Rig Mods-Under hood LED lighting
It's getting dark. You're far from camp working your way through some difficult trails. Your buddy gets stuck. You unwrap your tow strap, hook him up, and pull him out. By the time you get back in your truck and continue, the light is fading fast. Finally, you get off that tough trail and start making good time back to camp. Then, it happens.
You notice that your engine temp starts to rise. Oddly, there aren't any of the usual loud electric fan noises. You radio your pals and say that you think your electric fan is out. You pull over to the side of the road and pop the hood. The sun is almost below the horizon and it's next to impossible to see what you need to.
It's possible that some of the group are prepared and have flashlights. But Maglights and cell phone flashes are tough to maneuver and and even tougher to get to stay in one place while you work. Being able to work hands free is next to priceless when something goes wrong in the middle of nowhere.
My strategy has always been to think ahead and to focus on what could go wrong. That way, when it does, it's not a worst case scenario. That's where under hood LED lighting comes in. I bought this kit off of Ebay for a reasonable $20 total shipped.
Included in the kit was a pre-wired LED strip with 3M adhesive on the back of it, a hood switch, an inline fuse, about 24 feet of wire so you can run it through the whole engine bay as necessary, plus some various other things (alcoholo prep pad, zip ties, etc.). It also came with some pretty decent instructions. While they were clearly not written by a native English speaker, they made sense and the install took maybe 45 minutes.
I installed it right behind the part of the hood that contacts the top of the grill so that the light would shine straight down onto the engine and so that it wouldn't get smashed when closing the hood. I used a stock hole in the bulk head to mount the hood switch and it works like a charm. When you pop the hood, the lights kick on and light up the entire engine bay very well. I'm considering buying another one of these kits and installing it in the rear lift gate so that I can extend my lighting in the rear our further for cooking and unpacking when arriving at the campsite.
So, this product is great and I highly recommend it. However, I also want to reference one more item that can help in a situation like this that is portable and useful in more places than just the engine bay. I'll be writing a review of my new favorite flashlight, the Nebo Larry. I purchased it from Amazon for about $9 and it has a number of advantages over your typical flashlight.
It has a magnetic backing so it will stick to most metal
It's made of aircraft grade aluminium
It has a flood style housing that creates a ton of light over a broad area
Put yourself back in that situation I described earlier. The one where you're broken down on the side of the road and it's dark? Now, imagine opening your hood to a flood of light. Or, if something else breaks under the truck, pulling out your Nebo Larry flashlight, sticking it somewhere that it can light up the area you need to see, and then getting the repair job done easily and quickly so you can get back to camp. Being prepared is the best option!
