Hello.
Like many other owners of the Ram 1500 sport, I wanted to do something to turn the otherwise for-show only hood scoops into something more practical and cool...
I decided to integrate real LED lights into each scoop, which will provide effective lighting when needed, better visibility of my truck on the road for passive safety, and a more unique and cool look overall.
I couldn't find any reference to other people doing something like that before, except for an aftermarket company that does make a complete LED light solution including scoops - but from what I could see - these were low intensity lights, providing a look - but not actually lighting the road as I wanted it to be. This solution was also around $300 of so (US), which for me in Canada - after everything else (conversion rate, shipping, taxes etc) would have been quite expensive for a mostly cosmetic effect.
So I decided to fabricate / create my own solution instead. I bought two 8" single row LED light bars providing 30w of power and 2700lm light intensity each from mictuning through amazon Canada, at around $120 Canadian for the two - shipping and all included. I also bought a wiring harness for two lights and the cherry on top - a RF remote controlled PWM dimmer which cost me another $24 or so Canadian - all in.
I bought a plate of 6061 aluminum which I cut with my band saw into two base plates for each side of the hood, onto which the lights will be mounted connected with simple straight angle aluminum bars I bought at the local home depot, which I cut and shaped to fit my setup.
Figuring out the correct angle and position of the base plates and the mounting arms the lights would be held by was a royal pain, since - as it turned out, the two under-hood sides where the scoops are turned out to not be symmetrical, so I had to make adjustments for each side individually, but eventually - I got it to fit and work. I ran the wiring under the hood - securing it in place with zip ties and aluminum sticky ties.
Now I can turn these lights on from inside my truck without requiring any wiring to go through from the engine compartment into the cab, and can dim the lights on-road so they're visible but not blinding, and crank the brightness up all the way off-road using the same remote providing significant illumination much brighter than the stock headlights.
I am attaching some pictures to show how my project turned out, and I hope you like it.
Like many other owners of the Ram 1500 sport, I wanted to do something to turn the otherwise for-show only hood scoops into something more practical and cool...
I decided to integrate real LED lights into each scoop, which will provide effective lighting when needed, better visibility of my truck on the road for passive safety, and a more unique and cool look overall.
I couldn't find any reference to other people doing something like that before, except for an aftermarket company that does make a complete LED light solution including scoops - but from what I could see - these were low intensity lights, providing a look - but not actually lighting the road as I wanted it to be. This solution was also around $300 of so (US), which for me in Canada - after everything else (conversion rate, shipping, taxes etc) would have been quite expensive for a mostly cosmetic effect.
So I decided to fabricate / create my own solution instead. I bought two 8" single row LED light bars providing 30w of power and 2700lm light intensity each from mictuning through amazon Canada, at around $120 Canadian for the two - shipping and all included. I also bought a wiring harness for two lights and the cherry on top - a RF remote controlled PWM dimmer which cost me another $24 or so Canadian - all in.
I bought a plate of 6061 aluminum which I cut with my band saw into two base plates for each side of the hood, onto which the lights will be mounted connected with simple straight angle aluminum bars I bought at the local home depot, which I cut and shaped to fit my setup.
Figuring out the correct angle and position of the base plates and the mounting arms the lights would be held by was a royal pain, since - as it turned out, the two under-hood sides where the scoops are turned out to not be symmetrical, so I had to make adjustments for each side individually, but eventually - I got it to fit and work. I ran the wiring under the hood - securing it in place with zip ties and aluminum sticky ties.
Now I can turn these lights on from inside my truck without requiring any wiring to go through from the engine compartment into the cab, and can dim the lights on-road so they're visible but not blinding, and crank the brightness up all the way off-road using the same remote providing significant illumination much brighter than the stock headlights.
I am attaching some pictures to show how my project turned out, and I hope you like it.
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but seriously speaking - I wanted serious light output (don't remember if I mentioned it, but I hunt in northern Ontario, driving on very dark and dangerous mining and logging roads which are often like riding on a pitch black roller coaster - only I have no rails to protect me from flying off very sharp and unpredictable turns, and on my roller coaster I also have his trucks and similar heavy vehicles driving in the opposite direction to me, not expecting (or willing...) to share the road with anyone else...
