hoot said:
I have 50w backup lights. Picked them up at Pep Boys. They're OK. Better than stock but not a whole lot.
I tried some $15 Pep Boys lights too. I came to the same conclusion; they were not bright enough. They looked similar to the ones the Chevy dealer put on trucks. I figured that was what the job called for. Mistake #1
I mounted these lights to a hardened steel bumper bracket. It was very hard steel and broke the screws that came with the lights. I had to redrill several of the holes. I wish I tapped the holes and used machine screws. Mistake #2
Finally, I mounted the aux backup lights fairly close to the hitch receiver as the dealer's typically install them. Wrong. Mistake #3. Place them closer to the sides of the truck, so light goes where you can see it. Close to the hitch is bad and a good way to trash them as you back up to your tag trailer--this happened to me a few weeks later. Putting them farther apart avoids damage, and puts the light where you need.
The extra backup lights should be able to illuminate things up off the ground. Putting them up high makes sense if you want to light up everything behind you. But there is no place up high unless you have a permanent cap or a Suburban. The next best thing is a bright wide beam. Make sure it not obscured by the bumper so you can see everything--not just things close to the ground.
The wiring was easier than I thought. I pulled power from the center conductor of the 7 prong trailer jack. Center conductors on a trailer connector are the heaviest gauge. As I recall the gauge on the wire was fairly beefy, I'd guess about 10 gauge. 100 watt lights pulls about 8 amps. 10 gauge would be maxed out at 50 amps--about what the existing backup lights plus 500 watts of auxilary lights would draw--which is way more than needed..
Use solder and tape if you want to pull big power off this spot and always
fuse every place you split off wire. The fuse should less than or equaly to the gauge of the wire.
