Welcome to the first entry in August’s Medium Mod Contest. One Medium Mod will be published in every Email Alert in August. At the end of the month, we’ll hold a reader vote to determine August’s winner. Click here for information about the 2023 Mod Contest, including how to enter.
Frank Tuttle, Kinderhook, New York
Bright LED Trailer Lights To Improve Safety
2023 Toyota Tacoma
2017 Four Wheel Camper Swift
This modification was made after driving in a blinding snowstorm in eastern Colorado out of concern that the OEM tail lights were not bright enough to warn following vehicles. A serendipitous benefit is that I have found the brighter backup lights are much better when backing into a campsite at night.
To improve the visibility of my rig, I purchased and installed bright trailer lights on the back of my camper. I wanted rear trailer lights that plugged into the trailer light outlet on the back of my truck. The wiring is protected with plastic slip-on sheathing and routed in rubber-covered clips screwed to the camper using existing cladding screws.
The light units are secured to 4-inch pieces of 1/8-inch flat aluminum bar stock. The bar stock is drilled with two holes for the light unit’s bolts and two holes for 1/2-inch 1/4×24 stainless steel bolts. That assembly mates to two threaded holes drilled into the aluminum jack brackets on the camper. Nuts could be used instead of threading. Everything can be easily removed leaving only the two small threaded holes in each jack bracket.
For this mod, I used an LED trailer light kit from Walmart (you can also get it on Amazon; Blazer, C7425), a wiring protection sheaf from NAPA, rubber-sheathed cable clips from a local hardware store, and 2-inch bar stock from Lowes.
This modification took me 1.5 hours to complete and cost me $50. In my opinion, the skill level of this modification is medium.
Disclaimer: The modifications above are submitted by Truck Camper Magazine readers. It is your responsibility to make sure that any do-it-yourself modification project you undertake is safe, effective, and legal for your situation.
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If you’d like to enter a modification you’ve done on your truck camper, click here. You can enter as many mods as you want, at any time. Good luck mod makers!
