Just out of curiousity, I do not have clearance lights on my truck. (Clearance Lights, Roof Lights, Cabin Lights, or whatever you call them) I was thinking of having them put on. Has anyone put them on after purchase. If so is it expensive and hard to do. Appereciate any info.

 

The hardest part is keeping everything lined up straight, and bringing yourself to cut holes into your roof. I have helped do it on two trucks.

 

Yup, even the connector is around there somewhere (older trucks behind the kick panel passenger side) to plug the factory harness on.

Measure three times and drill once.

Technically called clearance lights and required by DOT on duallys, and looks friggin cool at night on everything else.



Adrianspeeder

 

Wanna come do mine for me?

 

First off, no it's not hard. I have an 05 and here is what it took.

I had a sunroof, so I have the short overhead console and it contains two map lights and roof control button. I ordered my parts from ford parts and with lights and harness it was less than $50 I believe.

You need 5 lights and one harness. This harness will come with just 2 wires and the plug that fits in the passenger foot area on the side. Since you will already have a harness there for the map lights in the console, what I did was disect the new harness plug and remove the 2 wires from it. (hot and ground) The hot will slide into your existing plug in an empty slot near the middle. Same slot it was in in it original plug. Since there is already a ground wire in the original plug, you will need to splice the new ground into that, outside the plug. Very easy.

As for mounting the lights, I went to a dealer and measured the locations of the cab lights from the rain gutter, the windshield rubber, and the roof line humps. The factory is not exact on any of them as I found slight differences in almost each truck I measured. Once I had averaged the measurements I found them to be just a hair different than what other sites tell you. I then used a cadd program and drew a template of my roof line that I could tape to the windshied rubber that had each light in its proper place and perpendicular to the w/s rubber. The 3 in center face straight ahead, but the two outside ones actually face out a little.
I also used the new lights to locate exactly where the lights would be and where the holes needed to be drilled on the template. I even marked the centers of all the holes that had to be drilled so that I could use a punch on the exact center. Then I placed a center line through the drawing based on the center cab light. I then placed a string on the back of the bumper in the middle and ran it to the front bumper in the middle pulling it very taut. That gave me the exact center of the roof. Taped down the template, took my time and drilled the holes. For the plug holes I used one of those bits that gets bigger by an 1/8th inch with each layer. The lights come with a rain gasket but I found that some black silicone around the edges between the light and truck roof helped seal them better. Be sure to remove each 'a' pillar, and the door molding to drop the roof liner first before drilling holes. I did not have to drop it past the front doors on a CC. I also had the luxury of standing on the seats and out the sunroof to drill my holes from above instead of reaching from the sides. Do NOT put a lot of pressure on the drill, just let it cut through the metal on it's own so you don't put divots in the roof from pressing down. I also got some touch up paint from the dealer and repainted the edges of the holes after drilling so that ther was no bare metal for future problems. Yes I'm a little **** about perfection! Took about 3 hours start to finish, but I stop to smoke and run it all through my head before each new task!

I created a .pdf file from my cadd drawings and saved to one of my servers. You can download the template here.
Although the line quality does not transfer good from cadd to pdf, this should still be able to help you guys out. When you print the template, the top horizontal line should be exactly 3.5" wide to be to scale. Trim the top edge of that line and place against the back of the w/s rubber where it meets metal. Use the other demensions to space the lights apart. Those measurements are at the front side (face) of the lights. You will notice when you do the outside one's, they face outwards slightly due to the w/s rubber following the roof contour. That is fine and as long as the face measurement is right, the light will be installed correctly.
I take no responsibility for accuracy or installation. Use these at your own risk. These work on 05 model truck and I assume other years with same body style.
tm

 

Try Browns of Two Rivers (Wisconsin). About $34 with harness.

 

Thank you for all the info that was stated on how to place the lights in. I think that it might be out of my scope of talent or skill. I might have to bring her in. I just don't think that I can bring myself to drill holes in her yet. Haven't decided yet.
While on the subject I was surfin around and came across some LED lights for clearance lights. Looked sweet any thoughts on those.

 

Gentlemen,

After reading along...

Since I already have the clearance lights I was thinking of adding the rear clearance lights underneath the tailgate like those found on the F-350 dually. I really don't want aftermarket - just OEM. Does anyone know where they can be found (besides the dealership) and approx. how much the part cost?

 

NAPA carries it which is the same unit the factory uses. I think I paid about $19 for it and I just tapped into the license marker light. The only thing it doesn't have is the factory plastic pieces that push into the valance that the screws go into. I just got some small stainless steel bolts and mounted mine.

 

Right on Harleyrider...I'll check it out. Thanks for responding!

 

does anyone have the part number for the wire harness that is used with the moon roof and small overhead consoles? thanks

 

jonlorio,
If you mean you already have a moon roof and small console with just the map lights in it, then you have exactly what I started with. You can just buy the clearance light wiring bundle and do as I described above in my first post. Really easy and there is plenty of room inside the 'A'pillar for both sets of wires.

 

alright, just what i wanted to hear. i bought all of that last night on ebay pretty cheap. gonna install this week. thanks.

 

I have a question to the guys with the moon roofs and clearence lights. Did yall notice any difference in wind noise with the chicken (clearence) lights? if so how much noise? thanks for your help. Robbie

 

I have never noticed any noise generated by the clearance lights. They are pretty aerodynamically designed.