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Reverse Lights for the Tacoma

Posted by on February 19, 2016

Installing a Pair of Reverse Lights

Are you old enough to remember those big round smile faced lights we used to line up across our chrome roll bars ? I remember. back to future truck reverse lightsEven then I didn’t really buy into the need to add all those lights to my truck. Unless you are racing across the desert at warp speed, I fail to see the need to spend hard earned cash for the bling factor of adding front facing lighting. The stock headlights have always seemed to work fine for me.

Going in reverse? that’s a different matter. The little light bulbs that manufactures install in the tail lights do not light up a boat ramp in the pre-morning darkness or provide enough light to see behind you when turning around on a trail after dark. Adding a pair of reverse lights will keep me from backing too far into the water at the boar ramp or from hitting a tree on the trail, hopefully.

When it comes to LED lights the cost runs the full spectrum from thousands of dollars for a 52″ light bar to ridiculously cheap off brands on Amazon and such places.  I gambled with the inexpensive lights.  My thinking here was two fold. First, if I damage them on the trail, I won’t feel so bad, and second, if they don’t last I’m only out $20 some dollars.

auxbeam lights reverse lights

Using my amazon prime account, I ordered a pair of Auxbeam 18W 4 inch flood lights. The flood lights throw a wider beam than driving lights and provide better lighting when used as backup lights.

reverse lights augie's adventures

If I begin to see water collecting in the lights, I’ll remove the covers and give them a bead of sealant along the lens seam, but so far after several months, I’ve yet to see any water collecting inside the lights.

Since I’m not sure if I’m going to stay with the stock rear bumper or not, I choose not to flush mount the new reverse lights on the bumper. Instead I mounted them on the top of  the truck cap. I’m hoping the kayak rack will help protect them from taking a hit from a low hanging branch.

reverse lights augie's adventures

The install is pretty straight forward, or backwards in this case. Drill a hole in your new cap and bolt them on. To keep things simple, I tied the new lights wiring in with tail light. Hence no need for a switch, they simply turn on when I put the truck in reverse.

reverse lights augie's adventures

I may not be a big fan of decorating the front of my truck with a bunch of high watt light bulbs, but I do know that a cheap pair of reverse lights mounted on the back of the truck to light up the dark world behind you is money well spent.