Adding lights to rear hatch tied to switch door open

[bassmacka]

Ive been looking at these lights https://www.oznium.com/led-bolt

My question is how easy is it going to be to tie the lights into the door open switch. I was thinking it might be possible to tap into the rear light. It would be nice to have the lights come one when I open the hatch but also have the option to turn them off. Basically make these lights behave the same as the OEM hatch light.

In this pic you can see what I am going for

https://c7f18bfd95533c304910-d5dafa989ba9369a28040fb82b0c7ae4.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/MXV5.jpg

Is it even possible to tie into the OEM light switch to control these?

 

[TowMeOut]

Sure....it's going to be a bit of a pain to wire the lights into the hatch and run the wires into the headliner but certainly doable. The LED lights most likely draw less current than the original incandescent bulb. You'd just have to tap into the dome light just inside the back hatch. I'd guess you can make them on/off or switched by the door pretty easily.

 

[S4TA]

Getting the wire through the grommet and in the headliner is probably the easy part. The hard part is getting the wire in just the right configuration in the hatch so the rear window doesn't catch it. When I put my rear camera in I read warnings about the difficulty and didn't see how hard it could be until I tried it. Total PITA


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[theoutbackdream]

I have a similar set of LED's coming my way, as I plan to do what you've mentioned.

From pulling the trim piece off the hatch, the only PITA thing will be wiring up the lights from the existing light in the trunk. So i've been thinking about adding a small switch for power that wires into the controller modules in the hatch. Although, I just worry something might knock the light on, or break the switch...

 

[blackoutt]

I did exactly what you're looking for. It was a pain to fish the wires through the factory wire grommets from the hatch into the headliner area. I soldered contacts directly to the back of the contacts for the rear dome lightbulb so that the switch works on/off/door to control rear dome and hatch lights. I was not concerned with the small power draw of the LED strips on a circuit that previously was all halogen and replaced with all LEDs and have had no issues. It throws a ton of useful light but also attracts bugs so I keep it off once I'm set up.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/2496540-post25548.html

 

[Airmapper]

I did this on my Xterra, and while it was a pain and very involved install, of every mod I've done on vehicles, it's the one I'd say has given me the most use and benefited me the most.

While I can't help on the particulars on this gen 4runner, if your wondering if it's worth it, for me it absolutely was.

 

[JD914]

I did exactly what you're looking for. It was a pain to fish the wires through the factory wire grommets from the hatch into the headliner area. I soldered contacts directly to the back of the contacts for the rear dome lightbulb so that the switch works on/off/door to control rear dome and hatch lights. I was not concerned with the small power draw of the LED strips on a circuit that previously was all halogen and replaced with all LEDs and have had no issues. It throws a ton of useful light but also attracts bugs so I keep it off once I'm set up.



http://www.toyota-4runner.org/2496540-post25548.html

Just what I did as well, but I used an led rope light. It works great and throws a TON of light.


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[bassmacka]

I did exactly what you're looking for. It was a pain to fish the wires through the factory wire grommets from the hatch into the headliner area. I soldered contacts directly to the back of the contacts for the rear dome lightbulb so that the switch works on/off/door to control rear dome and hatch lights. I was not concerned with the small power draw of the LED strips on a circuit that previously was all halogen and replaced with all LEDs and have had no issues. It throws a ton of useful light but also attracts bugs so I keep it off once I'm set up.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/2496540-post25548.html

This looks pretty good. Where did you get that LED light strip?

 

[blackoutt]

This looks pretty good. Where did you get that LED light strip?

Used some of this. Clean with alcohol and heat the surface before sticking. It's stayed stuck on everywhere except for near the hole where I added strain relief and tucked it into the hatch, I had to go back and superglue that end.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HSF66JO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Soul-Surfer]

I ended up wiring power off the rear dome as you mentioned you wanted to. I ended up fishing the wires through the headliner and then and into the lift hatch door. I used Wurton pod lights as they were enclosed, waterproof and made for exterior use (basically able to stand up to the abuse of contact). Each pod has 3, 3w led's and are super bright. I bought them from CBI off of their garage sale list. Its the PDF you download then call them. They have more on offer on there now for $29. They come 2 to a box with all wiring, mounting hardware and are sealed as I mentioned and also have a template for cutting the hole. I just used a forstner bit to get a clean hole. I had no problems with the wiring and then put a switch in the door to turn them on and off so I wouldn't have to rely on the dome switch as its honestly kind of flimsy.

After I had fished the wires though I realized that I could have tapped power easier form the harness for the rear window and ended up cleaning everything up and switching my wire over that way to clean things up. I just got out a meter and started poking until I found hot without the key as thats what I wanted.

Let me know if you have more questions but this simple mod has been very helpful when camping and cooking. I have drawers with a slide out kitchen in the back so one is right over my stove.

Michael