Thread: Routing cable for roof mounted lights?

Originally Posted by BMKal

Yes - you can wire them so that they are "legal" as reversing lights.

Simply power them through a relay, triggered by your existing reversing lights. You can even have a separate power feed to the lights so that you can switch them on for camping etc - but this switch MUST NOT be able to be operated from the driver's seat. I've got an LED light I've been meaning to mount off my rear wheel carrier for a while (will eventually get around to it ). This will have dual feed circuits - one via a relay triggered by the existing reversing lights, and one from a switch mounted inside the tailgate.

The circuit triggered by the existing reversing lights will also have a switch in the front so that I can turn the LED light OFF and NOT have it activated with the original reversing lights if I don't want it to come on. This is legal - provided that I cannot turn the LED light ON independently of the original reversing lights.

My workute has a pair of LED worklites in the headboard.I use them as reverse lights when its dark.Nice and bright,simple dash switch so not legal I guess.Great for call outs at nite when you have to cut a tree up,you can park the ute with the headlites on in the oncoming traffic direction and safely work behind the ute.Have in the past with another ute been working cutting a tree up with the headlights to see,hazzard lights on ond roof beacons going.Spotted a car approaching at speed,just got clear as it ploughed thru the tree without stopping.Fortunatley for the driver I was parked infront of the main trunk,they went thru the tops,spectacular!!!!
Andrew

Sliced a little cut in this for the cable, pull down the plastic cover the rear cabin light is in and poke the cable down the slice.

Partially remove rear door seal carefully!(whichever side you've chosen to run the cable to) Grab the hard part of the seal only, the soft part will tear with enough force.


Run cable down.

Grabe near the cigarette lighter socket and pull back gently but firmly to release a couple of retaining clips on the side panel and feed cable through to the side pocket.

Job done.

Still cleaning up the wiring on my roof rack...



You get the idea though.



I've found this braided wrap much better around moving areas than the harder stuff, which snapped the cables on my rear parking sensor on the RWC after only a few uses. It just snags too easily.

If you don't have a roof rack you could go underneath the metal strips, where i have a void..

Originally Posted by Russrobe

I wanted mine at the rear so just went through the existing grommet. Actually wiring the switch right now.

Just going to mount it in one of the side cubby holes in the boot though as it will only be needed when parked up to setup camp at night.

...

On my D3 I powered a small spot mounted on the back of the Rhino platform from behind the 12V socket above the LH rear cubby hole. This socket had been "Traxided" to the auxiliary battery. I put a small switch next to the power socket and ran the double insulated twin core cable out through the LH rear tail light grommet, then up and out from behind the tail light assembly and up the outside of the bodywork next to the tail gate seal. I tacked the wire to the bodywork with a bit of silicon. Sounds a bit agricultural, but it was really hard to see unless you went looking for it, especially as it not an area then usually gets washed.

At the top, the cable went in under the end of the Rhino roof rail bracket and out into the rail track where it was finished off with a female Deutsch. When in use I'd just plug in the light which had a male Deutch, and when not in use, the cable and plug would sit neatly in the track.

Andrew

Do you have a Traxide kit G5K? I did the same thing as Andrew and spliced into the Traxide 2nd powered socket cables.

Thanks guys really appreciate the help.

@Russrobe no I don't have a Traxide haven't really learnt about them yet have been learning quickly about everything. More reading in between spending

Dual battery kit. If you get one, get the full kit, for the extra flexibility it's well worth the money.

You could just steal the power from the rear cigarette lighter for the time being, just won't have a constant power feed.

Thanks for that just having a quick read on their site and see there are lots of options to confuse newbies, what your suggesting sounds smart.

I'm also thinking for my first trip I could probably use one of these for the rear work light to support using the rear 12v. I've got a couple of these at work that we use to run a camera and they last forever.

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