Pulled The Trigger on Lighting & RED Mount

[OC455]

I went ahead and purchased a Randy Ellis mount for the front of my 3500 and Morimoto BigBanger pod lights. (NCS) spots/combo.

When the lights come in I will get busy on the install.

 

[diymirage]

that sounds really exciting, but i have no idea what it means

 

[OC455]

Morimoto BigBanger light pod:

BigBanger LED Pods: NCS Combo Beam

Light up the night with Morimoto Big Banger LED light pods! Powered by Nichia NCS LEDs and blasting through ultra-efficient TIR optics in white or yellow!

www.theretrofitsource.com

Randy Ellis Design Light Bar Mount:

Dodge/RAM 2019-2022 2500/3500 Light Bar 34201 - RAM 2500 Light Bar

These RAM 2500 Light Bar Sleekster light bars are durable, frame mounted and rigidly hold your choice of lights. You can mount 4 lights up to 9” in diameter with ease. The light bar is made from CNC mandrel bent 1 ¾” .120 wall steel tube, CNC cut and formed brackets and light tabs.

www.randyellisdesign.com

The Randy Ellis Design Sleekster light bar mount is the only one that I've heard of that doesn't interfere with the front parking sensors.

If anyone is interested, on The Retrofit Source website, they have the Morimoto light pods and light bars on sale for 15% off right now.

that sounds really exciting, but i have no idea what it means

 

[diymirage]

Nice. Very 80s looking, specially with the round lights on thier website

My truck still has the early version of parking sensors (bumpers) so I never considered sensor interference (plus, I plow with mine, so low mounted lights would be pointless on my truck)

 

[OC455]

Nice. Very 80s looking, specially with the round lights on thier website

My truck still has the early version of parking sensors (bumpers) so I never considered sensor interference (plus, I plow with mine, so low mounted lights would be pointless on my truck)

Yeah, would like to have a bit more lighting on some of the back roads I travel on sometimes.

 

[OC455]

Just got the Morimoto BigBanger NCS light pods in. Just to give anyone an idea of their size.

 

[MattHemi]

That's huge! Looking forward to your installation update

 

[OC455]

Temporarily mounted to the RED Sleekster light bar mount.

 

[OC455]

Got the bar mounted. Kind of a pain in the @$$. The lights aren't fixed and permanent yet. Still have to run the wiring harness. Thinking about adding ditch lights.

 

[OC455]

Well, it was my birthday this past weekend. Not really anything to talk about as far as the day was concerned. Of course I got dinner and that was about it.... :/

Anyway, I ordered ditch lights and the brackets for my birthday. And extension harnesses to run them.

The harness has the ability to run seven light pods, and seeing how I have six altogether, it will work. It's interesting the way the Morimoto harness is setup. It has two separate switch capabilities. I can run the center spot light pods on one switch and the two combo lights pods and the ditch light pods on the other.

I bought a plug and play harness for another lighting project I want to do, and their setup uses the DRL lights to trigger the LED light I will be using. I would like to tap into the plug and play harness to tap the parking/running light wire so that the DRL's on the light pods will dim down at night. I do not want to tap the trucks OEM harness.

I plan on using two upfitter switches that are already there for the pods.

Now on to the other issue I am running into. The included hardware for mounting the light pods is a M10-1.5 short carriage bolt with a large button style head that uses an Allen head wrench. It uses a nylock nut and washer to secure the lights. The only problem is the holes that are in the light bar mount are I believe 9/16's or 5/8's of an inch. I went to a couple of hardware stores and eventually went to the local Runnings store and found black nylon bushings that fit the mounting holes in the light bar. The bushings fit perfectly in the holes, the only issue is the M10-1.5 bolts are slightly to big for the 3/8 inch hole through the middle of the nylon bushing and they are a 1/4 inch too long. This coming weekend I will open up the hole through the bushing to fit the provided bolts and then probably sand down the length so it is no thicker than the mounting tab.

I will get some pics of what I'm talking about if anyone is interested.

The only other thing and I asked in a different thread is where can I find a wiring diagram or what pin outs are for the headlight harness so I can find out which wire is for the running/parking light? Pics to follow.

 

[OC455]

I"m hoping this is the correct connector/wiring pin out:

Mopar Connection Repair Kit

connectorrepairkit.mopar.com

Removal Tools​

A specific removal tool has not been identified.

Pin Information​

Cav	Circuit	Gauge	Color	Function
1	L43	0.75	WH/DB	LEFT LOW BEAM DRIVER
2	Z907	0.75	BK	GROUND
3	L33	0.75	WH/GN	LEFT HIGH BEAM DRIVER
4	Z907	0.75	BK	GROUND
5	L61	0.75	WH/GN	LEFT FRONT TURN LAMP DRIVER
6	L551	0.35	BG/BN	LEFT FRONT LIGHTING FAULT SENSE
7	L77	0.75	WH/BN	LEFT FRONT PARK LAMP DRIVER
8	L145	0.75	WH/OG	LEFT SIDE MARKER CONTROL
9	Z907	0.75	BK	GROUND
10	D503	0.35	WH/OG	LIN LIGHTING
11	N0	0	NA	NO CONNECT
12	N0	0	NA	NO CONNECT
13	F927	0.35	PK/YE	RUN RELAY OUTPUT
14	Z907	0.75	BK	GROUND
15	D404	0.35	WH/BN	LIN BUS
16	L117	0.75	BG/DB	LEFT FRONT PARK LAMP DRIVER

End View​

 

[OC455]

Ok,
Just doing my due diligence here and decided to check and see what else I would need to get this install done.

Reading the info for the harness for the pod lights, it has a wire for the back light for the pods and says it needs to be an ignition switched fuse. A fuse tap is included for this. Checking the fuse box lay out, it looks like F90/91 IGN/ BATT should be used. (20a fuse).

There is a wire that they recommend using with a T tap into the positive side of the parking light or low beam headlight circuit as an intensity dimmer for the backlight for the pods I planned on using the plug and play harness I have to accomplish this, until I saw that there is a fuse for ID/Clearance Lights F79 (15a fuse). I'm thinking about just getting another fuse tap and use the F79 fuse as the trigger for the intensity dimmer for the backlight feature.

Anyone with more knowledge than me with auto electrical, please let me know if I am on the right track or need to do something different.

Here is a couple of pics for the black nylon bushings I am going to use to mount the pods to the bar with supplied hardware. I think I will just use the bushings from underneath and skip using the washer because the flange on the bushing is rather thick.







Just have to get rid of some of the length off the center part that goes through the hole.

I also git the ditch lights and brackets in. Will get them mounted shortly. I did get the heavy duty Diode Dynamics extension harness to run up to the ditch lights. But the actual Deutch connectors (4pin) are too big. Almost oversized and won't work with the Morimoto pod lights or the harness. Have to order the other ones. Hopefully these will be okay.

 

[OC455]

Guess I need to find another source instead of F90/91....not a good fuse for.powering the lights. Maybe there is a fuse spot not being used that has power with the ignition.

 

[OC455]

After thinking about everything I decided to take the truck and lights and wiring harness to JPJ Communications a local shop that wires up EMS/LE and municipal vehicles with lighting and coms equipment. They did a way better job wiring everything and keeping ti clean and neat under the hood.

The backlight feature works as it should, dims when the park/headlights come on, theyre' run into the factory upfitter switches.

I need to adjust them for the optimal lights output and pattern. I will get some good pictures of everything later....tonight is windy and rainy.

 

[OC455]

 

[OC455]

 

[OC455]

I adjusted the lights pods tonight. Might need to tweak them a bit to make sure. I went to an old air force ammo bunker area to get them set and then went to a dead end road to see if they are good to go. No worries there was no traffic there at night.

Pod lights only, no headlights or fog lights.

Low beam headlights. No fog lights.

High beam headlights. No fog lights.

Center spot lights only.

All pod lights on, no headlights or fog lights on. I tried the front combo lights and ditch lights on driving on one the back roads in the area and they are amazingly bright. Almost can't tell the high beams were on. Morimoto BigBanger pod lights are awesome.

 

[diymirage]

dang, impressive

when you say "center spots" are those the ones mounted on the hood?

im toying with the idea of putting some amber "snow lights" there on my truck, but im worried it may be too high for snow lights and still get too much reflection of the flakes

 

[OC455]

dang, impressive

when you say "center spots" are those the ones mounted on the hood?

im toying with the idea of putting some amber "snow lights" there on my truck, but im worried it may be too high for snow lights and still get too much reflection of the flakes

The center spots are on the light bar in front of the bumper (the two middle lights). The ones on the hood are the ditch lights which are amber combo lights.

If you are thinking about amber lights for snow, look at the 2Banger or 4Banger lights with the wide pattern.

 

[diymirage]

The center spots are on the light bar in front of the bumper (the two middle lights). The ones on the hood are the ditch lights which are amber combo lights.

If you are thinking about amber lights for snow, look at the 2Banger or 4Banger lights with the wide pattern.

Yeah, im thinking amber for snow, but mounted on the hood latch, like you have your ditch lights (they would need to be high enough to shine over the plow)

I just dont know if thats a good spot for them, because of the way snow reflects light