Jeep light install

[Grant Lamontagne]

As I mentioned in another thread, I had some LED flashers installed in my Jeep over the weekend.  We didn't have time to finish them, but here's what we have so far.  First up I started by installing these LED fog lamps- they were a direct swap out, and I like them a lot. 



Once I replaced the headlights with HID bulbs the fogs seemed very yellow and dim, so I am glad to have these bright LED's.

I work at a bunch of dockyards and other industrial sites and I have to have flashers on my Jeep for safety when driving around.  Usually I just use my 4 ways, but to be that much safer I decided to have LED flashers installed as well. The first step was to remove the grille, which my yellow Compact was happy to be a part of.



Taking the grille off makes the Jeep look kinda cool, almost like in sci fi movies where they rip someone's face off to reveal they are a robot...



Oops, wrong photo...



That's better! 

I didn't want the flashers to be visible when they weren't on, so these were stuck with 3M tape to the inside of the grille, in between the trademark seven slats.



The guy who was installing these buys rolls of LED lights so he had a good supply of them.  I wanted amber but he only had green, red, white and pink, so I went with the green since that is what the other guys in my company use.  Might as well have some uniformity, right?



This is all the strips in place, ready to be wired in.  They were wired in two sets- left and right so when they flash they will alternate sides when they flash.



The wires lead to a waterproof connector so if I want to take the grille off to do something else later on I just need to disconnect the wire, and reconnect it when I'm done.



Speaking of waterproof, we then painted over the LED's with two part epoxy so I won't kill them when I go splashing through mud and water- something I really enjoy doing in my Jeep! 

This is what they look like all epoxied up.  Once the epoxy dried it was crystal clear so the epoxy won't block the light from the LED's.



That was about as far as we got with my Jeep, but since we were also installing the same lights in my boss' truck, here are a few photos from that showing a bit more.



Since the grille in his Dodge Ram was further from the radiator it needed to reflect on we opted instead to put the LED's on the sides of the reservoirs rather than the inside of the grille like on the Jeeps.  This is what they look like when lit up:



And then we smeared epoxy all over them just like we did with the Jeep so that water won't get at them.



Next week we'll be installing the switches and power.  Hopefully I'll remember to take photos then too...

Def

[stressmaster5000]

Cool Jeep MOD! What epoxy were you using?

[Grant Lamontagne]

I couldn't tell you the brand- it came in large tubes the size of weatherstripping tubes, except that there was two of them like your standard 5 minute epoxy usually bought in syringes.

I'll find out the exact brand and/or type for you the next time I see Phil (the installer) which should be this weekend as we wire the rest of it up.

Def

[captain spaulding]

Very cool!    Can't wait to see it finished. 

[stealth007s]

Can't wait to see it all lit up. Will it look anything like this when it's done?



or this?



 

 

[Grant Lamontagne]

Not quite, but close! 

Def

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[Grant Lamontagne]

I'm heading out shortly to (hopefully) finish my light and CB install.  I'd hoped to get three more switches but the local aftermarket Jeep shop only had one, so I guess I'll have to suffer.

Currently my LED lights are hooked up to a green switch (I'll have to post pics of it later) and the one picked up this week is blue, so I'll probably switch the lights/switches around so the green switch controls my flashers (since they are green!) and the blue one controls my LEDs, just to alleviate confusion.

"No, the green switch controls the blue tinted lights, and the blue switch controls the green lights!"   

The third switch was going to work if I wanted my flashers to be solid (one switch for flashing, one for solid) and the fourth was just to wire in for lights or something else to be defined later.

For reference, here are the stock fog lights on a friend's Wrangler:



I've gotten him a set of LED fog lamps as well, so these dull yellow ones won't be long for this world.    I'll post a pic of mine to show the "after" part later on.  I actually haven't taken a pic of the lights on yet, I'm too busy being impressed by them! 

BTW, if anyone wants a set of LED fogs for a JK Wrangler, send me a PM.  I actually have two other sets that Phil the Installer (not to be confused with Jimmy the Turnip!) gave me to sell for him.

Anyways, I am off to see how close I can come to voiding my warranty! 

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

I got it all finished up today, thankfully.  All told I think we have been at it for about four days now, although there have been a few other trucks in the mix as well, so not all on mine.

I'll post some pics later on after I warm up a bit- it was amazingly cold out today and the wind and rain weren't helping!   

Def

[derekmac]

Yeah it was kind of crappy here today!  Can't wait to see how it turned out.  Are you going to be heading out tomorrow on a run?  I'm not sure yet if I will be or not.

[Grant Lamontagne]

No, I'll have to miss out. I have too much work at home to do, such as starting to paint the apartment upstairs and my lawn needs mowing in the worst way.  If the weather is halfways decent and I can manager a little bit of time to myself I'm hoping to get my kayak out.

Def

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[Chako]

That is going to look cool. Can't wait to see the finished photo.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I'm still a few photos short and a couple of videos, but here's an update.

Everything is installed now and working beautifully.  I will have to take a video to show the flashers since it's hard to take stills that show flashing lights- ask any UFO hunter if you don't believe me.

In answer to Wayne's question above I took this photo:



Permacrete industrial 2 part epoxy. 

This little McGizmo is the brains of the operation- a small controller board and two flasher relay units housed inside a plastic project box.



Those are Phil's hands putting flux on the wire ends in preparation for soldering, and this is what it looked like when he was all done:



The box was sealed with silicone and closed up to prevent moisture ingress.  The box was then hooked up to the LED strips glued into the grille last week using a waterproof connector and then it was time to work on the rear.



Out came the tail lights, which made my poor Jeep look kind of sad, but we needed to get inside the housing to place the LED strips inside.  The whole point of getting Phil to do this was so that the lights would only be visible when they were on, and completely invisible when not, so some dis-assembly of the Tail light housing was required.



Amusingly I looked down inside the gaping hole where the tail light usually sits and I saw that I was obviously treating my Jeep right!  If you can't see it, here's a better photo!



Yes, that's mud splattered up inside the body panels!   

Next up was wiring up the switches into a plastic pod that replaces the A Pillar in my Jeep.  A completed shot is one of the photos I mentioned I was missing above, so I'll be sure to snap some pics of it later.  Basically it is a different piece of plastic trim with switch cutouts that replaces the factory piece of plastic trim without space for switches.



Here's what the tail lights look like with the flashers activated.



I managed to snap a photo as both were on, but basically what happens here is the strip is invisible inside, then when I flip them on the green lights flash in behind the clear part of the lenses as you can see in the photo.  You'll get a better idea of what they look like when I get video, but you get the idea.

That's it for now.  As I said, I'll get an "after" shot of the LED fog lamps so you can compare them to the earlier photo of the factory ones on James' orange Jeep, a photo of the tail lights with no flashers on and a shot of the switches, and then some video of how the lights actually look.  I want to drive out to a nice dark spot some night with my GoPro on the dashboard, switch on the HID's, then the high beams, then the fogs and then the windshield mounted LED's just so you can all see the difference! 

As for the Jeep itself, you really can't tell anything has been changed from factory (except the windshield lights) until I light it up.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Here are a few of the shots promised above. 

I'll start with the switches.



You can see the switch pod with the blue and green switches and two extra switch cutouts below them.  I took this shot a little further back so you could see their placement.  Here's a bit closer up shot so you can see what they are like.



They are Rugged Ridge brand light up rocker switches.  Nothing too exciting, but functional and that's what I really want out of a switch.  They light up when on so you know whether you are blinding people or not. 



They light up pretty good, even in the daytime so you shouldn't have your lights on without you knowing it.  They also make a pretty solid click when flipping them on or off, plus their position means they likely aren't going to get hit by accident.



This is the front of my Jeep with none of the lights on.  It looks pretty normal, other than those small LED lights on the windshield, right?  They can't be that bright though, they are pretty small...



Then there's the regular HID's which also serve as my driving or daytime running lights, a requirement for all cars in Canada.  These are pretty bright by themselves and I'm really happy with them.



Then you flip on the fog lamps and BOOM- the whole thing gets super bright.  Note that the signals come on with the full headlights and fog lamps.  These are the factory signal lights, while the marker lights on the side of the fenders were upgraded to LED's.  Here's a great comparison of the LED marker light on the right and the factory incandescent signal.



They were the same brightness originally, but now the LED is just outclassing the signal by a significant margin.  The signals are scheduled to be swapped out in the next round of upgrades, which included swapping out the white LED's for orange ones and orange lenses for clear ones, so it will look similar to this:



They'll still flash amber with the amber LED's inside. 

Anyways, I got a bit sidetracked.  Back to the front lights.... here is a shot with the HID (low beams), fog lamps and LED windshield lights on. 



I thought my phone was going to explode when I took that shot!  Here's the LED's by themselves.



A few weeks ago when driving out to the airport at night to pick up my wife I was playing with the high and low beams on the highway (when appropriate of course!) and I really appreciated the power of the HID bulbs as they lit up the highway for about a kilometer (2/3 mile) ahead of me.  When no one else was around on the highway I also lit up the LED's and suddenly the trees on either side of the highway were lit up- not quite as bright as daytime, but certainly enough that I could see any deer or anything else that might decide to leap out of the woods, long before it came near the road.  Anyone who has ever hot a deer, knows anyone who has hit a deer or has seen the results of a car vs deer accident knows this is a very valuable feature.



This video shows the front and rear flashers in use, as well as my VW with kayak racks on the top, and even my poor yellow Jeep.

That's about it.  At some point I'll shoot some video actually showing what the lights can do, but for now that's pretty well the whole presentation!

Def

[enki_ck]

Grant, the video link doesn't work for me. It takes me to a mobile photobucket folder but no video.

Very cool additions though.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I'll put it on Youtube then.  I tried putting it in the same folder on Photobucket as all the photos, but it seems that may not have been as successful as I'd hoped.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Try this and see if it works any better:



Def

[derekmac]

That looks great!  A really nice and clean install.    I really like the LED lights on the windshield and wouldn't mind getting something similar myself.  I've been pondering installing a couple of cheaper ones to come one when my reverse lights come on, and maybe wiring them up to a three position switch so I can control if they come on in reverse or not.  The great thing about LED lights is they draw so little amps, you can piggy back small lights off of the factory wiring and not worry about overloading it.

I ordered a 5 meter roll of white LED lights off of ebay a couple of days ago and I'm going to try and add some extra light to the inside of the Jeep.  The rear area is pretty dim, so I'm going to see what I can do to brighten it up some, and maybe add some sort of courtesy lights to the doors for when you open them they'll light up the ground and where you step into it a little.

[Grant Lamontagne]

If you think they look great in photos and video, wait till you see them in real life. 

That sounds like a great idea- you can always use more light in the cargo area.  I love the LED's- you are right, they are much brighter with a fraction of the power consumption, plus they never blow.

The incandescent bulbs bug me.  The minute they blow i go to the nearest Canadian Tire, buy a two pack of bulbs, install one, put the other in the glove compartment and forget its there by the time the opposite one blows, at which point I repeat the process.  I have to assume that there's a huge profit in people buying extra bulbs or manufacturers would have made the change to LED's long ago.

Def

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[Whoey]

sure beats the "security system" we installed in your VW all those years ago.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Yeah, this is a bit more involved than a single LED flasher, battery tray and switch, but hey, it worked!  No one ever broke into that car again!

Def

[stressmaster5000]

Pretty cool looking Grant! 

[derekmac]

If you think they look great in photos and video, wait till you see them in real life. 

That sounds like a great idea- you can always use more light in the cargo area.  I love the LED's- you are right, they are much brighter with a fraction of the power consumption, plus they never blow.

The incandescent bulbs bug me.  The minute they blow i go to the nearest Canadian Tire, buy a two pack of bulbs, install one, put the other in the glove compartment and forget its there by the time the opposite one blows, at which point I repeat the process.  I have to assume that there's a huge profit in people buying extra bulbs or manufacturers would have made the change to LED's long ago.

Def

Sent from a digital multitool

Can't wait to see them.  Think you'd be able to make it Saturday for the Renfrew run?  It's a nice easy trail with good spots to play!

I've been thinking about replacing all the bulbs in the Jeep with LED ones.  It really won't cost that much to do, and everything will be brighter, thus making the Jeep easier to see in bad weather.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I don't know if I'll make it on Saturday.  I think I've been on Renfrew, I can't remember.  I have a lot of work to do in the apartment upstairs and to be honest, I haven't been at it nearly as much as I should have been.

Amusingly enough I was at the dealer today and got talking to one of their technicians who has a 2 door Rubicon and I think he's going to buy a set of LED fog lamps off me.  It's not often you go to a dealer and sell them parts! 

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

While not part of the LED light install, the air deflector I bought finally came in.  It's a MOPAR part so it actually has Jeep molded into it- as if that matters...



The part that bugged me is that this one required drilling holes in the underside of my hood to mount it.  Given how quickly things rust here I have no desire to expose any metal unless absolutely 100% necessary, and I don't consider an air deflector even close to being absolutely necessary.  I managed to get some nice heavy duty 3M double sided tape, although to be honest I was doubting the physics of four square inches of tape holding this thing on.



It actually holds on surprisingly well, and when the hood is closed the deflector is sandwiched between the grille and the hood and held in place by the weatherstripping that lives there, so it's actually quite solid.

Not exactly involved technical work or anything, but I did use my Vic Compact scissors to cut the tape to fit! 

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Not an update really, but I did manage to find this product page for the small lights I put on the windshield.

http://www.grote.com/product.php?product_number=63981

Apparently they are 1200 lumens each.

Def

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[Grant Lamontagne]

As if there weren't enough photos of my grille in this thread already, here are some more! 

The weather warmed up a bit today so I made another change to my Jeep.  I wanted clear lenses on the marker lights so when I noticed the 2014 models had them I ordered replacements.  Here's a photo of it earlier:



And here it is now:



There are orange bulbs in there too, so they still flash orange, just they are clear when not lit up.  I'll be ordering a similar set for the side marker/signal lights later on.

Def

[ducttapetech]

It looks better.

that's us mobile

[Grant Lamontagne]

Thanks. I think so too.

Def

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[hrvstmn31]

Maybe I just missed it but why green I usually see yellow and orange as safety strobes.

[derekmac]

Wow, those clear lights really do look a lot better than the orange!