How to Install Truck bed Lights

Okay, friends. So, here we go. We know that when we turn our headlight switch to the left, counterclockwise, all the way, it turns on these two lights right here and these are supposed to be your bed lights. So, we know that there's gonna be power going back here. So, I'm just gonna take out these two Phillips head screws that hold in the third brake light/cargo area lights. Here we are. Here's all our wiring. You've got your center brake lights there, there's two of them, 921s. And you have this one right here and this one right here, those are your cargo lights. Those are also 921 bulbs. So, if you have to replace them, easy peasy, now's the time, okay?

I'm gonna leave this out for now, actually. Now, I'm gonna take off a little bit of this electrical tape. See. I'm just gonna try to bring it down so I have some wiring to work with. And this is kind of your prerogative, how you wanna do this, because it comes with a little thing that's supposed to connect into your trailer wiring, which is fine, but... This right here, by the way, problem with this is it doesn't have a switch. So, you know, what point is it gonna turn on and what point is it gonna turn off? I don't know. I can't control it. I would much rather have control over it. So, I'm gonna use this. I'm just gonna trim these wires right off of here at some point, probably in a minute once I get going here. And then we can continue on in splicing in these wires.

Okay. So, what we're gonna do now is we're gonna make sure we have plenty of space between this and where we're gonna cut because we're gonna need to be able to splice into it. I got plenty of room here, plenty of room there. Just cut right into that. I'm just gonna take off some of this outer sheathing here. Should come off fairly easily. Let's do this. Awesome.

Now that we have this off, we can actually, physically, continue on the ground. So, we've got this one. Just give the wiring a little twist at the end there so that you make sure that none of those pieces are frayed out. Awesome. I'm gonna do the same thing to this one. Little wiggle. Same thing. Give it a nice twist. This is great. So now, these essentially can go either like this... We're gonna come over here where we cut the wire that has the stripe, right? It's got a stripe on both sides and the other wire does not. Our new wiring, we have striped wires and no stripes. That makes it super easy for us. It's gonna over here, and I mean, you can cut this back as far as you want. If you're planning on ever reusing something like this, you could probably keep it in your toolbox or wherever your junk drawer, and maybe you can use this for something somewhere down the line.

All right, for us, personally, on this application, we're not. So, I'm just gonna trim it right there. That leaves me plenty so I can do something with it later on down the line. We're gonna clean up these wires right here. And I still twist. Awesome. Same thing for this one. It's a nice twist. Perfect. Just gonna put them right around each other. All right. So, now that we have these two twisted together, I'm gonna twist it right into this wire right here, okay? Just essentially put these two wires so they're together, and they're gonna be ready to go right into here. We've got a piece of heat shrink, fits just over this, which is perfect. So, what we're gonna do, we're gonna hold it just like this and we're gonna cut ourself a piece that's just a little bit longer than this, okay? That's just so when we have the wires on there and we heat shrink this, it's gonna shrink down right around the wires and it's gonna make sure that no moisture gets in there.

I'm gonna take this piece. I'm just gonna bring it right down here, give myself a little bit more slack. Okay, slide it down. I've got my electrical connector. We're gonna put our wires right into there. I like to twist as I push it on. Okay. We've got a blue connector. I'm gonna go right where it says to use the blue. I'm gonna grab right on the metal that's in the center there. Squeeze down as tight as I can. Give it a nice tug. Feels perfect. It's definitely not coming loose. I'll grab this, get it ready. Okay. So now, we have the other end. I'm gonna wait on putting this side in, but that is where it's gonna go, right inside there, then we'll slide this up. As for now, I'm gonna trim this just like this. Should wanna come off of there. Everything's harder with gloves on. Cool. Just make sure this is good to go. Got both sides of this ready to go. Get that off of there, gonna do the same thing to this wire.

So, it's time to get these connected in. We have our striped wire, we remember it's gonna go with the striped wire connectors. It's gonna go right in here. Slide it in as far as we can. Squeeze this on. Give it a nice tug. That feels great. Do this one, same thing. Slide it in. Perfect. Now, we're gonna take our heat shrink, just try to get it so it comes up. We want that connector to be right smack dab in the middle of it, okay? As close as you can get it. If it's not perfect, it's okay, as long as it's kind of going off both sides. Now, we're just gonna use a small butane lighter and all we wanna do is apply gentle heat here, just to the point where this starts to shrink down. You don't wanna melt it, you don't need, you know, a fire or anything cool like that. It's just about getting this to shrink down to keep all the moisture and debris out of there so we can maintain a good connection without corrosion. Just keep moving your flame around. When you get to the end, give it a little squeeze. Just be careful because it will be hot. I probably don't need to tell you that, but I will anyway. Do the same to the other side, of course.

Here we go, back up in our vehicle here. Our little wired mess. It's exciting. Now, plug it in. Now, let's give them a try. Get them up in here a little bit just so it's sitting. I don't have to hold it. All right, now we're gonna turn our switch and we'll check it out. Oh yeah. Let's get it mounted. So, we've got our wiring here. I'm just gonna run it so it's coming down. It's gonna go right down along here, and then we're gonna go underneath this rubber strip right here all the way down. Something that you're definitely gonna wanna pay attention to is there's two different sides to this. You see how this is angled? If you put this side over on that side of the vehicle when you stick it on, these LEDs are gonna be shining up. So, that's great if you wanna show it in your face while you're up here. If you want it showing down at what you're working with, then you need to aim them down. With that said, we know that these are ready to face down. So, I'm gonna put that on this side, that one on that side, and we're gonna start running them.

All right, so let's get some of these little sticky tabs here. Stick them right on the back. Do the same to all of them. Just gonna try to get the sticky paper off the backside there. It's really, really hard to do if you don't have nails or you're wearing gloves like I am. Thank you. All right. So, we've got it so we know it's facing down. I like mine right there, so it's gonna be facing down here. Run the wires up and behind this. Continue on, do all the rest of these right down the line. I'm just gonna continue on right down my line here. I'm pulling the wire as tight as I can as I go so it's not hanging and dangling and all sorts of funny stuff. Those look great. Awesome. We'll do the same to the other side of the vehicle and then we'll test them out. All right.

Thanks for watching. Visit 1aauto.com, your place for DIY auto repairs, for great parts, great service, and more content.