Added Bed Lights

jayare90s · February 3, 2019

For anyone who's added their own lighting to their truck bed, what was your choice to powering them on? I tried adding a magnetic switch

to the tailgate so that whenever it'd open the lights would come on. Wiring was done as instructions said and spent hours on it trying to get it

to work. But I was left with the option with turning them on whenever I hit the Cargo light button inside the Cab.

SS502 · February 3, 2019

12 minutes ago, jayare90s said:

For anyone who's added their own lighting to their truck bed, what was your choice to powering them on? I tried adding a magnetic switch

to the tailgate so that whenever it'd open the lights would come on. Wiring was done as instructions said and spent hours on it trying to get it

to work. But I was left with the option with turning them on whenever I hit the Cargo light button inside the Cab.

Read this thread, might give you some ideas...

Capt Bob · February 3, 2019

So, correct me if I'm wrong, you want the bed lighting you installed to come on when you drop the tailgate but have no other power turned on in the truck. Truck is unlocked so you haven't hit the fob and you have no other lighting on?

If so, how did you get constant power (think directly hooked to the positive battery terminal) to your switch?

bc-chris · February 4, 2019

6 hours ago, jayare90s said:

For anyone who's added their own lighting to their truck bed, what was your choice to powering them on? I tried adding a magnetic switch

to the tailgate so that whenever it'd open the lights would come on. Wiring was done as instructions said and spent hours on it trying to get it

to work. But I was left with the option with turning them on whenever I hit the Cargo light button inside the Cab.

when i did mine, i pulled power from inside the dash and have a switch inside the box to turn them on/off. in the spring i plan on also adding a magnetic switch. the toggle switch will be 'first', that way if i want to leave my tailgate down for a few hours i can still turn the lights off

here is what i did: bed lights

jayare90s · February 4, 2019

7 hours ago, Capt Bob said:

So, correct me if I'm wrong, you want the bed lighting you installed to come on when you drop the tailgate but have no other power turned on in the truck. Truck is unlocked so you haven't hit the fob and you have no other lighting on?

If so, how did you get constant power (think directly hooked to the positive battery terminal) to your switch?

Yes that’s what I mainly wanted is for only turn on when the tailgate dropped. on the magnetic switch all I had to do was hook up one wire to a constant 12v battery source which I was doing so by hooking up directly to the battery. And then the other wire would go to the positive side of the LED lights. I had power to them but they wouldn’t turn off whenever I lifted the tailgate and made contact with the magnet. So instead I had to tap into the fuse box on the passenger side for the cargo light. Now the only way they’ll turn on is by hitting that switch. My other option was tapping into the parking lights.

jayare90s · February 4, 2019

2 hours ago, bc-chris said:

when i did mine, i pulled power from inside the dash and have a switch inside the box to turn them on/off. in the spring i plan on also adding a magnetic switch. the toggle switch will be 'first', that way if i want to leave my tailgate down for a few hours i can still turn the lights off

here is what i did: bed lights

Where did you put your switch inside the box? I was thinking of adding the switch after the magnetic failed but couldn’t really figure a place to put it.

bc-chris · February 4, 2019

2 hours ago, jayare90s said:

Where did you put your switch inside the box? I was thinking of adding the switch after the magnetic failed but couldn’t really figure a place to put it.

on the drivers side of the bed by the tailgate. i have a tonneu cover so i'm not worried about it getting wet and i don't usually haul stuff like rocks or gravel in the box... usually just groceries, hockey gear and band gear

i've circled it in the pic below....

SS502 · February 4, 2019

3 hours ago, bc-chris said:

on the drivers side of the bed by the tailgate. i have a tonneu cover so i'm not worried about it getting wet and i don't usually haul stuff like rocks or gravel in the box... usually just groceries, hockey gear and band gear

i've circled it in the pic below....

On another note...that’s a nice bed divider ?

Capt Bob · February 4, 2019

7 hours ago, jayare90s said:

Yes that’s what I mainly wanted is for only turn on when the tailgate dropped. on the magnetic switch all I had to do was hook up one wire to a constant 12v battery source which I was doing so by hooking up directly to the battery. And then the other wire would go to the positive side of the LED lights. I had power to them but they wouldn’t turn off whenever I lifted the tailgate and made contact with the magnet. So instead I had to tap into the fuse box on the passenger side for the cargo light. Now the only way they’ll turn on is by hitting that switch. My other option was tapping into the parking lights.

Sounds like a defective switch. Checked continuity with your ohm meter?

Darmichar · February 4, 2019

You can also get always on B+ from the 7-pin trailer connector in the rear bumper.

14 hours ago, bc-chris said:

on the drivers side of the bed by the tailgate. i have a tonneu cover so i'm not worried about it getting wet and i don't usually haul stuff like rocks or gravel in the box... usually just groceries, hockey gear and band gear

i've circled it in the pic below....

Also, I agree, where did you get that divider at?

bc-chris · February 5, 2019

3 hours ago, Darmichar said:

You can also get always on B+ from the 7-pin trailer connector in the rear bumper.

Also, I agree, where did you get that divider at?

i made the divider... box divider

jayare90s · February 5, 2019

5 hours ago, Darmichar said:

You can also get always on B+ from the 7-pin trailer connector in the rear bumper.

Also, I agree, where did you get that divider at?

I tried that at first but I put my ohm reader to all the pins and wasn’t getting power. I only got power to it when I turned on the switch. I’m going to try another magnetic switch or possibly some type of pin switch. Thanks for the input guys.