to fuse or not to fuse.

Hey guys, putting three, three foot long 5050LED light strips under my cap tommorow. Two will be on the ceiling and controlled with one switch and the other will be on the inside of the cap lift glass so that when the lift glass is up it will provide task lighting on the tailgate. This strip will be controlled by its own switch.

I'm gonna pull power off the the constant hot in the 7 pin trailer harness. The power is gonna run about 3 feet to where I have my switches mounted in the bed.

I've been doing a bunch of reading and have come up with a 50/50 answer of 1) needing to have an inline fuse for the hot and 2) not needing a fuse.

If I need a fuse what would you estimate it at? Less than 10amp.

None of the pre-made bed light kits (which is essentially what I based mine on) that I have seen are fused and pick up power either off the a tail light assembly or the trailer harness.

Just want to make sure I'm not gonna screw anything up with the install or burn my truck down, especially since I use it for camping under the cap almost year round.

ADDITIONAL INFO: Figured some additional info would help. The strip I got is 5 meters and for the ENTIRE five meters it is 60watts/5amp. Its also 300led for the entire 5 meters.

Also I'm using 18ga wire.

Thanks in advance guys,
J-

EVERYTHING should be fused.

usually with in 6" of the power source.

the manufacturer of the the light strips should be able to tell you what is needed

Im with baum he is dead on that everything must be fused. Only time you would burn down your truck is if it wasn't fused.

Yep, fuse as close to your power source as possible. So 5 amps per 16.4ft. .304 amps per foot. Fuse accordingly.
3-3ft sections = 2.76 amps.

thanks guys, fused it is.

J-