Newb power tap question near rear hatch (1 Viewer)

[Daddyota]

Hey all, I want to tap into power near the tailgate So I can add a sweet light that I can turn on and off For camping when the truck is off. I picked this one up with the red and white light combo:

Touch Light

National Luna has brought high-performance LED technology to your campsite with an assortment of low-voltage, compact, energy-saving light fixtures. Comparison 18 LED CLEAR This hard mount 18 LED Clear light responds to touch and offers 3 settings: 1) a low (75 Lumens), medium (284 Lumens), and...

www.equipt1.com

I just need some guidance from some more experienced folks. I stumbled on this thread :

What have you done to your 100 Series this week?

Crawled underneath the other day and saw this: So I ordered this: Original was toast: Nice job ;) What did you use the vertical portion of that welded bracket to support?

forum.ih8mud.com

I want to do what @ftzgrlds1 Did which was tap into the aux fuse box. I’ve searched and Don’t know electrical terminology so I am at a loss for what a good power source would be near the rear hatch. I checked in the back of my truck and don’t see any fuse box, just my jack and some mark levinson box thing. I’m guessing he added an aftermarket aux fuse box, or am I missing something?

I read that some circuits are ignition only circuits and others maintain power when the vehicle is off. How can I find out which wires I can Tap into to run this light?

 

[Daddyota]

Bump!

Anyone know if the Cargo area cigarette lighter plug is always on or Is it only on when The vehicle is running? I’m trying to install this light and I don’t want to start cutting wires until I’m positive of which area I’m grabbing power from. So far I know there is power to the cargo cigarette plug, and the rear brake light.

 

[trdcorolla]

Make Your Power Outlets ALWAYS On

Article by: RobRed Applicable Models: 1998 - 2002 / 100 Series Land Cruiser or Lx 470 Updated: 06/09/12 Difficulty: Easy The 100 series vehicles

tlcfaq.com

 

[Daddyota]

Make Your Power Outlets ALWAYS On

Article by: RobRed Applicable Models: 1998 - 2002 / 100 Series Land Cruiser or Lx 470 Updated: 06/09/12 Difficulty: Easy The 100 series vehicles

tlcfaq.com

Thanks, that’s Good info, but it says for 03+ Lx/lc it’s a very difficult mod due to the location of the fuse and it’s not recommended.

How can I find out which circuits are always on? I know someone knows this!!!

 

[Daddyota]

I’ve been trying to find a solution, most people seem to add an auxiliary fuse panel. I don’t see the need for that since I don’t plan on having more accessories. I just want my gall darn light to work. I got one of those fuse power taps, so my plan is now to find a fuse in the driver kick panel that has constant power. Anyone know which fuses have constant power? I looked in the kick panel but just see a bunch of wires. I just want constant power! If I need to just run a wire to the battery then so be it, but I was hoping I could avoid going through the firewall and would like to keep my batter feee from extra connections. Plus I like how clean the fuse taps are.

 

[ramangain]

1. What year and model is your rig
2. You can easily try and find constant +12V with a multimeter.
3. Chances are good there is not one near the rear hatch area, meaning running your own fused +12V wire will guarantee success.

 

[Daddyota]

I have an 04 lx.

so after trail and error and reading all over I found that the easiest way to get power Was from the driver kick panel. I used fuse 33 (defogger) which is 12v. I used one of those fuse tap thingys and ran some 16g wire behind the trimto the rear hatch. I brushed off the paint where I wanted my ground and wired it all up. If I knew what I was doing it would have taken an hour or so to wire the light... but like I said in the original post, I am a newb and know nothing about wiring, electricity, fuses etc. I finally got my new rear hatch light working after relocating the ground to a proper location. Happy with the results!

 

[ramangain]

Where the wire is external to the seals of the rig, may I suggest some wire loom wrapped in electrical tape around the wire? Or some heavy duty sheathing that the cable slides through. You never know when some stupid twig or sharper object gets lodged against the power cable for some reason and eventually chafes through it, causing a short.

 

[Daddyota]

Where the wire is external to the seals of the rig, may I suggest some wire loom wrapped in electrical tape around the wire? Or some heavy duty sheathing that the cable slides through. You never know when some stupid twig or sharper object gets lodged against the power cable for some reason and eventually chafes through it, causing a short.

thanks! I didn’t thing about that, and didn’t even know what Wire loom was. I wish I could stuff the power wire behind the weatherstripping, but the rear camera wire was relocated For the rear bumper and follows the same path from the lift gate down the hatch. There’s not much room to stuff it or else I would have hidden it. I would love a cleaner way to hide or conceal the wires. Maybe put both into one of those wire sleeves?

 

[ramangain]

Yep, sounds good. Just think to yourself "How would Mr. T engineers do this to meet the 25 year service life?"