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Gunslinger
Joined: Sat Nov 4th, 2017
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3RD brake / ID Bar
This is more than just a lightup bar, though. It has provisons for turn signals, park circuit, and brake all in one clean unit. It would have been nice if they had made the last two or three LEDs amber (or rather the polymer amber) as provisions for the turn signals instead of it all being red, but whatever. It's nice and clean, so I'm OK with it. I'm struggling to decide what color I want my muthco glass to be though. Amber or red. From the back, all the other lighting is red, so red would match well, but I have a preference for amber turn signals. I also have a preference for things to match!
(Incoming ramble)
I also had to make a decision how I was going to deal with my cargo lights. If there's one thing I love, it's functionality. I was not about to give up cargo lights.
Initially, I was going to use a pair of these, the Truck-Lite model 60204C/60004C. They've been used on countless commercial vehicles across the US, and they're easy to get a hold of. These would have been mounted to the inner sides of my rollbar, similar to how some service trucks are set up.
Of course, LED versions also exist, but I don't like how they look. The oldschool incandecent models have a vibe to them that I really like, but I'm also weird that way, too.
However, they're incandecent. No big deal, right? My idea was to buy the incandecent models and replace the inner lamp with an LED version. Oldschool appearance, newschool performance. Best of both worlds, right?
Not that simple. These units are sealed. Yep, sealed. When the lamp goes out, you throw the whole thing away and replace it. No retrofitting here. You can't even take them apart like you would our headlights. The lens isn't glued on, it's sonic welded together. There's no getting these apart without destroying them.
Now, I could have easily just dealt with the whole incandecent thing, as my Hella's, headlights, and fog lights, plus reverse lights, are not LED. They'd hardly be the only thing that wasn't LED, but I think we all know that LED just performs better than incandecent. So, instead of settling, I went with grommet lights that will be all nice and stealthly mounted instead, one above each tie-down.
One could argue that the original option would have added some help in that they could, theoretically, function as additional reverse lights. True, but I already have 200 watts in aux reverse lighting, and my LED 3157s. I think I'm pretty well covered in that department. Plus, I tried that with my existing cargo lamps. The light winds up going all over the bed and anything in it, which winds up giving you the opposite effect, as the bed winds up shooting the light right back into your eyes, making the darkness seem even darker than it already is. So, a net negative.
That said, once the interior is finalized, the rollbar comes next. I want the mounting all figured out and all wired up before it goes to paint. At that point, all I'd need to do is remove it, send the truck off, get it back, and re attach. Same thing will happen with both bumpers and the brush guard.
We're getting closer to finishing a sub-goal, here.
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1999 Ford Ranger XLT - 3.0 V6 4x4 - Loaded (Totaled) 143k. Rest in Peace, Gold Dust.