not including the zip ties, extra electrical pieces, tape, etc. All that was pretty cheap anyways (about $15). I'd say I spent $60 altogether, one of my favorite mods now.

 

looks pretty good and probably very useful
hey txcobra, nice ponys

 

what purpose will this be serving you?

 

Thanks man!

 

I did the same thing on my 2000 F150 HD. I had a hard cover... so I used a pin switch so the lights turned on when I opened the cover. I really Liked the setup.

I want to put lights in the toolbox i have on my new truck... But It would be more difficult to wire up because the box it all metal and i dont really want to cut it. Plus Im lazy.

-stephen

 

Whats wrong with the lantern in the back of your truck in the pics?

Make sure rock pick drops by and sees your write up.

Lookin good!
-Patrick

 

Props added. Looks very nice, any advice for install from the perspective of having no tonneau, no Bedrug, and Line-X?

 

I think it will reflect the light better with Line-x as it's "crystalized" from what I've seen although it's pretty hard for light to show up on reflective surfaces (i.e. Wet roads, etc). I think it'd look KILLER on a truck with no liner whatsoever. I suggested a few tips to the guy above with no bedrug, I'd suggest the same to you. Use 3 12" tubes on each side or you'll be extending the transformers wires so you can relocate it.

Silver05, I go out camping a lot and when setting our poles up we always need light and this would be great. Also, I went to the drive-in's @ San Jose and while laying in the back with sleeping bags we had very little light (Patman, the lantern gets HOT as chit so thats not an option, in fact it melted my bedrug in a spot :P). This provides the perfect amount of light, works very well.

Edit: I've posted a video in the original post of the lights working, and you can hear my exhaust without the rear cats. My camera's mic doesn't do it justice.

 

Thats Cool. Great idea I love the exhaust sound in the video.

 

Is there a reason you went with transformer style lights from Oznium ?

The reason I ask, is I have been playing around with the idea of using LED license plate lights from Truck-Lite ( these are the ones that replace the old style incadesent bulbs that are on Semi's ).

These are +12v lamps, and are already water proof, this is the reason I ask the question, are the Oznium lights more light, or did you do it to have a full length light under the rail, rather then 6 individual lamps ?

Any info, so maybe I stop going in what might be the wrong direction.

Thanks

Steve

 

Great job, I've needed to do this since I put my cover on months ago. Too many times getting home late with a load and can't see all the way to the back. Hopefully your setup and warmer temps wil motivate me to get something like this done. I'm leaning towards the push pin or plunger switch on the tailgate. I got an 8ft bed so may need longer or more tubes. Someday this site is going to force me to move into my truck

 

Well it's too early for me to think about that but I have a 5.5 foot bed and have 5 tabs to mount lights on each side.

SSCULLY, I had purchased LED's before and they're not as bright nor classy looking. If this generates anymore buzz I'll run out there in the garage, turn out the lights and take pictures of the oznium cathode tubes vs. superbrightled's expensive LED's. The cathode tubes are white light and look great, as opposed to the bulbs in the license plate so I would suggest going this route. The license plate bulbs seem to be pretty bright though, so it's up to you. The brightness of these tubes is pretty good, because of the bedrail cutoff it doesn't really glow in the middle, but you can see objects there. I think I'm going to add some LED's from superbrightLEDs.com (wish I had a tonneau) towards the back of the bed for light down the middle.