Small LED Rock Lights/Door Puddle Lights:

[Best4x4]

When I had a Jeep everyone was rigging up halogen rock lights which always got damaged from mud/rocks/heat and to me it just seemed cheap. Then they all went LED crazy, but those were so bright you blinded anyone behind you basically because of the ground reflection. Well I'm still working on mounting some Rigid Dually's for aux backup lights, but today while I had a few minutes to actually tinker with my H3 I found an awesome spot to mount some 3/4 recessed White LED's up near the front tires completely out of harms way.

On each side directly behind each front wheel is a frame support with two small holes in it. The larger hole is centered and just needed to be drilled out to 3/4. The install looks so good it would pass for an OEM option lol. I'm debating on making them go off with the interior lights and use them as puddle lights or wiring them up as rock crawling lights.. This is just for the area just behind the front wheels. As you can see in the pic's I haven't ran the wiring, but by removing the inner liner that will be extremely easy. I am still looking for a good spot for the set to mount in front of the rear wheels. The LED's are completely sealed and waterproof so I'd expect them to last a very long time. Will report back with the finished wiring and night time shots.

 

[rsc]

I like your thinking

 

[Aggie H3T]

Great idea Best4x4!

 

[Bigunit]

^ x3!

 

[Best4x4]

Thanks guys :cheers: I wasn't able to get a pic in the dark (darn iPhone), but they do a great job of lighting up under the H3 in that spot I modified by just drilling it out to a 3/4 hole. I've seen some $$$ versions of these lights online, but they didn't mention how water proof they were. These are for marine use so I think I'm going to stick with them.

 

[Happy Hummer]

Nice feature when used as puddle light.
Chris

 

[citiboy]

awesome job as always!

 

[benlaud87]

I was just thinking about this yesterday, I think I'll check out west marine to see if they have any LEDs like that. Thanks for posting this up.

 

[3rdH3]

On Firetrucks we call those perimeter scene lights. Very handy.

 

[06 H3]

thats badass use em as rock lights!

I used cheap walmart lights as my rock lights but have broken a few of them. This seems like an option where did u get them?

 

[Best4x4]

I actually bought them at Wal-Mart around a year ago lol. Was going to put em on my LJ. I don't think they sell them anymore though. Academy should sell them or any boat store.

IMHO the light output is great. Of coarse more than two needs to be installed for full coverage, but I've found a few spots I am going to test out.

 

[06 H3]

Nice, yea walmart doesnt sell them anymore now they are huge LED ones. They wont fit under the rig...

I will check it out. I do a ton of night wheeling and the rock lights help a ton.

 

[digglesworth]

There's some guys in my local 4wd club that have been doing that. They've been using little strips. They work good but I'm sure they're installs aren't as clean.

 

[Best4x4]

Yeah I used to see that stuff all over/under Jeeps. Auto Zone crap lol, stuff just doesn't last.

 

[WillieMo]

nice mod....

 

[alrock]

Here's a good LED option: http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-x-3W-LED-...Parts_Accessories&hash=item1c3dfd1a25&vxp=mtr

 

[Best4x4]

Okay well I finally had time to finish my rock/puddle LED's and I am very happy with the results! They're not blinding or dim, but IMHO just right. That spot I found to mount two of them is extremely easy to wire up. Once the fender liner is removed you can route it with ease, and you have several routes you can take using OEM holes.

I was going to just do the two, but I found a perfect 3/4 hole on the furthest back crossmember. I routed the wires to that thru the frame and up to the grill area.

I'll post up some pics later.

 

[06 H3]

:corn: I cant wait to see it. This is write up my alley, I love night runs and the walmart rock lights are good but they are easily to crack.

 

[Best4x4]

Here are two shots of how you can route the wires, and thanks to GM/Hummer it's simple and clean with no cutting or drilling. The first pic is the rear of the fender and it places the wire completely in a perfect place as to not get pinched or cut routed down towards the LED. The second pic is how I routed it to get to my already existing aux wiring harness.

On my wife's H3 I'm going to install them as puddle lights and on the driver's side it will be very easy to run the wires inside to tap inline with the interior floor lights. When it gets dark I will post a pic of the light output at night.

 

[Peep]

Wow you have a Anaconda living in your Hummer.

 

[Best4x4]

Tried taking several pics, but they don't show up worth a darn via my iPhone lol.

 

[Best4x4]

Finally got some decent pics of the Rock/Puddle Lights

 

[benlaud87]

Nice, how many total did you end up using? I'm sure that will come in handy.

 

[Best4x4]

I just used 3 total. One behind each front tire, and one center mounted on the last transfer case crossmember.

 

[Happy Hummer]

Yes nice.
Chris