Turn off all interior lights at camp?

[Outsane]

Any one have a simple way to switch off the interior lights.

When I get to camp and the back is open the door courtesy lights are on while the hatch is open. Any one have a simple way to turn off all the interior lights?

Thanks

 

[CaptClose]

I’ve been wrestling with this issue too. The lights attract every flying critter within a square mile almost immediately. Then when you’re ready to go to sleep, you’re getting bit and buzzed in your ear all night.

I’ve replaced the door courtesy lights with red LED lights. I reached out to Odd Iron Off-Road to see if they would be interested in making a red LED dome light kit, but they turned me down.

My hope is that the red light would save my night vision and be less attractive to bugs.

I suppose a switch could be made to close or open the door circuit to control the lights. But I’ll watch this thread to see what others have done.

 

[DanMedeiros]

electrical tape over the door switches?

 

[ppc]

Push a cheap carabiner or something similar into the latch mechanism in the rear hatch until it triggers the latch lock. It simulates the hatch being closed. Use the handle to "unlock" and remove before closing the hatch.

 

[Beej]

You can open up the panel on the hatch and disconnect the door switch for the hatch. Search around and there is a thread with pics or just unplug stuff until you see the desired result; 3 minute job.

 

[bigredmachine]

pull the dome fuse, turn the dome light switch off, pull the bulb out of the offending dome light

 

[jonheld]

pull the dome fuse, turn the dome light switch off, pull the bulb out of the offending dome light

The OP is referring to the lights on the bottoms of the doors, not the roof mounted courtesy lights.
A simple solution is to add a switch. I'm considering doing this as I just got back from a 4 day camping trip.

 

[OVERRIT]

Door Courtesy Light Disable Switch - Pic Heavy

 

[bicycleagent003]

I just pulled the bulbs out of the bottom of the doors. I got tired of screwing around with it, and I didn't find those lights very useful.

 

[DanMedeiros]

You can open up the panel on the hatch and disconnect the door switch for the hatch. Search around and there is a thread with pics or just unplug stuff until you see the desired result; 3 minute job.

Thanks! I need to do this. Annoys me to no end that the interior lights stay on of I leave the hatch open

 

[fl4031003]

Get a screwdriver and click the lock on the hatch. Turns everything off, just make sure you trigger the lock before you close it to unlock the lock.

 

[greentruck]

Push a cheap carabiner or something similar into the latch mechanism in the rear hatch until it triggers the latch lock. It simulates the hatch being closed. Use the handle to "unlock" and remove before closing the hatch.

I have used the method ppc mentions with good results. Just don't forget to "Remove Before Flight" when closing hatch otherwise it sounds ugly. An illustration...

Then I wanted some light over the tailgate, adding these LED lamps.

Yeah, they actually work, I just forgot to turn them on for the pic. The switches are tucked in here.

It is tight in there, but since the 80's lights generally work by grounding, you just bypass the usually circuit to make these work. It kind of freaks out the car alarm, I think because the proximity detector freaks out or something over this and wants to throw the locks when the hatch is open. The alarm doesn't sound, but it locks all the doors in the truck, so I have to disarm it. I'll figure that out some time, just haven't bothered yet, but if anyone has solved this irritating leftover of an otherwise useful mod, clue me in.

 

[surfpig]

I’ve been wrestling with this issue too. The lights attract every flying critter within a square mile almost immediately. Then when you’re ready to go to sleep, you’re getting bit and buzzed in your ear all night.

I’ve replaced the door courtesy lights with red LED lights. I reached out to Odd Iron Off-Road to see if they would be interested in making a red LED dome light kit, but they turned me down.

My hope is that the red light would save my night vision and be less attractive to bugs.

I suppose a switch could be made to close or open the door circuit to control the lights. But I’ll watch this thread to see what others have done.

I put green LED in the courtesy lights. I don't think it attracts bugs, at least I haven't noticed. Plus it gives a nice other-worldly alien aura.



For the OP, you can flip the latch switch or shove a caribiner in the mechanism to fool the liftgate that it's closed. Just don't forget to flip it back or remove the carabiner when shutting it (as others have said).

 

[Red Merle]

To everyone that sleeps in their truck...

Where do you put all of your gear at night? I tried to sleep in my truck one night before I flew out to Seattle with two huge portage packs full of camping gear and still have the option of driving the car in the event we got shaken down for not renting a hotel for the 9 hours we had to kill before our flight. It was pouring rain and I ended up trying to sleep in the driver's seat, which does not work for me. I had 85% of the crap in the passenger seat area and the gal was able to sort of lay out, but it's still kinda short and there wasn't room for me, at all.

I am a tent on the ground man, myself, but seeing all of the contraptionifying that ya'll are rigging up, I should check to see if I am missing something.

 

[Dissent]

I typically use the carabiner in the hatch but to disable the door lights I just pull the dome light fuse. Thinking about installing a switch to cut power before the fuse to simplify it a bit.

 

[REKCUT]

I agree on unplugging the lights in the doors. They are of no help.

 

[greentruck]

To everyone that sleeps in their truck...

Where do you put all of your gear at night?
SNIP

I am a tent on the ground man, myself, but seeing all of the contraptionifying that ya'll are rigging up, I should check to see if I am missing something.

Red,
It starts with this...

The extended "drawer" on the left is actually the fridge slide. The panel covering it bolts on top over the right drawer when the fridge is slid in, which you can see in my earlier post here. The rest is storage. The area of the second row can accommodate those seats being reinstalled, but they haven't been back in since I built the sleeper system.

Our garage wouldn't fit it, but I no longer have any business crawling up onto a roof rack or throwing gear up to it. We have a M101 CDN trailer that tags along to provide most of the comforts of home. For a quick camp, we can just extend the fridge and use a Tailgate tent off the rear. For longer term camping or when weather threatens, we put up an awning over the tailgate tent to give us a kitchen and living room. You can see the bathroom/shower pop-up in the left background with everything deployed.

We can drive away and leave things for the day by simply breaking down the tailgate tent. The trailer also serves as the kitchen sink and countertop. We've got light, heat, the fridge, the toilet and shower, stove and oven, etc, etc. The truck has everything it needs aboard to hit the trail during the day.

 

[Dr Gil]

To everyone that sleeps in their truck...

Where do you put all of your gear at night? I tried to sleep in my truck one night before I flew out to Seattle with two huge portage packs full of camping gear and still have the option of driving the car in the event we got shaken down for not renting a hotel for the 9 hours we had to kill before our flight. It was pouring rain and I ended up trying to sleep in the driver's seat, which does not work for me. I had 85% of the crap in the passenger seat area and the gal was able to sort of lay out, but it's still kinda short and there wasn't room for me, at all.

I am a tent on the ground man, myself, but seeing all of the contraptionifying that ya'll are rigging up, I should check to see if I am missing something.

I went from being a "tent man" to exclusively sleeping in my truck. I have a sleeping set up, no 2nd row seats with a drawer system that I sleep on top of. If you are trying to find a place to store all of your gear when you sleep in your truck you have to just put it where you it won't be in your way. I have have a roof rack and a specific place to sleep in the truck so I plenty of room to put all my stuff if I keep it in the truck because of rain or bad weather.

 

[bigredmachine]

To everyone that sleeps in their truck...

Where do you put all of your gear at night? I tried to sleep in my truck one night before I flew out to Seattle with two huge portage packs full of camping gear and still have the option of driving the car in the event we got shaken down for not renting a hotel for the 9 hours we had to kill before our flight. It was pouring rain and I ended up trying to sleep in the driver's seat, which does not work for me. I had 85% of the crap in the passenger seat area and the gal was able to sort of lay out, but it's still kinda short and there wasn't room for me, at all.

I am a tent on the ground man, myself, but seeing all of the contraptionifying that ya'll are rigging up, I should check to see if I am missing something.

since its just me when im sleeping in the truck u have a simple set up, sleeping platform on the right side and free space on the left for bags and what not. I leave the seats in the truck and fold them down, slide the passenger seat all the way forward and then platrofm on the seat backs. leaves some headroom to be able to sit on the bed and for me theres plenty of room to lay out.

 

[retrofive]

Push a cheap carabiner or something similar into the latch mechanism in the rear hatch until it triggers the latch lock. It simulates the hatch being closed. Use the handle to "unlock" and remove before closing the hatch.

This is what I do, but put some webbing dangling down as a reminder before you slam it shut.