Hi Mount Aux Flood Lights

[studum]

I had mentioned in my member's ride thread about addidng some rear-facing aux lighting to help with night-time reversing and possibly loading / unloading duties. I was just going to go the cheap route with fogs, but have been advised against it because it wouldn't really suit my needs.

I have decided that I will be getting a pair of flood lamps and be mounting them on the top cross bar of my back rack. The question is what do I need?

Princess auto has a couple of 55w options that will cost me about $50 for a pair plus whatever wire I need.
http://www.princessauto.com/trailer/tru ... lood-light
http://www.princessauto.com/trailer/tru ... lood-light

The thought has crossed my mind about usage and wear on my (brand new) battery. Should I be considering LEDs? The only reason I ask this is because there will be times, although relatively few and far between, where I will be parked with the truck off and want to have the lights on for 15-20 minutes while I load or unload. The rest of the time they will be on is when I am reversing with the trailer at night. Will the 110w load for that period of time kill my battery? If it matters my battery is a cheapie exide from Partsource that I had to buy in a pinch.

I found these on ebay - much cheaper than anything else out there, but the quality likely reflects the price. However the design is pretty near identical to any name brand stuff out there that I found.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... K:MEWAX:IT

From my research, which I have found mostly on plow sites, people seem to be gravitating towards these style lights on their racks in 1,000 + lumen capability for work lamps and 500 lumens for brighter, lower reverse-aid lighting.

Any input on weather LEDs are necessary for my usage? If not I'm quite fine with regular bulbs and the associated cost savings. Are there any other products I that I should consider before grabbing the PA lights?

As always any input is appreciated. I'm assuming that what I'm looking for would be similar to what you guys use around your roof racks...

[deeker]

O'Reilly's have small HID lights that don't draw very much and seem to be pretty bright. They come in a couple of sizes (4" and 7") and sometimes go on sale for a reasonable price. Once they are turned on they don't draw too much juice from the battery.

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detai ... &ppt=C0335" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[studum]

Those look pretty awesome, but they only ship in the US it seems. I typed in NY zip code and got a price of $125.

I just checked PA's site again and next week's flyer is up early. They have the 3"x5" 55watt floods in the flyer for $10, at this point I'm just going to grab a pair of them, I can't really argue with that price even if they're not ideal

[Rev]

If you mount a couple 55w lights on the back and have a good battery you will be fine to run them 20 minutes. I have three 55 w lights on the back of my truck and it throws plenty of light.

As an aside, I left two 130 w lights on a couple weeks ago for around 1.5 hours and it did not kill my bluetop. It was not intentional, and the battery certainly had to work at starting the truck, but I was very pleased. I'm sure I could run a couple 55 w lights for an hour without issue. Not that I would.

[studum]

Thanks Rev, I have never needed them for longer than about 15/20 minutes without the truck on so your input is great - especially since I will only need to do this once or twice every couple of weeks. As mentioned, the rest of the time teh truck will be on.

I have wired my switch so that the relay trigger to drive the lights will have no power at all unless the key is in the acc position and the switch is flipped on. Also, my switch has a stupid bright blue LED on it (lights up the whole cab at night) which is great because it will be very difficult for me to leave them turned on unintentionally, at night anyways lol.

Thanks for the input, and confirming my decision.

[Miner]

I just checked PA's site again and next week's flyer is up early. They have the 3"x5" 55watt floods in the flyer for $10, at this point I'm just going to grab a pair of them, I can't really argue with that price even if they're not ideal

Looks like I'll be adding more lights then

[studum]

Looks like I'll be adding more lights then

Just FYI, even though the flyer says it's from the 12th on the prices on the site already reflect the sale. I'm going to grab mine this weekend and mount them on a rainy day when I have nothing to do.

[deeker]

Here is another place to check out for HID, LED (calling Rev...) and incan lights for your truck. I haven't seen any prices but I did see a decent review of the HIDs on a Jeep forum. Not sure about shipping to Canada from any suppliers.

http://www.acrolights.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

edit because I forgot to add in the link

[studum]

I finally finished the install of my lights. They look a little funny, like a set of ears on the truck or something, but they're up there. Most importantly I kept them out of the centre of the rack so I keep all of the utility of it and there's less likelyhood of damaging them. They do in fact turn on just fine, but I haven't tested them at night yet... I mounted them vertically as opposed to horizontally so it didn't look absolutely rediculous, and so I don't bonk my head off of them. I know the beam won't be ideal but it should do what I want it to do.

Total cost including lights, wiring, connectors etc: ~$35 (I had my own switch and relay to re-use). I used 14awg 2 conductor pvc insulated trailer wire to go from the relay under the hood to the lights on the rack.

[Miner]

Need Pics

[studum]

Need Pics

Working on it, was trying to avoid using the cell phone but by the time I get home I keep forgetting to get the camera out.

I tested them for a few seconds last night in the dark. My truck was pulled in my driveway forwards (I didn't go anywhere) and I lit up the small apartment across the street no problem. Looked to be the exact kind of light that I need to back up safer at night with the trailer connected. I wasn't dissapointed, especially for the cost. Looks like tonight I'll actually by trying them out as intended getting the trailer in its home after a couple of jobs.

I'll get pics up ASAP.

[studum]

I took some pics right when I got home from work. Unfortunately my second job for last night got cancelled so I didn't get to test them in use as planned. Then I was too lazy to go and get a pic of them on in the dark so that will have to wait, but here's the install pics.

The lights themselves had to be angled slightly to mount in that location / orientation.



Light mounting / wiring connections. Did not hack the connections on the lights at all. Used connectors to fit with electrical connection sealant goop stuff all over it. Wires are zip-tied on the under side of the tubing and backside of the mesh.



Battery connection


Relay. Driven by added switch in the cab, switch powered via accessory power (Key must be in and forward to intentionally leave them on with the truck off)

^^ I know I'm missing a ring terminal on the ground. I didn't have the right size, it will be fixed... eventually.

When I get bored one day I will undo all of the zip ties and put the wires in some split looming and re-attach with black wire ties. That was all I had at the time. Easter Sunday, stores were closed...

[studum]

I finally got to use these as intended last night. While they did work, I found that they are pointed too high, I need them a bit lower to light up the sides of my trailer as opposed to the load on my trailer.

This is where I found the flaw in my choice of mounting: while the install is clean I have no adjustability. Looking at how I mounted these, does anyone have any ideas how to tilt these down a bit. I thought I would grab the brackets with some vice grips and twist, but I'm thinking that the matierial is too thick and too short for that to work. Anyone have any suggestions short of completely re-mounting them? I was thinking a wedge of some sort under the mounting bolt, but don't know where to look for that.

[Simon]

Do the mounting brackets for the lights not allow for some rotation?

[studum]

The light can rotate about the main mounting bolt, and then again about the secondary bolt which is parallel with the lower edge of the front face.

If they were mounted traditionally (main mounting stud down from the bottom of the light vs out the back of the light) then I could rotate up and down on the secondary bracket and left/right on the main bolt.

Because of how I mounted them to hold them tight to the rack I can only spin the light in a clockwise, counter clockwise manner. Additionally because the lights are mounted 90 degrees to traditional the secondary adjustment will only allow for a left / right adjust (not up/down which I need). I did this to hold it as tight to the back rack as I could, and actually I can't even rotate it clockwise / counter clockwise because of how close it is to the rack.

Kind of convoluted, but hop you'll know what I'm saying.

I'm thinking I will have to ditch my brackets, move the mounts up about an inch and drill all the way through the top leg of the backrack and get some longer hardware to bolt all the way through the tube. I was trying to avoid this initially (drilling all the way through) and this will make them stick out to the sides a bit more, but will give me proper up / down and left / right adjustment.

If I could somehow shim the light mounting bracket to the mount I made on the backrack on a slight angle it would be perfect and use the existing mount, but I'm not sure I can do that. The only way I can think of doing that is by getting a slightly larger bolt and cutting it in half on an angle to act as a shim. Challenging at best, if not stupid and impossible...

[Simon]

I do get it. Can you rotate the bracket so that the 2nd mode of adjustment is now on the correct plane, allowing you to swivel up/down, as opposed to right/left?

Other than that, take a grinder to a piece of metal, make it a "Wedge" as you said, and drill a couple of holes in it to effectively tilt the lights.

[studum]

I do get it. Can you rotate the bracket so that the 2nd mode of adjustment is now on the correct plane, allowing you to swivel up/down, as opposed to right/left?

Other than that, take a grinder to a piece of metal, make it a "Wedge" as you said, and drill a couple of holes in it to effectively tilt the lights.

Can't rotate the bracket for the second adjustment because that will rotate the whole light which I do not have space for. The second adjustment is fixed to the bottom side of the light and I can't move that as no other mounting locations are possible (these lights were $10 each...)

I think I have some scrap metal in the garage and I never thought of that. I will give that a shot before doing anything else. I only need a couple of degrees of adjustment so that might just do the trick. Once it's set it won't need to be adjusted again.

Thanks for the input Simon

[Bow_Tied]

I'd un-mount the light and twist the metal bracket using sheetmetal vicegrips. It doesn't look too thick, 1/16"? If the bracket mounts are sheet metal scerws use a c-clamp to support them though when twisting. You could always put the bracket in a vice and have it with a ballpein hammer too or heat them and twist.

The wedge idea should also work but you made need to enlarge the clearance holes if they are tight now.

Or put a lift kit on your trailer.

[studum]

Or put a lift kit on your trailer.

Short answer: no. The trailer needs some paint touch-ups, and new tires in a very short period of time. It doesn't owe me anything at this point. Trying to decide if I should man-up and put a bit of money into it to keep it going or sell it and get another one, maybe even a bit bigger...

Not sure of the exact thickness of the bracket to be honest. It was the biggest equal leg "L" bracket that Rona had on the shelf and I cut / drilled them to suit (I was originally going to use them as an L bracket before I brain farted this mounting method). It's somewhere between 1/16 and 1/8 though. It's beefier than it appears in the photos.

Looking at the bending option again and relaising that it has to twist away from the tube, not towards it, as you say there may be enough to twist the brackets because there's about 2" between the light mounting bolt and the first mounting screw on the bracket.

The brackets are indeed mounted with hex capped metal screws, #12 I think if I remember right (again, biggest ones they had that would fit). I'm thinking that throwing a couple of clamps on the bracket screws and twisting would take a lot less pissing around than making a shim. The holes for the light mount are tight, so they probably would have to be enlarged to allow for an angle on the bolt using a shim. I hadn't thought about this, not that it's a big deal... just another step.

I'm not 100% sure I have the proper vice grips for it. I'll check my set at home before attempting. Maybe a good excuse to buy a tool

I'm going to try and play with it this weekend if I can make some time for it.

[danxe]

Or put a lift kit on your trailer.

This is appears to be the definitive step in the CNTC Mods/Problem Solving Flow Chart. Problem with mod - can you lift it? - yes - problem solved / if you can't lift it - is there something else you can lift? - yes - problem solved