Under Hood Lighting

SparkySparks · February 28, 2011

I missed having a light under he hood like some of the older cars/trucks I have owned but even they sometimes were not enough light. I wanted to make sure I could see under the hood and have both hands free if I ever needed to do anything at night. I added LEDs to the bed of the truck and thought I would give them a try under the hood. I picked up some LEDs from Autozone and a switch from Radioshack. I mounted the lights the the angled section of the hood and ran the wires behind the hood liner. I tied the ground into the hood ground loction and grounded the switch to the secondary battery tray bolt and pulled power from the fuse box using the post for 7-pin power.

EDIT: Sorry, the pictures didn't want to link at first.

[email protected] · February 28, 2011

That looks friggin' sweat!

SparkySparks · February 28, 2011

Thank you, the picture doesn't really show how much light is really there. Here is another picture, tried to take one looking down to show how much you can see. Guess if I used my camera instead of my phone it might show a little better.

05GMCZ71 · February 28, 2011

Very sweet!!!!! I think this deserves to be a sticky post!

ShawnS4363 · February 28, 2011

I think I just found my next mod! Looks great!

TRCM · February 28, 2011

I did the same exact thing a few days after I got mine home.

Only difference is mine works off a mercury switch and come on automatically.

tyhuck · February 28, 2011

I did the same exact thing a few days after I got mine home.

Only difference is mine works off a mercury switch and come on automatically.

Ide like to see how thats put together. Ide love to have an automatic light that comes on when I open the hood.

DwayneJ · February 28, 2011

I had a 1989 crewcab dually at one point in the distant past and it actually had a trouble light on a cord with a recoil, light had a magnet on the back so you could stick it wherever while using it. I thought about looking for one of those in the junk yard.

I like your solution too though, I agree there should be some sort of light.

SparkySparks · February 28, 2011

I originally planed on having the lights come on with the hood open but I wanted to be able to have the light off when I didn't need/want it. The switch is easy to get to and find even if its pitch black out, I have thought about adding either a mercury switch or a contact switch so if I forget to turn it off, closeing the hood would break the circuit and not drain the battery.

I did the same exact thing a few days after I got mine home.

Only difference is mine works off a mercury switch and come on automatically.

TRCM · February 28, 2011

I did the same exact thing a few days after I got mine home.

Only difference is mine works off a mercury switch and come on automatically.

Ide like to see how thats put together. Ide love to have an automatic light that comes on when I open the hood.

All I did was mount a mercury switch to that same bolt/post showed in the pics and put it in the ground circuit. LEDs draw so little current, leaving them on won't hurt anything.

I just used some left over LED's from when I put them in my boat. Mine doesn't light up as right since there are 1/2 as many LED's, but it's still enough to see under the hood pretty good.

05GMCZ71 · February 28, 2011

Yes, I loved these things, they were great. There are some sold on the aftermarket.

I had a 1989 crewcab dually at one point in the distant past and it actually had a trouble light on a cord with a recoil, light had a magnet on the back so you could stick it wherever while using it. I thought about looking for one of those in the junk yard.

I like your solution too though, I agree there should be some sort of light.

SparkySparks · February 28, 2011

I like those lights, none of the junk yards around me had any or I might have gone that way instead. I'm still toying with the idea of adding one just incase I need a spot light for what ever I am doing. Just realized my friends and family might be right, I might be a light junkie.

I had a 1989 crewcab dually at one point in the distant past and it actually had a trouble light on a cord with a recoil, light had a magnet on the back so you could stick it wherever while using it. I thought about looking for one of those in the junk yard.

I like your solution too though, I agree there should be some sort of light.