Article by: RobRed
Applicable Models: 1998-2007 Land Cruiser or LX 470
Tools Needed: Interior Trim Removal tools, Philips screwdriver, drill, drill bit sized for rocker switch, painters tape, Rotozip or other hole saw sized for recessed lamps, wire fish (I use a 3′ long zip tie), wire stripper, terminal crimper, 1/2″ drive and 14mm socket (to remove LH Shoulder belt anchors), Soldering Iron, 3M Super33+
Related Discussion Thread: http://forum.tlcfaq.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=139
Concept: Have you ever opened up the rear hatch of your Land Cruiser at night and not been able to see a thing? Sure you upgraded the rear dome light to a mega LED bulb but that’s still not cutting it at the tail gate. Maybe you like to camp and use your tailgate for food prep? You’ve probably installed a drawer system… wouldn’t it be nice to see what’s actually in those drawers. Lets fix this problem by installing some nice surface or flush mount LED lights to our hatch so when it’s open it, it illuminates the back area and tail gate of our cruiser.
Back in 2009 I read a build thread on Expedition Portal by 02TahoeMD that showed this mod and more recently on iH8mud some members did a similar mod installing some OEM dome lights or flush mount LEDs. In each of these threads the common theme has been two lights with a manual on/off switch. Simple and effective, just not convenient. I want lights that will come on and shut off automatically when I open or close the hatch. Who wants to worry about shutting them off when the hatch closes? I dont want to worry about them being turned on accidentally either. I want “factory” like operation. So in my setup the hatch lights come on when the hatch is opened and shut off when the hatch is closed. The selector switch can override the “on” behavior by selecting the middle “off” position. I should note that when wired “factory” like, the hatch lights will come on if a rear door is opened. Also the 30 minute timeout of the other courtesy/dome lights does not effect the new hatch lights – no timeout function.
For my installation (2000 Land Cruiser) I choose a recessed mount lamp with red and white LED bulbs. These lamps have 12 white and 9 red LED’s each giving the flexibility of bright white light or “tactical” red illumination. The lamps have a single ground and two positive leads (triggers), one for each color bulb. I also picked up a generic 3 position rocker switch (on-off-on) to control which color LEDs light up. Other types of lamps (Whelen red/white for example) have a single positive connector and two grounds (triggers) for each color diode in the lamps. I have included two additional diagrams at the bootom of the page for “positive trigger no-relay” and “ground trigger ” installations.
