Test Tryout For Auxiliary Backup Lights
When I originally put together the rear bumper on the Tacoma, I screwed two 4-inch driving lights as a test fit. I wired the lights directly to the reverse lights on the taillight. They diffidently helped when backing down a dark boat ramp in the early morning before a duck hunt or seeing the trees when turning around on a tight trail when I make a wrong turn looking for my secret deer hunting spot.
The original lights made it to and from Alaska, but once home, they got eaten by a tree. And yes, I ran off the road in Alaska and had to winch it back onto the road
What I figured would happen, did. The lights broke when I,driving by feel, backed into a tree. I could see the tree, I just needed every inch of room to fit the Tacoma through the trail. Now it was time to correctly install auxiliary back up lights.
I ordered two 6-in oval white LED flush mount lights with the intentions of cutting oval holes in the bumper and flush mounting the lights. It was a cool spring morning when I gathered the tools, sat on the milk crate and marked off the holes. With the hole saw attached to my drill, I began to cut. The teeth wore off the hole saw before I scratched the surface of the steel bumper. I put the tools away, tossed the lights into the tuck storage box and there they sat for the next couple of months.
Installing the Flush Mount Auxiliary Backup Lights
Two weeks ago, I finally put out a call on Facebook asking friends if anyone had a plasma cutter. I got a response and in a few days, I headed over and began the install. Like something out of the movies, as they got off work, friends pulled in the driveway and home garage and began talking trucks, sipping beer and worked on their trucks. Sure they had more pressing matters like leaving for VOT in three days, but by the time burgers were cooking on the grill in the dark, work had be accomplished.
One final twist kept my new backup lights project from completion. The lights burned red ! I had been shipped the wrong ones. They were trailer taillights and not backup lights. So for another week, I waited to finish the job.
I finally get the lights installed, and Whoops, they are the wrong lights. They burn red, not white.
This past weekend between cleaning tires out of the Monocacy and taking a few friends on their first kayaking trip down the same river, I installed the correct lights, and repainted the bumper with more spray-on bedliner.
All in all, it is an inexpensive, simple project that greatly adds to the truck. I’m not sold on the need for additional driving lights facing front. I’m old enough to remember all those big round smiley face covered lights we put on our roll bars and never turned on. The headlights of the truck light the road ahead for me just fine, but the brighter back up lights definitely help on those dark early mornings at the boat ramp or in the woods.
To see more of the old 95 Tacoma – AUGIE’S TACOMA BUILD
