I'm going to be adding some lighting to my bed and was curious to see how you all had tapped into the interior illumination circuit. In short, I want the lights to come on when the interior dome light is lit.

How could a person go about doing this? How do I go from the exterior of the truck into the cab to tap into this circuit. Would an Add-a-Circuit setup work?

Thanks!

RP

 

I should note that I'm going to probably need around 45 watts.

 

I posted in your other thread about this - why on earth would you do this? A pin switch & override to control manually. Done deal.

 

Yeah. Agreed.

Although I don't think I'm going to put a twig in... just a rocker. I see the pin as being in the way if and when I have to remove the lid to haul larger items.

RP

 

Depending on how complex you want it to be, I think the 'ideal' situation would be to run a fused line straight from the battery to your devices through a relay. tap into your dome circuit, using its +12v to close the relay.

This way, you'll never be overloading your dome circuit, you can draw as much power as you want, as long as your fused wire from the battery and relay are rated high enough.

Another thing I would do is wire a rocker/toggle on the main 12v in parallel with the relay. That way, it will be on if the dome lights are on, and/or whenever you hit the switch.

I personally think the best place to tap the dome circuit is in the rear driver's side pillar (at least that's where it is in my reg cab, I'd imagine everything else is on the same side) where it comes down from the cargo and interior maplights (again, that's where they go in my reg cab). From there, it's an easy run through one of the little vent louvers in the back corners of the cab (on the cab side of those black oval plugs in the front of the bed). Then you can figure out where to go from there according to your needs.

 

I kind of like inbred's suggestion and I'd only add a little color commentary to it. I'd run about a 10 or 12 gage wire back along the factory harness (along the frame) to the rear of the truck bed near the tail lights. From there, it's easier to run up and into the bed using the corner post at the rear of the bed. (Remove the tail light to gain access.) By doing this, you can run power up and into your bed without drilling holes and also have it near where you're probably going to want switches. Make sure this wire is appropriately fused near the power source.

Once you have power into the bed, your options are wide open as to adding switches (weather resistant) and maybe even a secondary fuse panel. You might even consider hopping down to your local West Marine store and using marine grade stuff here. You mentioned needing about 45 watts. What are we adding, a nuclear reactor? Oh yea, that's right, you like that rap music. Good luck and call me if you need any advice.

 

No bumping rap for me. LOL! Not my cup o' tea.

It's just going to be bed illumination similar to what closer9 did in the past. It won't be as elaborate but, it should be a very cheap and simple mod.

I don't think I'm going to jump into the interior circuit though. That really doesn't add all that much in my opinion the more I've thought about it.

Thanks for the advice folks!

2stroked -- I got your email, tried to respond, got rejected (X3).

RP

 

I'd like to also tap into the dome light circuit, but for a different purpose. I can never see the keyhole on the steering column at night, even when I lean over I block the dome light and have to feel around for it. Bad design on Ford's part. Honestly why hide the thing? So anyway I was thinking of flush-mounting some LEDs around the perimeter of the keyhole with either power or just relay signal from the dome light. Are there better locations in the dash area I might tap into?

 

You can look under the driver side threshhold kick plate. Find the thin black wire with the blue stripe in the wiring harness, that is for your dome light. Wire should easily be tapped into and run to the steering column from there.

 

Inbred's idea makes the most sense. I'll bet that when you need light in the bed won't necessarily correspond with when your driver's door is open. how about this scenario:
You go to the back of the truck and open the tailgate. you can't see in the bed because it's dusk. you go to open the driver's door to turn on the dome light, which will turn on the light in the bed. The driver's door is locked so you gotta go back inside to find your keys/ remote. What a PITA!

Better idea is to tie the light into a position switch mounted on the bottom of the tailgate (or inside the tailgate). Just like the switch for your under-the-hood light. Drop the tailgate and the light comes on, just like the trunk light in a car.