I have often wished that my truck had a better design for the cargo light switch. Basically, you just turn on the interior light in order to turn on the cargo light. Well, if you wanted to look in the bed from the driver's seat, the interior light blinds you while you try to look in the bed.

I love the fact that the cargo light is just bright enough to be annoying to a tailgater at night. I just wish I could turn it on without the interior light.

Anyone find an effective/easy way to rewire this? I guess I could just take the bulb out of the interior light, since I still have the two separate reading lights. I would still prefer a toggle switch to the dash light dimmer wheel/interior light switch.

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'98 SC XLT 4.2
4x2 3.55 ls
Gibson 3" cat back
K&N filter (who doesn't?)
Cpt. chairs, and those oh so cool auto headlights.
Factory door steps to get my pants dirty

 

What I did was replace all the courtesy light ( the 1 in each dor place the interior dome light) with colored bulbs and the cargo light w/ a hyper white bulb. The colored bulbs are blue and bright enought to let me see most things in the cab w/o ruining my night vision plus i can still see out when running my cargo light which is even more blinding thanks to the hyper white bulb...hopethis helps

 

I almost wonder if that isn't the exact reason the designed it the way they did... you won't leave the cargo lamp on by mistake and blind the vehicle behind you if the dome light comes on with it. I'm not saying I like it that way, but it might have been on the mind of the designers.

-Joe-


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98 Explorer (Lemon Law Case in Progress)

'00 F-150, X-cab, 4x4, Lariat, Off-road, Trailer Tow, Holandia Sunroof, built 11/99 picked up 10/00!Clear Corners, Manik Stainless Steel 1-piece brush guard, Custom CB wiring, Uniden PC76-XLW CB radio with K-40 Magna-Mount antenna (for now), 1 set of 165 watt KC Daylighters (for now... more on the way) Custom switch mounting plate and overhead console, Bully Stainless Steel Trailer hitch drawbarw/ 2" stainless steel ball.
List of planned mods: Clear tails, torsion bar tweak, bug deflector, spray in liner, and a tonneau of some sort...

93 Probe GT teal, OE rims painted to match, bone stock drivetrain.

 

I put a switch in the overhead console for exactly that reason - the dome light reflects off the back window and makes the cargo light useless from in the cab. Now I can turn it on at any time. I just make sure I don't close the console door while it's on so I never forget to turn it off.

I also wired the light to come on in reverse. All it needed was a couple of strategically placed diodes to keep the reverse lights from coming on with the cargo light and the interior lights to keep from coming on when in reverse.



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Mark
'00 Lightning
'79+ Corvette

 

Mark_2kL...

That's a great setup... I want to do that, too! Could you post details on the "strategically placed diodes"? Do the wires to the cargo light run through the overhead console?