Adding LED Lights to Inside of Trailer - Page 2 - Snowmobile Forum: Your #1 Snowmobile Forum

ZL 500 · 12-05-2012, 07:49 PM

I have been looking at doing this exact thing as well to my 10' R&R clamshell!

These are the lights I am looking at. The plan is (IF I ever have time!!!) to put a strip over each sled as mentioned, starting just above the front "door" to the back. Any extra I thought about maybe running side to side. The other option is Walmart has a "cargo" style light for under $6./each, and put 4 of them in the trailer. I know the light is pretty bright as my father in law put 1 in his truck topper.

I plan on rewiring the trailer with a 7 way so the lights will have 12v without the parking lights on. My plan also includes a set of reverse lights on the trailer as well!

Meburdick, where did you order your lights from?

Good luck with the project!
Chris

I just noticed the LED's no longer have free shipping, so the search starts again!

meburdick · 12-05-2012, 07:53 PM

I ordered two of these (one for each side):

LEDwholesalers 5 Meter Reel Warm White 3100K Flexible LED Ribbon 300 LEDs 16ft 2026ww-31k - Amazon.com

Maybe I'll wire it up for a 7-wire and build a custom 4-wire adapter that splices the interior lighting and exterior lighting together in the 4-wire connector. I need to make sure that I keep it in "saleable" condition for the future...

ZL 500 · 12-05-2012, 08:10 PM

Just use one of these

Junction Box

. I have 1 on my utility trailer, works great!

I have been looking at Amazon also, just looking for a waterproof model.

Chris

meburdick · 12-05-2012, 08:14 PM

Use it to do what? What are you thinking?

ZL 500 · 12-05-2012, 08:26 PM

You crimp a ring terminal on each wire from your 7 way pigtail, put each ring on a stud, then crimp a ring on the wires that run to the lights, and put each 1 on the appropriate stud inside the junction box.

Keeps things neat and waterproof. Now it is possible that you may need 2 junction boxes due to the number of lights on the trailer. Can only fir so many wires inside!

Chris

ridegreen · 12-05-2012, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZL 500

You crimp a ring terminal on each wire from your 7 way pigtail, put each ring on a stud, then crimp a ring on the wires that run to the lights, and put each 1 on the appropriate stud inside the junction box.

Keeps things neat and waterproof. Now it is possible that you may need 2 junction boxes due to the number of lights on the trailer. Can only fir so many wires inside!

Chris

Lol this is great, I thought about running fog lamps for back up lights too. It's a pain to back up with mo lights at night.

meburdick · 12-05-2012, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZL 500

You crimp a ring terminal on each wire from your 7 way pigtail, put each ring on a stud, then crimp a ring on the wires that run to the lights, and put each 1 on the appropriate stud inside the junction box.

Keeps things neat and waterproof. Now it is possible that you may need 2 junction boxes due to the number of lights on the trailer. Can only fir so many wires inside!

Chris

The lights are all connected in "linear" fashion. It's one long wire for hot, and each light is grounded to the trailer itself (including those in the cover). I guess what I would likely do is wire up a very short pigtail of a 7-wire plug to one side of the box and the trailer wires to the other. Then, I would use a 7-wire "extension" to connect to my truck's harness and would make a custom 7-wire to 4-wire that brought the constant power for interior lights together with the switched power for the running lights so that they would all work.

That will likely wait until I fully rewire the trailer because I already am picking up the hot from the license plate light and bringing it forward under the trailer for the cover lights. I'll have to split out the inside lights and handle them differently.

meburdick · 12-05-2012, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ridegreen

Lol this is great, I thought about running fog lamps for back up lights too. It's a pain to back up with mo lights at night.

I thought about this more today, and I think fogs will be a bad choice in the end... They're 55W each. That's 110W, 12V. You're looking at a 10A circuit to run them. That seems a bit much on that harness.

ridegreen · 12-05-2012, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meburdick

I thought about this more today, and I think fogs will be a bad choice in the end... They're 55W each. That's 110W, 12V. You're looking at a 10A circuit to run them. That seems a bit much on that harness.

Put one right in the middle, that's more then enough light and that should be fine on the harness

meburdick · 12-05-2012, 08:55 PM

If I opt to go fancy enough for that, I'll likely install a battery to drive them, connect to the constant power from the truck for recharging (and, again, couple that to the running lamp circuit for 4-wire). And, for controlling the lights, I'll install a wireless switch with the transmitter in the cab.

ridegreen · 12-05-2012, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meburdick

I'll start a whole new thread on it and do just that. I have a lot going on, but I'll definitely try and at least work on it a little at a time and track my progress. Lights are supposed to come in on 12/7 and I already have pretty much everything else I need.

I have the 7 wire set up with the optional back up

ZL 500 · 12-05-2012, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meburdick

I thought about this more today, and I think fogs will be a bad choice in the end... They're 55W each. That's 110W, 12V. You're looking at a 10A circuit to run them. That seems a bit much on that harness.

I have a set of

Pilot back up lights

I bought at Meijers for $20. on my utility trailer, and have never had an issue (knock on wood!!!). They are 55w/each, mounted right below the typical "square" trailer light, and work great!

Only reason I haven't decided on using the same lights on the sled trailer is because of the metal housing. I had a set on my last truck without any issues, but thought if I could go with a light with a plastic housing thats sealed it would last longer.

I think I can picture the 7-4 way adapter your planning.

Chris

meburdick · 12-06-2012, 07:37 AM

I'm wondering how well it would work out if I were to buy a reasonable pair of "regular" fog lights and then replace the bulbs with LEDs. Pretty much all of the fog light systems out there are designed to be installed with a relay to control power (why? because of the high current draw). If I were to eliminate the 55W halogen bulbs and install 13W LEDs, the power draw would drop to about 2A for the pair. That wouldn't require the use of a relay.

I'm starting to think that having "reverse lights" on trailers would be a good thing for a variety of reasons... Maybe I'll start doing custom installs for folks.

meburdick · 12-06-2012, 03:04 PM

So, the light strips don't get here until tomorrow, but I'm already starting to plan how I'll do this. I pulled the factory-installed light near the access door up front and have found that it will be very easy to tap the output side of the switch to drive the LED strips. I'm also planning on running the strips along all four of the support pieces of the frame (there are six total, but I won't put anything along the two outboard ones).

Also, because the strips are actually in .5 meter lengths, I may have some left over (based on how I'm planning to install).

I'm also considering some rope lighting to attach along the back edge (waterproof) to use as "Reverse Lights". I'll have to either add a custom switch for this (wireless) or add a wire w/ quick disconnect that's tapped into the reverse light of my truck.

smokingcrater · 12-06-2012, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meburdick

I'll have to either add a custom switch for this (wireless) or add a wire w/ quick disconnect that's tapped into the reverse light of my truck.

Why not just wire it to the running lights. They will be on all the time while you are driving, but who cares... The lifetime of LED's is pretty much infinite, or at least far longer than the trailer. (that is what I did with my interior LED's and rear view camera on the back of the trailer. They are wired to the parking lights, so no vehicle mods required.)

meburdick · 12-06-2012, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smokingcrater

Why not just wire it to the running lights. They will be on all the time while you are driving, but who cares... The lifetime of LED's is pretty much infinite, or at least far longer than the trailer. (that is what I did with my interior LED's and rear view camera on the back of the trailer. They are wired to the parking lights, so no vehicle mods required.)

Because I believe it is illegal to have rearward facing white lights unless you are actually backing up / in reverse. So, if I were rolling down the highway and those lights were on, I could pulled over and ticketed for illegal or defective equipment.

Besides... Would YOU want to be following me if I had white lights on the back of the trailer facing you and they were bright enough to illuminate for backing up?

smokingcrater · 12-06-2012, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meburdick

Because I believe it is illegal to have rearward facing white lights unless you are actually backing up / in reverse. So, if I were rolling down the highway and those lights were on, I could pulled over and ticketed for illegal or defective equipment.

Besides... Would YOU want to be following me if I had white lights on the back of the trailer facing you and they were bright enough to illuminate for backing up?

Must have missed the part where the lights ended up outside the trailer... Thought the thread was INTERIOR lights.

*edit, re-reading you post, I see you were talking about the wiring for just the exterior strip of lights. *

meburdick · 12-06-2012, 10:21 PM

Ah... Yeah.

Regarding your thoughts about leaving the *interior* lights on all the time...

Based on where I'm planning on installing them, the closest power feed will be where the current light is. I might as well tap the switched side as anything else (given the choice, why not do it on the switched side for a little extra control, right?).

meburdick · 12-07-2012, 02:47 PM

Lights came today... I unrolled one roll of them down my fairly dark hallway and connected a 9V battery to it. It lit the hall pretty well (especially considering that the hall is darker in color and I was only using a 9V power source and not 12V). I believe that two rolls of these inside the trailer are going to do an excellent job of lighting it up.

I just might go do the install "now" and take a bunch of pictures as I do. I bet I can get the whole installation finished in about an hour. Well, two if you include the time for me to stop and take pics.

ZL 500 · 12-07-2012, 06:58 PM

Meburdick,

Keep us posted!!!!