I used some waterproof white LED strips and mounted them under the bed rails. I ran 12v power from the battery and control the lights with a tilt switch in the tailgate.
Here's a short video of the mercury tilt switch...
Here's a picture of the mercury tilt switch installed inside the tailgate near the handle. It's just spliced into the positive wire that feeds the LED's.
The LED's come on when the switch is level (i.e. tailgate open) and turn off when the tailgate is closed.
A hood pin type contact switch could also be used instead of a mercury switch. I prefer the tilt switch since it's hidden and it doesn't require any drilling to mount it, since it held in place with some double sided tape.
That's awesome! Is there a way to power the lights without running the power to the car battery? Like a battery/power source in the bed, activated by a switch? I'm not very electrical savy.
I used a white under body led kit, it was the cheapest way I found to do it, used a small toggle switch hidden under the bed rail to turn them on and off.
I ran a power wire to my bed and installed 2 18" led strips. one on the inside of the toolbox, and 1 on the bottom lip of the toolbox shining in the bed. Hooked up a normally closed momentary push button where when u open the toolbox, the lights come on, and close to turn them off. I also put a small toggle switch on the outside so I can turn them on without opening the box.
I used some waterproof white LED strips and mounted them under the bed rails. I ran 12v power from the battery and control the lights with a tilt switch in the tailgate...
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