[HOW TO] Non-GM Bed Rail Lights + Bumper Step Lighting

[corwest]

Ok so I wrote this up for a fella who asked how I did mine and since reading around there are a lot of bits an pieces in the topics on how to do this, i know there is a dedicated topic to Under bed rail lighting but it is long and information is scattered throughout it. I figured a combined topic on both would be useful. I feel they both go together as well so here you go.

 

I found that the Factory GM bedrail lighting seemed a little overpriced and according to some reviews didn't really light up the bed unless you bought two sets and paired them together. I, being cheap and the type who thinks that I can do better than GM, (true or not) decided to go a different route on this. Plus, I wanted to add LEDs to the bumper steps which I saw someone else do on here. Two sets of GM bed light kits would run you about $200-250 depending on where you get them and all of the mods covered here cost a whopping $37.00 Total!. Here are the parts I used.

2X - http://www.ebay.com/itm/161315555005

1x - http://www.ebay.com/itm/360887274163?

2X - http://www.oznium.com/led-bolt (6mm, White, no lense

I had some wire laying around so I didn't have to buy it. I suppose add another $10 or so for that if you don't have it.

First up is the Bed rail lights. I used two of the COB DRL modules found above to serve as the lighting. Very bright, waterproof, and much, much cheaper. The install is the same as the GM factory ones except you need to make your own plug out of the factory cap that covers the bed lighting plug. Locate the plug and cap here

What i did was take two prongs from another plug I had laying around in the garage and drilled out the corresponding holes in the cap. Placed the prongs in those holes and used silicone to waterproof it all. (As you can see I initially drilled out the wrong two holes...)

I know its not the prettiest thing but it can be made cleaner, I just didn't care at the point. Leave about 12" of wire off of these plugs as a pigtail to plug everything into later.

Now on to the Lights

I mounted the Modules here. I drilled a hole about 1 inch from the module to feed the wire through and filled the hole with silicone. You don't have to drill and can run the wires through the openings about 5" away but to me it looked better with the hole drilled.

Remove the taillight by opening the tailgate and removing the two screws that hold the light in place. Now run the two sets of wires down the bed side and meet them at the tail light here. I used a 8" piece of wire loom to protect the wire from the edge of the bed where it comes our of the side but its probably not necessary. I connected the two sets together behind the taillight opening here so that if one fails then I can replace it later with no effort. I then ran a single wire for positive and one for negative down to where my pigtail was at the junction block.

Repeat on the other side and your done with the Bed lights for now.

Now for the step lights.

Remove the two top screws that hold the step insert in place. It looks to me that in order to completely remove the step you need to take the bumper off and that's a pain so I made do.

Once those are out you can bend the step down enough to be able to get your drill in there and drill out your hole. Don't be too violent, just bend it enough to work and don't break any clips or bend too far to crease the plastic. I just centered the drill hole between the screw holes. I don't recall the bit size but the LEDs that you will use have a lip that is larger than the shaft of the bolt they are made out of so just be sure to drill out the size of the shaft and do not go too big to the point that the lip falls through. it is better to have to push the led through a tight hole than to go to big.

Insert the wire form the LEDs through the hole followed by the bolt. Tighten down the retainer but not too tight as a tech from oznium emailed me and said it is possible to overtighten and snap the lip off of the bolt. Just snug it up good.

Run the wires through your path of choice and meet them with the ones from the bed lights by the pigtail.

Using these guys, join all the positive wires together on one side of the plug and the negative on the other. Install the other half of the plug on the pigtails.

Now test it all before yo put it back together. It should come on with the cargo lamp button in the cab.

Next put the step back in, Its kinda hard to get all of the clips to go in on the inner side closest to the center of the bumper.. You will know what i mean when you see it. put the screws back in and re-mount the taillights.

Now you have some pretty killer lighting at a fraction of the cost of OEM with all the OEM functionality!!

Sorry not all the pics are here of all the smaller steps but this write up was an after thought when I had finished and the big stuff is shown here.

*Credit to block8head for the diagram shown above.

Hope this helps and let me know if you run into questions. Feel free to share this with anyone who may need help.

[Nickshu]

Wow great work!!

[corwest]

Wow great work!!

Thank you, so much easier than even i make it sound haha.

[DCazares]

nice, i really like the bumper step led's!

[dhugo]

New to the forum and very interested in how this exactly works. I have a 2014 Siverado LT Crew Cab and have my lights mounted in the bed rails but I am waiting to be sure how to hook them up. I understand most of this post but I am wondering where the ground for the lights are and how exactly do the pigtails work? Any help would be appreciated. For my situation I have one positive wire and one negative wire coming from each side of the truck.

[pappas pit]

Very nice job and thanks for the simple write up and source for parts. Im thinking of using green lights in the steps to match my truck

[corwest]

New to the forum and very interested in how this exactly works. I have a 2014 Siverado LT Crew Cab and have my lights mounted in the bed rails but I am waiting to be sure how to hook them up. I understand most of this post but I am wondering where the ground for the lights are and how exactly do the pigtails work? Any help would be appreciated. For my situation I have one positive wire and one negative wire coming from each side of the truck.

Yes the negative is routed through the plug with the positive. The whole terminal bus is grounded as one elsewhere. So hook both wires into the plug.

[dhugo]

Hopefully my last question is the brown or blue wire the ground in this situation? THANK YOU!!

[corwest]

To be honest I don't remember. With leds they will only work one way so you may have to do a test before you put it all together.

[Gmcant33]

Wow this is a good weekend mod nice write up

[corwest]

Wow this is a good weekend mod nice write up

Thanks. Got rear ended a couple weeks ago so I'm going to have to do the steps all over after repairs. Going to have to read my own how to again haha.