Thanks! It is more of a mash up between the Idea that Truckparts.parts had as well as Matt Gecko Lights. I like the idea of only one strip. I wanted to be able to light both the inside of the bed as well as provide area lighting. Finally I didn’t want to have anything interfere with the ability to remove my side panels. One note is this set up isn’t completely waterproof (I might go through and do a rebuild if I decide that I need full waterproofing), however I’m yet to run into any issues with it.
It was a journey to piece this together and I’ve got a few options for you to consider. Currently I am set up using these strip led lights. They are a WGRB led strip light. I use this switch as my master switch. I have one switch that controls the lower lights and a separate circuit for the tent. As a fun option I have included this bluetooth controller on the lower light circuit. The problem I have encountered with using the bluetooth controller is that there are some factory differences between rolls of the LED that results in some colors being crossed. Unless you really want colors I would go with a similar 12v strip that is just white and only use a toggle switch. I have a dimmer switch on order that I am going to test for up in the tent and I will keep you posted when that gets here.
For mounting the lights up in the tent I just used the factory adhesive and stuck them inside of the t-track. I used a needle and thread to carefully sew the wiring and switch to the seam that is inside of the rear door and that has worked really well. To get power up to there I just ran a wire up the back corner of the topper and have it run under on of the panels, so no drilling or anything was necessary. To connect the multiple strips together I used these connectors. As a side note I tried to solder strips together but the pads just weren’t quite good enough to maintain a solid connection so I went with those snap on connectors. If you need to extend the five wire length you can either get some wire that is the five wires flat together like the connectors or you can also use 5 wire irrigation/thermostat wire (this would be my recommendation as it looks substantially more clean).
For mounting the lights to the space frame I got this additional double sided adhesive tape (it is wide enough that you can stick two strips of LEDs to it in parallel then use a razor blade to split the tape in half). This has proved plenty sticky to adhere to the aluminum and the questionable factory adhesive.
Until I get around to figuring out my more specific power demands for the bed I just spliced into the constant power supply for the trailer lights for my constant 12V supply. Ultimately I am going to end up making a “power bin” out of one of the storage bins built into the bed of my Tacoma and re-route my 12V supply to run from a Blue Sea fuse block.
This is my first time writing up something that I’ve done so if there is anything confusing or that doesn’t make sense please reach out.
