How to install off road or auxiliary lights on your vehicle. This will be based on a kit from Auxbeam, the link to the lights and mount will be included in the video description. This kit includes the lights, along with the wiring which will be slightly modified for a clean install on the vehicle. Beyond the lights, Auxbeam also sent me out a mount which doesn’t require much modification to install the lights. This mount fastens behind the license plate and can be fitted to any vehicle. For this I am using the 2001 Toyota Tacoma.
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Tools/Supplies Needed:
-off-road lights
-light mount
-pre-made wiring kit with a relay and switch
-ratchet and socket set
-heat gun
-heat shrink
-wire cutters
-wire strippers
-drill and drill bits
-tap set
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:27 Light Mount Bracket
02:12 Relay Installation
04:15 Routing Wires Through Firewall
05:57 Installing the Interior Switch
07:10 Light Mount Bracing Behind Bumper
10:16 Running the Wiring
10:54 Cutting the Wiring to Size
11:46 Installing Connectors
13:35 Modifying the Light Bracket
14:51 Finalizing Interior Switch Wiring
15:50 Connecting and Installing the Lights
17:07 Auxbeam Switch Install
17:37 All Done
Procedure:
As for a mount, it’s a universal bracket which can be installed on most vehicles. It’s all aluminum so there’s not need to worry about rusting, has a black stain powder coated finish, is very rigid, and extremely light. First is removing the license plate to determine where exactly this will mount.
Determine the best area to install the relay without extending the power wire and keeping it protected from any road debris, between the battery and inner fender seems like a good area. Determine roughly where the relay will be mounted, it has a tang at the top to be mounted on a fastener. There are some factory holes, but nothing which I found was a good location.
I’ll be using a nutcert, this is very similar to a rivet. The tool expands this in the hole like a rivet, but has a fixed threaded insert for mounting. Drill the hole to the appropriate size. I would highly recommend using step drill as it’ll leave a clean hole in sheet metal. Then install the nutcert using the specialty tool.
The relay is required to have a positive and negative wire hooked up. The positive wire will be done after, this had the red insulation. The black is the ground wire and this can be connected to a factory ground location. The eye crimp terminals going to a bolt on the main body is a common ground, this can be used for the relay. Simple remove the bolt, add in the ground eye from the relay, reinstall the bolt and tighten.
The wiring already has a protective casing, so there’s no need to add your own. If you are adding your own, I would recommend using split loop casing instead. Looking under the dashboard and along the firewall on the driver’s side, I managed to find an unused grommet to run the wiring. Other options are drilling a hole, then adding your own grommet or trying to run the wiring through a factory wiring grommet. I was able to remove the grommet from the engine side.
The grommet doesn’t have a hole, you can purchase versions which are intended for wiring but instead I’m making my hole. Here I have a special punch for making holes, these are typically used for making bolt holes in gaskets. I’m making the hole off to one side so it doesn’t distort the grommet too much. Then using a razor knife, cut a slit in the grommet. The wire connector can’t fit through the hole, however with the slot the grommet can then be installed.
The factory holes for the license plate in the plastic is stripped which won’t provide a strong base and the plastic had some flex which may make the lights vibrate. With any plastic bumper, I would highly recommend a backer with threaded holes for rigidity. I picked up some 1/2” x 3/4” aluminum bar, it’ll fit perfect in behind the thin plastic lower lip. The bar will be cut to the same width as the mount. It’ll have four threaded holes, two for the outer holes and another two to mount the license plate.
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