LED Accent / Puddle Light Pods & Strips

[Mike1220]

Are these the pods you used?

 

http://cdn3.volusion.com/xwbdu.zngvy/v/vspfiles/photos/XK084001-2-2T.jpg

Yep! That's it! I got 2 sets of 8 so that I could have extras on hand for experimenting and incase if I found any other spots that I wanted to place them

 

 

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[Aaron1085]

Are these strong enough for reverse lights (like the ones we spoke about mounted in the rear bumper steps) or just enough for accent lighting?

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD

[Mike1220]

Are these strong enough for reverse lights (like the ones we spoke about mounted in the rear bumper steps) or just enough for accent lighting?

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD

No. They are not powerful enough for that. They are made more for wide short range lighting. Their true purpose is for lighting up the engine on a motorcycle and the ground beneath it. I know Nitrodatsik has put some in his bumpersteps. I would talk to him about how well they are working. I am liking my 50W LED bulbs that I got on Ebay that you and I talked about and they do really well as reverse lights despite the fact that they do not remove the 'zebra' effect of the new diffuser bulb. I will likely put a low profile light under my bumper. Likely the DRLs from Xkglow cause they put out 500 lumens each and I have 2 sitting around from random previous experimentation with lighting

 

 

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[Aaron1085]

Ya, Nitro sent me the link to the lights he purchased, just haven't done so yet. Thanks for the LED reviews.

 

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[Chevyrcg]

Thanks. And if you mean my step lights, the bumper step lights are hooked with the cargo and bed lights so they stay on as long as the cargos stay on. I just spliced into the wire behind the bumper to keep it simple.

Whole installation took me about 10-20 minutes.

 

 

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Can you tell me which wire and where it is located that is behind the bumper? Those look great and was looking to do the same thing to my truck, i just don’t like messing around with wires / electrical too much!

[Mike1220]

Can you tell me which wire and where it is located that is behind the bumper? Those look great and was looking to do the same thing to my truck, i just don’t like messing around with wires / electrical too much!

There are 2 wire snake tube things. Not sure what they are called but they are the black plastic sleeves that cover the different sets of wires that all go to different specific places in/on the truck to keep the wire running clean. One of the plastic sleeves houses the wires that run to the tailights. The other will house two wires, a black and a red, those are the wires that run to the bed lights, if your truck is equipped with them. Those two wires are the ones that you will need to splice into so that you can have them to activate with your bed / cargo lights. That's what I did. I drilled a small hole in the bumper step at the top corner so that the wires could pass through there instead of running around the bumper. After you splice the wires from your lights into the appropriate wires running to the bed lights, test them to make sure all is good and then mount the lights permanently and your done! If you have any other questions let me know. I can send you some pics if needed, but honestly it was so simple that I didn't feel a need to take pics while installing but can take some of finished product

 

 

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[Chevyrcg]

There are 2 wire snake tube things. Not sure what they are called but they are the black plastic sleeves that cover the different sets of wires that all go to different specific places in/on the truck to keep the wire running clean. One of the plastic sleeves houses the wires that run to the tailights. The other will house two wires, a black and a red, those are the wires that run to the bed lights, if your truck is equipped with them. Those two wires are the ones that you will need to splice into so that you can have them to activate with your bed / cargo lights. That's what I did. I drilled a small hole in the bumper step at the top corner so that the wires could pass through there instead of running around the bumper. After you splice the wires from your lights into the appropriate wires running to the bed lights, test them to make sure all is good and then mount the lights permanently and your done! If you have any other questions let me know. I can send you some pics if needed, but honestly it was so simple that I didn't feel a need to take pics while installing but can take some of finished product

 

 

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Thanks man, that should be all I need… really appreciate it.

[sinnerz]

At $20 a pod, it was cheaper to go ahead and buy the Vision X eight light kit. Now just gotta figure out where I want to put them! ha. They're pretty bright, so maybe 2 to 4 as side puddle lights. Not sure about the rest yet....

 

Hey moto! Did the white LEDs end up matching the rest of the interior lighting such as the dome lights? I want to grab a fee of these for under a custom sub enclosure I'm building under the rear seat.

[Mike1220]

Hey moto! Did the white LEDs end up matching the rest of the interior lighting such as the dome lights? I want to grab a fee of these for under a custom sub enclosure I'm building under the rear seat.

 

Hey man, not sure on how well they came out for moto, but I know he has been busy lately and hasn't been able to get on here. Not sure when his schedule will clear up enough to get on. Just wanted to give you a headsup!

 

Check out the rest of the thread when you get a chance, you should find some good info!

[JimmyVal]

Basic terminal connections to battery with switch mounted under ledge in engine bay so it's out of the way:

 

 

 

Kept wiring away from the hinge to avoid it getting caught

 

 

 

Here I just sent it through a part of the hood just incase to make sure it wouldn't drop and get caught on anything incase if the wire mounts ever failed for any reason

 

 

Then it comes back out at the nearest exit, then goes behind the heat shield until it emerges again at the top (forward most part of hood) where the positive leads connect with the power wire off the switch with a butt connector behind the heat sheild and the negatives meet and then go up to a bolt at the top of the hood to ground to chassis

 

 

Then cut out a small portion of the heat shield to mount the lights out of the way (I super glued the lights to the mounts but they come with 3m double side tape on the back of all pods so that you can just stick em and go)

 

 

 

 

It's far from the best looking install I've ever done. I hate seeing wires out. Friend of mine just put some stuff on his 01 Tahoe and I wanted to kill him. He has wires coming through his carpets and running across the floor. Idk how he can stand it. I'm anal about clean installs but for this one, I figured since it's in the engine bay, it didn't need to be show room quality

 

First I'd like to thank Moto for finding the XGlow light pods and Mike1220 for the switch to use and for this very detailed post.

 

I, for the most part, did the same thing, however I was worried about not fusing the 12 volt line, and I wanted the switch on the drivers side of the truck. Also, when I finally got to hooking up the light pods themselves, I noticed a large part of the light was shining on the radiator plastic cover and not in the engine bay.

 

What I did was to add an in-line 1 amp fuse to the battery connection. I stored the fuse in the little compartment next to the battery terminal connection. I filed a notch in the plastic to get the wire into the little compartment. I ran the wire through a corrugated wire wrap across the firewall.

 

I picked up ground from a bolt below the fuse box to ground the switch which I mounted as Mike did only on the right side. I ran the wire to the pods the same as Mike and mounted the pods on a little shelf on the hood sheet metal about 3 inches in from the start of the padding on the hood. I cut holes in the padding (not easy due to the loose padding material on the hood side). The shelf angles the light pods towards the engine compartment. Grounded the pods as Mike did.

 

I'm really happy with the way it came out. Thanks again to Moto And Mike1220.

[Mike1220]

 

First I'd like to thank Moto for finding the XGlow light pods and Mike1220 for the switch to use and for this very detailed post.

 

I, for the most part, did the same thing, however I was worried about not fusing the 12 volt line, and I wanted the switch on the drivers side of the truck. Also, when I finally got to hooking up the light pods themselves, I noticed a large part of the light was shining on the radiator plastic cover and not in the engine bay.

 

What I did was to add an in-line 1 amp fuse to the battery connection. I stored the fuse in the little compartment next to the battery terminal connection. I filed a notch in the plastic to get the wire into the little compartment. I ran the wire through a corrugated wire wrap across the firewall.

 

I picked up ground from a bolt below the fuse box to ground the switch which I mounted as Mike did only on the right side. I ran the wire to the pods the same as Mike and mounted the pods on a little shelf on the hood sheet metal about 3 inches in from the start of the padding on the hood. I cut holes in the padding (not easy due to the loose padding material on the hood side). The shelf angles the light pods towards the engine compartment. Grounded the pods as Mike did.

 

I'm really happy with the way it came out. Thanks again to Moto And Mike1220.

Looking good! Glad to see the write up helped someone [emoji2] also, just saying, Moto has been using the Vision X pods, I wasnt a fan of them for cost or the LED type, that's why I brought up using the XKglow pods. Much better for this application!

 

I have some more uses for these pods in my build thread. All easy 30 minute or less installs but extremely useful.

 

http://www.gm-trucks.com/forums/index.php?/topic/160877-Mike1220%27s-2014-Sierra

[bladz1454]

Basic terminal connections to battery with switch mounted under ledge in engine bay so it's out of the way:

 

 

 

Kept wiring away from the hinge to avoid it getting caught

 

 

 

Here I just sent it through a part of the hood just incase to make sure it wouldn't drop and get caught on anything incase if the wire mounts ever failed for any reason

 

 

Then it comes back out at the nearest exit, then goes behind the heat shield until it emerges again at the top (forward most part of hood) where the positive leads connect with the power wire off the switch with a butt connector behind the heat sheild and the negatives meet and then go up to a bolt at the top of the hood to ground to chassis

 

 

Then cut out a small portion of the heat shield to mount the lights out of the way (I super glued the lights to the mounts but they come with 3m double side tape on the back of all pods so that you can just stick em and go)

 

 

 

 

It's far from the best looking install I've ever done. I hate seeing wires out. Friend of mine just put some stuff on his 01 Tahoe and I wanted to kill him. He has wires coming through his carpets and running across the floor. Idk how he can stand it. I'm anal about clean installs but for this one, I figured since it's in the engine bay, it didn't need to be show room quality

Look awesome! Do you have links to the parts you used?

[Mike1220]

Look awesome! Do you have links to the parts you used?

 

pods:

http://www.xkglow.com/6_LED_Ultra_Bright_Motorcycle_Light_Pod_8pc_Pack_p/xk084001-8.htm

 

I got the 8 pack since I used them on other things too. If you have not added lights in your footwells and are planning to, then I would order the 8 pack. Save yourself from having to order another set of them later. Also I used these in the bumper steps on my truck. All work without any issues so far

 

on/off switch for underhood lights:

http://www.xkglow.com/XKGLOW_onoff_switch_p/xk-switch.htm

[bladz1454]

 

pods:

http://www.xkglow.com/6_LED_Ultra_Bright_Motorcycle_Light_Pod_8pc_Pack_p/xk084001-8.htm

 

I got the 8 pack since I used them on other things too. If you have not added lights in your footwells and are planning to, then I would order the 8 pack. Save yourself from having to order another set of them later. Also I used these in the bumper steps on my truck. All work without any issues so far

 

on/off switch for underhood lights:

http://www.xkglow.com/XKGLOW_onoff_switch_p/xk-switch.htm

 

Ahh this is awesome man! Thanks alot!