Anyone buy OEM bed lights and simply install a switch and wire to constant power in trailer pin?

[Inspectorcallahan]

It appears I have the pre-configured areas for bed lights.....can't believe they were not included, but oh well....just curious if anyone simply ran the wires down to
the constant power on the trailer....seems like a really simple install.....any thoughts?

 

[Richard320]

That would be too easy.

If I did it, I'd be sure to splice a smaller fuse in the feed to the bed lights. If a wire gets pinched, 30A can generate a lot of magic smoke.

 

[Inspectorcallahan]

thx. Good point. I assume a 5-10 amp fuse would be perfect. Just mount a switch and turn them on/off.....I guess some **** can be that simple

 

[Richard320]

thx. Good point. I assume a 5-10 amp fuse would be perfect. Just mount a switch and turn them on/off.....I guess some **** can be that simple

If they're LED, probably a 2 Amp would be overkill.

 

[Moosefire66]

I did see that a guy tapped into the 3rd brake light bed light wire to send power to the other bed lights. Worked out good since those lights come on automatically when you open your tailgate, which in turn gives you power

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using Tapatalk

 

[MayhemMOORE]

Posted this in another thread asking about wiring some aux lights, but I'll post it again here since its specific to the bed lights.

I used a 3-position Single Pole Double Throw (SPDT) switch to operate my bed light strips I installed under each rail.

Center terminal goes to the lights. The power for one side comes from a constant 12V source (the feed to the trailer plug. There is an inline fuse before my switch). The power to other side comes from the overhead lights. I can select "on" at any time using the constant feed, "switched" which will turn them on and off with the cargo lights, and "off" which which is self explanatory.

You could always add in a relay for powering the lights when using the existing cargo lights as a trigger, but the draw from some LED's is likely not enough to add enough to the circuit to worry about.