Well, I got tired of "driving by braille" while in reverse after dark in the woods. There didn't seem to be a drop in replacement lamp for the 2002's, and the 18 guage wire would have smoked after running any real lights after a few minutes anyway.
I picked up a set of auxillary backup lights from Pep Boys, originally made to bolt onto the trailer hitch (I had other plans though). Lights have 55watt H3 bulbs. Lights ran $35 and were pretty fair quality. Good enough for back up lights.
I wanted to mount a couple back up lights cut into the tail gate (like the old 4runners), but that left me with no lights with tail gate down backing up to the boat ramps.
So, the bumper it was. I don't like the lights being the leading edge of the rear bumper, as the lense sitcks out about 3/8 of an inch from bumper face, but now that I can actually see where I'm going, maybe I won't be bumping into crap in the dark anymore!
With a dremel and sawz-all I got to work, and here's what I wound up with. Bought some longer 8/32 screws, drilled and tapped the bumper, and secured the lights through the lense cover screw holes to the bumper. Ran the lights to a 10 guage hot I ran previously to behind the rear bumper for my boat winch, and lights are activated by a waterproof relay tucked in behind the right rear tail light, and hooked up to the factory reverse light wire for coil voltage. A switch in the cab will come next so I can turn it on whenever I want.
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Not perfect, but since I wanted to use them with tail gate down fairly often, and didn't want anything below the bumper to get tore off, this was the best I could do. But, I CAN SEE now, and they are nice and bright. Bonus of being able to retaliate against morons behind driving with high beams on!
So, it's a thought for anyone else brave enough to cut their factory bumper. I figured if I screwed it up, it was the perfect excuse for an aftermarket bumper anyway!
I picked up a set of auxillary backup lights from Pep Boys, originally made to bolt onto the trailer hitch (I had other plans though). Lights have 55watt H3 bulbs. Lights ran $35 and were pretty fair quality. Good enough for back up lights.
I wanted to mount a couple back up lights cut into the tail gate (like the old 4runners), but that left me with no lights with tail gate down backing up to the boat ramps.
So, the bumper it was. I don't like the lights being the leading edge of the rear bumper, as the lense sitcks out about 3/8 of an inch from bumper face, but now that I can actually see where I'm going, maybe I won't be bumping into crap in the dark anymore!
With a dremel and sawz-all I got to work, and here's what I wound up with. Bought some longer 8/32 screws, drilled and tapped the bumper, and secured the lights through the lense cover screw holes to the bumper. Ran the lights to a 10 guage hot I ran previously to behind the rear bumper for my boat winch, and lights are activated by a waterproof relay tucked in behind the right rear tail light, and hooked up to the factory reverse light wire for coil voltage. A switch in the cab will come next so I can turn it on whenever I want.
Not perfect, but since I wanted to use them with tail gate down fairly often, and didn't want anything below the bumper to get tore off, this was the best I could do. But, I CAN SEE now, and they are nice and bright. Bonus of being able to retaliate against morons behind driving with high beams on!
So, it's a thought for anyone else brave enough to cut their factory bumper. I figured if I screwed it up, it was the perfect excuse for an aftermarket bumper anyway!
