MikeyHo808
Ram Guru
Aloha all,
Love the look of amber lights in the grill, just not many options for the 5th Gen grills. I liked the Rough Country LED lights in the pocket idea, but wasn't big on the white LED's.
Ended up ordering a set on Amazon, $14.99 for 8 amber bullet lamps. Upon receiving the LED's, I realized that they were trailer clearance lights, and not quite what I expected, but I intended to figure it out.
Tried several different mounting locations, but kept reverting back to the grill pockets. Because of the design of LED's, mounting them required a panel of some sort. Mounting them anywhere else on the grill meant trying to blend said panel into the location effectively, and not just "thrown" in there.
I had some sheets of ABS plastic sheets for modeling. Along with the plastic sheets I used:
3M heavy duty 2-way tape
3/4 wide rubber weather stripping
A Dremel to make the holes in the plastic, and a stand grinder for finishing.
Cut two strips out of the plastic, and shaped to fit into the grill cavities. Made 3 holes in each panel, 6 lights total to be mounted
After laying out the wiring, it kind of just came together after that.
I attached bullet connectors on each end of wiring on both panels, so I can remove them individually, and disconnect from power without having to disconnect ALL of the wiring.
I have power tapped from the trailer parking lights fuse in the fuse block under the hood, all nice and tidy.
I have the wiring wrapped in black wire wrap, and guided through behind the grill to the block and frame (for ground) The wiring is fed through the cavity, and I guided them through the rear of the grill. As I guided the wiring through the rear of the grill, I needed to remove the plastic shroud over the radiator to ease access. I was able to take up the slack on the extra wiring from there, and keep it as invisible as possible behind the grill.
I may re-route the wiring down under the front, and then back up. Seems overkill, but currently the wiring is just kind of there behind the grill hanging, but because of the black wrap, you can't see it. Will see how long my OCD will let it go.
Anyways, the cavity just so happens to be about the same width as the 2-way tape, so I loaded it up within the empty spaces of the panels, then stuck the weather stripping on top of the 2 way tape, leaving the edges of the tape exposed for mounting,
The panels are lodged into the cavity, pretty much just stuck in there by the weather stripping. The tape just completely stuck the whole panel to the black grill plastic behind in the cavity. I tested removal, and it was like removing my emblems, slow and tedious, but it came off. Cleaned the cavity, and remounted the panel.
I was actually pretty self conscious of it the first few days thinking it was gonna pop out or something.
It has been over 9 days since the install, a few rainy trips to work and back, probably about 2-300 miles on them so far, and they are stuck like glue. No electrical issues to report, either.
I dig how it comes on when I remote start.
Amazed at how it came out from what I started with. Am more amazed that the mouse and wheel in my head can still turn some ideas out, LOL.
For $14.99 for the lights, already had the plastic, weather stripping and wire wraps, misc., $4 bucks for the tape, a few hours out of my day off to work on it, I'm pretty satisfied.
Let me know what you think! Thanks for looking!
Love the look of amber lights in the grill, just not many options for the 5th Gen grills. I liked the Rough Country LED lights in the pocket idea, but wasn't big on the white LED's.
Ended up ordering a set on Amazon, $14.99 for 8 amber bullet lamps. Upon receiving the LED's, I realized that they were trailer clearance lights, and not quite what I expected, but I intended to figure it out.
Tried several different mounting locations, but kept reverting back to the grill pockets. Because of the design of LED's, mounting them required a panel of some sort. Mounting them anywhere else on the grill meant trying to blend said panel into the location effectively, and not just "thrown" in there.
I had some sheets of ABS plastic sheets for modeling. Along with the plastic sheets I used:
3M heavy duty 2-way tape
3/4 wide rubber weather stripping
A Dremel to make the holes in the plastic, and a stand grinder for finishing.
Cut two strips out of the plastic, and shaped to fit into the grill cavities. Made 3 holes in each panel, 6 lights total to be mounted
After laying out the wiring, it kind of just came together after that.
I attached bullet connectors on each end of wiring on both panels, so I can remove them individually, and disconnect from power without having to disconnect ALL of the wiring.
I have power tapped from the trailer parking lights fuse in the fuse block under the hood, all nice and tidy.
I have the wiring wrapped in black wire wrap, and guided through behind the grill to the block and frame (for ground) The wiring is fed through the cavity, and I guided them through the rear of the grill. As I guided the wiring through the rear of the grill, I needed to remove the plastic shroud over the radiator to ease access. I was able to take up the slack on the extra wiring from there, and keep it as invisible as possible behind the grill.
I may re-route the wiring down under the front, and then back up. Seems overkill, but currently the wiring is just kind of there behind the grill hanging, but because of the black wrap, you can't see it. Will see how long my OCD will let it go.
Anyways, the cavity just so happens to be about the same width as the 2-way tape, so I loaded it up within the empty spaces of the panels, then stuck the weather stripping on top of the 2 way tape, leaving the edges of the tape exposed for mounting,
The panels are lodged into the cavity, pretty much just stuck in there by the weather stripping. The tape just completely stuck the whole panel to the black grill plastic behind in the cavity. I tested removal, and it was like removing my emblems, slow and tedious, but it came off. Cleaned the cavity, and remounted the panel.
I was actually pretty self conscious of it the first few days thinking it was gonna pop out or something.
It has been over 9 days since the install, a few rainy trips to work and back, probably about 2-300 miles on them so far, and they are stuck like glue. No electrical issues to report, either.
I dig how it comes on when I remote start.
Amazed at how it came out from what I started with. Am more amazed that the mouse and wheel in my head can still turn some ideas out, LOL.
For $14.99 for the lights, already had the plastic, weather stripping and wire wraps, misc., $4 bucks for the tape, a few hours out of my day off to work on it, I'm pretty satisfied.
Let me know what you think! Thanks for looking!
