Tailgate light bar

[Gkmathiesen]

It mounts into a piece of plastic. I ended up getting longer self tapping screws from Home Depot and used those. I also recently replaced the washers with nylon spacers I got from Home Depot as well and cut to fit my needs.

Thank you Grinch for posting those pictures, I was racking my brain to figure out what kind of spacer everyone was referring to.

 

[Gkmathiesen]

Yesterday I did the physical mounting of the OPT7 triple LED light bar and fiddled around with the positioning to get it clear of the tailgate opening, which is no small challenge.

In my case I mounted the 4 clips on the plastic fascia panel, spaced equidistant across the panel with spacers under each. I used 1" self-tapping screws on the outside and bolts/wingnuts on the inner clips. I may go back and use bolts/wingnuts on the outside clips for better strength. The one factor to deal with is that the fascia panel is curved - probably 1/2" farther away from the bumper in the center and closer on the outsides, which means thicker/taller spacers in the center vs. the outside edges, depending on where you place the clips.

I trial fit a number of times and tested the tailgate and found it touching every time until I decreased the spacer thickness and ended up with rubber washers as spacers on the outsides, about 1/8 inch (and probably compressed to somewhat less than this) and 3/8 in the middle spots. I'll check with a straight edge to see how close to flat the bar is, but there is some flex possible when it is mounted. There's also molded "bumps" on the very outsides of the fascia panel that keep you from mounting the bar flush directly on the fascia. When the bottom light row is about flush with the level of the bumper and the clip spacers are short enough, the tailgate clears with a few millimeters to spare. There is very little room (tolerance) to show well out back and miss the tailgate lip when opening, but it does fit and looks great when you get it positioned right. Hopefully 4 clips are sufficient to keep the bar from coming loose, but maybe I will figure out some invisible way to zip tie the thing as a fail-safe.

I have to zip tie up all the harness this evening...

But a question for @grinch72 (maybe I don't understand something): Why did you make that little 6 inch harness from both ends of the Hopkins 5-way kit? It seems like the light bar plugs right into the Curt 56584 5-way and you could just put a bullet connector on the white (reverse) wire and stick it into the one remaining open one (reverse) in the Curt? I am not sure why you made that adapter other than removing the bar with the single bullet connector wire might be fragile and fiddly if you had do it more than a time or two, therefore the 5-wire to 5-wire quick disconnect. Thanks for any explanations.

Not understanding the 6-inch harness functionality, I have just plugged the 4-wire plug directly into the Curt 56584. I sacrificed the unused OPT7 "hardwire adapter" 4-wire pigtail from the kit and used razor knife to cut one bullet-plug worth of connector with one wire off the molded 4-wire plug, then spliced that onto the bar's white bare wire and plugged that into the remaining Curt 56584 socket. All works fine.

I'll be sending the Hopkins 5-way plug set back to Amazon.

PS - I took a look at the light bar at night - quite cool. The backup lights make a huge difference lighting up the invisible area behind the truck. The OPT7 bar does not come on if you quick tap the brake, it needs about 1 second to light up.

Thanks for sharing all the info to put this together.

Great job explaining everything, yeah I don't understand why Grinch did all that too, but I'm sure he is smarter than me. Honestly this wiring stuff has me baffled so I might just buy it, put it on the truck and have it professionally wired up.

 

[grinch72]

Great job explaining everything, yeah I don't understand why Grinch did all that too, but I'm sure he is smarter than me. Honestly this wiring stuff has me baffled so I might just buy it, put it on the truck and have it professionally wired up.

Haha. I’m not sure why I did all that either. After I did it, I realized I did too much!!

 

[bigebengals]

Thank you Grinch for posting those pictures, I was racking my brain to figure out what kind of spacer everyone was referring to.

Yes thank you to Grinch, The five way adapter worked like a champ and I just used the male end of the harness provided with the opt7 and connected it to the white on the light bar.. I also used nylon spacers from home depot with the metal brackets provided with 1" self tapping screws.. I used 1/4 spacers on outside and 1/2 on the inside. Looks and works great.
Thanks again for the advice

 

[bigebengals]

Thanks to all the advice in forums

 

[p0intman]

Thanks to everyone in this community your help has been greatly appreciated. After reading multiple posts I came up with a plan and it worked out beautifully the descriptive nature of the post helped tremendously still waiting on the Curt 56584 to wire reverse light currently using my old 55384 and connecting to the 4 pin. Pictures to follow after I wire the reverse light.
OPT7 Testing Video

 

[TexasENG]

How's everyone's OPT7 light bar holding up? There are some reviews on the amazon page about light failure/malfunctions on the OPT7 triple LED, that along with not so great customer service. Thoughts? Im debating whether I want to go Putco or OPT7

 

[SpeedyV]

@Gondul - Did you end up installing that Putco harness? I'd love to see an example of a 2019 with no delay on the light bar, especially when signaling. The ideal combination would have the look of the OPT7 (i.e. "moving" lights) and connection of the Putco. Wishful thinking, perhaps.

 

[2019REBEL]

How's everyone's OPT7 light bar holding up? There are some reviews on the amazon page about light failure/malfunctions on the OPT7 triple LED, that along with not so great customer service. Thoughts? Im debating whether I want to go Putco or OPT7

I had it on my 2014 Outdoorsman previously. Worked great for the 3 seasons but doesn't really like the cold. The turn signal on the passenger side wouldn't work. Once it warmed back up it worked so I took it off in the winter.
I will do the same once I put it on my 2019 Rebel.

 

[grinch72]

How's everyone's OPT7 light bar holding up? There are some reviews on the amazon page about light failure/malfunctions on the OPT7 triple LED, that along with not so great customer service. Thoughts? Im debating whether I want to go Putco or OPT7

Mines been fine so far. Took the winter without issue. Time will tell. I paid the xtra $ for the VIP warranty which I hear makes a huge difference.

 

[jamie.howlett]

All is well with my OPT7 light bar (6 months since the install)

 

[Dmalonecentral]

So far so good on mine.


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[thebluegoat]

Had one on my 2011, replaced under warranty twice. Third time I sold it. LEDs would quit about midway through Ontario winter. Also had a couple from customdynamics that didn't hold up either

 

[JJWerline]

With all the spacers and clips will the light bar be sticking out almost flush with the top of the bumper? or does it still sit back behind the bumper? I went through this whole thread but still have some confusion on exactly how everyone is mounting it. are you putting the clips on the spacers to clear the camera wiring harness? can anyone post CLEAR pictures of the way they mounted it maybe a day time picture so we can actually see how its mounted? there are a few shots of the complete back of the truck which doesn't really show me how you mounted it then there are pics of just clips but it doesn't look like the light will clear the camera harness. the Curt part i get i already have that installed on my truck but its the "How to" mounting part that i'm scratching my head on still and maybe its because i don't have the product in hand to look at but it seems like this should be an easy install but RAM had to go and put curves all over the back of the tailgate lol. If someone can post clear images of how they mounted their bar that would be much appreciated

 

[jamie.howlett]

The spacers are only to make up the mounting space lost by the access panel for the review camera for a level flush mount. The light bar is still recessed under the tailgate and not flush with the bumper.

 

[JJWerline]

Whelp I just went and bought the light bar and spacers and saw for myself how it all went together. It was fairly simple.

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[Rick8325]

I’ve had some bad luck with some expensive led light bars burning out in the last. I always liked the look of the 3 dot identification lights on some of the heavy duty and dually trucks. Wondering if this cheap mini led bar would work under there. Seems to have a built in spacer for the wiring and I can figure out 2 more spacers for the ends. Wired into that curt connector.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N0Y5MML/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ilsSCbX7QBCGZ


EDIT- F' it, I bought the OPT7 triple.

 

[amazing210]

could you post a picture on how the heck it lays in there with the wire that is there? i am looking at it and not sure where to place it

 

[Rick8325]

could you post a picture on how the heck it lays in there with the wire that is there? i am looking at it and not sure where to place it

Just did mine today. Used 1” self taping screws. 1/2” nylon spaces for the 2 clips in the middle and 1/4” spacers for the 2 end clips. If you don’t take the tailgate off, the hardest part is holding the clips on to screw them in because the clips are small (maybe use needle nose pliers to hold them in place). I just started the screw then backed them out then put the screw through the clip and spacer and hand tightened. Like everyone else is saying make sure the bottom of the clips line up with the top of the bumper. Took all of 30 mins to install and wire up.

 

[myram2019]

Does OPT7 led bar mess with BLIND SPOT or LANE KEEP or any other tow features while connected to the trailer pig tail. Do i need to get one with modified power wire ?