What’s on your upfitter switches?

blamkin86 · April 8, 2020

As you may have seen in other pix, my 3500 AT4 carries a Four Wheel camper. My wife and I head to Utah from the Denver area many many times a year.

We usually arrive after dark and it’s nice to have some light as we’re moving from the cab to the camper. Also nice to socialize for a bit before we head in for the night.

So, very first on my list was some loading lights. Some people call these “rock lights” but they generally have different intentions than we do. Some people use rock lights to get over rocks at night - others have fancy colors that change while they play their disco music white boy.

For me, they needed to be not dim, but also not super bright nor very high of the ground like a ditch light or work light might be mounted.

After a lot of research, I bought two sets of these:

https://www.online-led-store.com/6pc-lamphus-stardust-sdrl14-led-off-road-rock-light-orzledwkl1050-xx-x6

Actually I bought one set but they were so perfect for what I was doing, I bought another set!

Currently, I’ve mounted and wired 10 of these things, all to switch #1

I started with four across the bottom of the back bumper. Then I added one to each bed step.

When the second order arrived, I added one to each side of the rear bumper (also on the bottom) then I added one to the center bottom of each running board.

This leaves me with two left over. I wanted to add them to the bottom of the front bumper, but that looks like a royal pain. So I’m either going to put them on the bottom of the air dam (yeah those’ll get scraped off at some point) or maybe the front of the side step.

My wife says it’s stupid to add them to the front - but she’ll be happy if she ever needs them. - you married guys know the drill on that one.

Anyway - let me know what you think! Dumb? Awesome?

kf9yr · April 9, 2020

Not a bad idea if you camp in rattlesnake country...

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cdnSpinalTap · April 9, 2020

You have to put the front ones on. The way you have it now, it definitely looks like they are just missing. Otherwise, looks great - good mod.

blamkin86 · April 9, 2020

Thanks all yeah I just need to find the right place on the front. Under the bumper looks great but I don’t think I can get a wrench on the back side.

I’ll post again when I get it done.

2k19Sierra · April 9, 2020

Looks awesome! Did you order the warm white or the cold white? Been trying to figure out how to get a light bar on the front of my new truck but there’s just not any good places on these trucks compared to my k2 and gmt900. This might be a good alternative. Any more info on how you wired them up? Thanks

blamkin86 · April 9, 2020

That's cold white. They were out of all the other colors! I think it matches the stock LEDs pretty good - not perfect but it's not like one looks yellow vs the other.

Wiring: Upffitter switch #1 to 12 ga wire. Back out normal place thru firewall. Down to driver's frame rail and all the way to the back. Zip tied to stock wiring. Near the Bed Step, I scotch-lok'd in another 12ga wire across the fuel tank then across the top of the heat shield to the other side. For grounds, there's a fantastic factory ground right above the spare tire to the driver's side. From there, each light is just either crimped or scotch-lok'd to the 12ga wire. Oh there's no good grounds on the sides, I used a bolt under the bed because it wasn't painted on the underside.

Edited April 9, 2020 by blamkin86

blamkin86 · April 10, 2020

Switch #2: Combo offroad and driving lights.

Baja Designs Squadron Pro: https://www.bajadesigns.com/products/squadron-pro-pair-driving-combo-led.asp

They're 10% off with free shipping right now.

I wanted something smaller, not a big light bar. I've been disappointed in those in the past - really all I need is some lower-speed light for going 25-45 offroad.

They were easy to wire - bought the kit with the harness, and it literally all snapped together. Found a ground right by the driver's battery and ran the rest of the wire through the firewall like I did for the rock lights.

The pain was getting a wrench behind the bumper. Had to run a hand between the grill slats and hold the wrench upside down with the nut on it - then try and move that around until it matched up the hole I drilled, then thread in the bolt, then try and keep it all from falling down while tightening it. The bumper swallowed one 14mm socket- hopefully that'll fall out on some backroad and not damage anything.

Hoping these are all they're supposed to be.

2k19Sierra · April 10, 2020

That looks really cool! May have to do that. So far I just have the footwell lights wired to one of my aux switches!

blamkin86 · April 10, 2020

Thanks!

I need to do the foot wells. That looks really cool.

blamkin86 · April 20, 2020

Finally got around to finishing this last night. No less than 14 of these little buggers scattered around the land barge.

I took the time to redo some of the wiring that I wasn't happy with... I swapped out plain-old Harbor Freight butt connectors for those fancy ones that you heat up with a torch that seal out water.

Really pleased with how this turned out. Total overkill but imagine pulling up to a BLM campsite at 10pm in Utah and unloading with those. Done.

2k19Sierra · April 20, 2020

14 minutes ago, blamkin86 said:

Finally got around to finishing this last night. No less than 14 of these little buggers scattered around the land barge.

I took the time to redo some of the wiring that I wasn't happy with... I swapped out plain-old Harbor Freight butt connectors for those fancy ones that you heat up with a torch that seal out water.

Really pleased with how this turned out. Total overkill but imagine pulling up to a BLM campsite at 10pm in Utah and unloading with those. Done.

looks awesome! can you post some pics of how you mounted the lights on the front? looking to do the same but couldnt come up with a good mounting location. thank you!

blamkin86 · April 20, 2020

That may have been the worst part. The lights I bought included a "Base" in case you wanted to mount them on a rollbar. I basically cut that base on an angle, so the lights would be canted out 45 degrees.

I'll post some pix tonight. There just isn't a great place on the front of the truck. I thought about lower under the spoiler, but I'm sure they'd just get wiped off there by some rock.

They're basically inside the tow hooks. If you look, you'll see what looks like two parallel lines running straight up, just to the inside of the tow hooks. I mounted them just above those lines - you'll see it.

I'll post some pix later. Thanks!

2k19Sierra · May 3, 2020

Added a couple lights to the bumper corner steps for some side facing light. Pretty pleased with how bright these things are!

Edited May 3, 2020 by 2k19Sierra

H'sAT4 · May 3, 2020

Lights look great, I'm curios about your step bars, what brand are they?

20gmctruckguy · January 17, 2021

On 4/20/2020 at 9:34 AM, blamkin86 said:

Finally got around to finishing this last night. No less than 14 of these little buggers scattered around the land barge.

I took the time to redo some of the wiring that I wasn't happy with... I swapped out plain-old Harbor Freight butt connectors for those fancy ones that you heat up with a torch that seal out water.

Really pleased with how this turned out. Total overkill but imagine pulling up to a BLM campsite at 10pm in Utah and unloading with those. Done.

Looks great! Thanks for the idea.