That Bully back up light is pretty sweet, another idea that I have been thinking about is the third LED brake light bar under the tailgate. They are coming with red and white LED's now to act as back up lights....but I dont know how much light they put out for backing up.

 

I would do two things, but I like crazy flexibility.

I would have two switches and a relay. This would allow for them to come on with the reverse lights automatically (with an option to disable that feature with the switch) or whenever I wanted them to come on (with the 2nd switch).

 

you might want to run the output of your on demand switch to the relay coil, instead of making the switch carry the load for the lights just a thought

add a diode in line from the OEM reverse feed to prevent feedback

 

I put mine on a switch only and not tied to the reverse lamps. I have the camera and Nav. I found that even at midnight, the weak OEM reverse lights and camera sensitivity is enough to light up the back. In fact, with these little H3 halogens, its too much light and saturates what the camera sends to the screen.

For my switch, I used a relay wired up so I can negative switch. That is, the coil top, and relay input are tied together, through a fuse, to the battery. The coil bottom goes to the switch, which then goes to any ground point in the cab. This way, that line is never hot. The output goes to the reverse lamps.

I went 1 step further with the switch- its a lit switch that is usually a postive switch requiring power, ground and the output. I took the switch apart and reversed the indicator LED and contacts so I could use it as a negative switch and still light up. Odd, I know.

I got these at a local auto place (Princess Auto in Mississauga Ontario), $20 I think.

I also have an LED bar with white LEDs that I did wire to the rev line. They don't throw much light, its more for show and to show I am in rev.

 

I guess that would work. The only reason for the relay initially was to prevent feedback. The lights won't use that much anyway. Most switches you buy at Autzone etc will handle the current just fine.

 

No one has been dumb enough to try it yet... I had to get my phone camera to focus on the white tailgate otherwise the picture was completely washed out. Honestly, they're almost too bright. But I'm a lighting dork so it's ok.



Pitch black night. Oh and the lights are Grote "trilliant" LED flood lights.

 

I picked up some cheap LED driving light like thingys today while at the auto parts store ( I originally went there because I knew they had 5 gallon buckets for sale, and I needed one to put the water in while changing the water in my fish tank )

Anywho, they had them a on discontinued rack for a whopping $5, so I figured I'd snag 'em and see how they work out.

Since they're LED, they'll pull pretty much no current, so I'm just going to splice their power right into the OEM wiring for the reverse lights at one of the tail lights. And they have a strip of 3M double sided tape on them, so I can just stick them somewhere, and I've already found the PERFECT spot; right on the bottom of the trailer hitch. They're just small enough to fit perfectly; almost out of sight

I tested them both out, just connecting their terminals to the battery, and they are decently bright for their small size, so we'll see just how much better the light output is. They're cheap, so I don't expect much, but it's just GOT to be better than the stock light pattern

I'm going to go snap some before pictures tonight, so that I can compare the results to it

 

installed and working

going out bowling with the family tonight, so we'll see how much better they make a real-world situation when it comes time to back up at night

they don't look blindingly bright, I know and I don't expect it to be a night and day difference (no pun intended), but if it helps a little for $5, it's worth it

 

Please take pics at night.... I just got 4 of those LED lights from a friend and I was thinking to use them in the front like some kind of marker lights on teh grill... But I may use 2 in the front and 2 in the rear...

 

The quickest easiest backup light accessory is the light buster. It plugs into your 7 point plug and away you go. You can find them at Tractor Supply for 20 bucks. Here is a link

http://www.tractorsupply.com/vehicle...buster-1430088