Rear Cargo Area Spotlight

[eulogious]

Hello all,

 

So I got tired of not having any light in the cargo area of my 1990 T-Wagon, so I decided to do something about it.

 

My first idea was to just get the rear light for my wagon that came stock. Yes, this would add more light in the back, it would still only add a little bit of light, not enough that it would make me happy. So I decided to go another route.

 

I happen to have a set of cheapy fog lights that were used and given to me by a friend. I have no real use for these, so I decided that I would sacrifice one of them and mount it in my cargo area of my wagon. I also happen to have a relay kicking around as well as an inline fuse and a lighted switch, so I had everything needed to make this happen.

 

So after a couple of hours of messing around with mounting the switch and the light it's self, I had success! Lucky for me, I already had a great power supply in the back, my stereo equipment! So I tapped into the power, wired in the relay, mounted my switch and the light, and presto! TONS of light in the back now

 

Here's some pics:

 

This is before in the dark with just the dome light on in the car:

 

 

Pretty dark.

 

This is the same area, just taken with the light on:

 

 

Big difference! Needless to say, I like it alot. Since I work at night, most of my time is spent at night in the dark, so this will really help me out. I no longer have to fumble around till I find my flashlight in order to see in the back!

 

Here's some more pics of where I mounted my switch and the light. I used a lighted switch, I figured that it would be easier to see at night, so why not?

 

 

 

 

I mounted the light on the passenger side, sideways, so that it would light up close to the middle of the back:

 

 

 

I left the wires out for movement room, because I can rotate the light to face out the back if I would like, so this gives me a little bit of clearance to move the light.

 

Here's a pics with the cover over it so you can see where the light hits:

 

 

The one thing I noticed is that the light gets HOT. So I just need to be careful to not leave the thing on for extended periods of time, it will get very hot. But other than that, it's great having a light in the back that actually lights up everything back there at night, I love it!

 

I just thought that I would share

[TeamCF]

Having a light in the back is great.

I had gotten a 6 LED one from a box truck awhile back. Mounted it to the hatch with a toggle right next to it.

Mine was water damaged so it's not super bright, need a new one. But I've seen them (scoobyclimbs has one) when they are new and they light up a huge area behind the car as well. Great for camping and he's used it to service a rally car at night. Just backed his hatch up to it and got to work.

 

I also flush mounted one of the LED tail light bulbs (on the EA81 wagon there are two holes in the hatch on each side with the plastic removed, which my plastic is long gone, that they press right into.) Cut a hole for a rocker switch right next to it. It's angled inward a bit so it aims near center.

The red light is great for camping as it does not attract bugs. (where as Gregg's box truck nuclear light had a swarm at WCSS11, I had no bugs around me )

And being LED I've left them on for hours with no heat or battery problems.

Mine are wired directly into the constant hot side of the dome light wiring.

I also have no headliner so it was easy to tap into. And being LED I'm not worried about too much draw.

I have 3 power ports in the cargo area, but they are wired into a dash switch. Didn't want to have to remember to turn it on every time I went back there. (It powers a plug in defroster, as my window lines are long gone, and the defroster switch activates bright backup lights now....)

 

 

Now that you have it all wired up you can swap out the lights at you leisure if the heat or power draw becomes an issue.

[eulogious]

I have mine so I can rotate it out and light up the area behind the car if I wanted too, I left some slack there just for that.

 

Thanks for the LED idea, I will have to look into that, it sounds alot better than my fog light I have now. But I managed to do this with stuff that I had laying around in my garage so it cost me nothing, so I can't complain to much about it too much

 

But like you said, now that it's all wired in, swapping out the light should not be an issue.

[TeamCF]

Oh yeah I'm all about using what you got laying around.

I recently dug a bunch of stuff that's been sitting up in the shop loft for ten years out. and found and used the following:

 

The "Stereo" in my GL. Is an old small amp I had and some old 4x6 speakers. I made a box out of MDF I had laying around, it mounts on my cargo holder.

The amp is under the dash with an RCA to headphone jack cable coming out. I plug my cheap MP3 player into it.

Total cost. $3 for the cable. It'll blast me out of the car and does not sound too bad either. Fine for a camping rig. Even have it on it's own toggle switched circuit so I can have only it on with the hatch open for campsite tunes.

 

I had a set of driving lights that look just like your cargo light.

I mounted them on the front corners of my roof rack and made a wiring harness using stuff I already had laying around. Now I have lights that shine out about 45 degrees for tight corners on trails at night.

Total cost. $0

 

Had some old projectors in that box. After my H4 conversion I no longer used my inner high beams. I made surrounds out of some plastic I had around and now have some slick fog lights that are not sticking out to get torn off by a tree. The wiring was already in the car from the last set.

Total cost. $0

 

All things I forgot I even had. Now back in use.

 

And many other small odds and ends. The best thing is to find a need for something. (once I say to myself "I wish I had this on the Soob right now..." 2 or 3 times, I put it on a list and make the change) And to be able to dig out the parts from the long lost reaches of the basement or something.

 

Put old crap to good use.