Materials
- Drill (if you have light tabs on your bumper or roof-rack you won’t need this or the drill bits)
- 10mm Drill bit
- Starter drill bits
- Wire crimper
- Wire stripper
- Voltmeter (optional but recommended)
- Wire ties
- Assorted combination wrenches and sockets
Installation
The biggest problem with the installtion was with the Painless Wiring harness. While the wire itself was nice, the ends provided left something to be desired and in some cases were the wrong sizes and type to complete the installation. You can simply drive over to the local marine store, West Marine, and bought quality zinc plated copper connectors and quality wire. You can use Ancor wiring products because they are of the highest quality and have a tremendous resistance to rusting.
The lights themselves can be mounted on the stock bumper in my case but it is suggested that location especially if you want the largest size. You may simply measure the distance from the mounting stud on the light to the backmost fitting and moved forward from the grill that far on the bumper. Then measure the proper distance from center, which was 10", and drilled the holes. The mounts fit with just one bolt and nut so that is easy.
You may then lay out the Painless harness for a test fit, decided which connectors would be crimped where and mounted the relay. The relay is mounted right next to the battery. This kept the runs as short as possible. The wires for the switch were routed along the right fender, across the firewall, and then through a very convenient hole that exists just behind the brake pedal. This hole was pre-existing and will serve to bring in future wiring. The hole is exactly 1" in diameter and I suggest you use a rubber grommet to keep from chafing the wires. The switch itself was mounted under the steering wheel and to the left. It's quite easy to reach from that location. You may make a significant change from normal wiring. You can chose to run my own switch wiring instead of that provided by Painless because you may want power to yourlights even with the truck turned off. The wiring in the harness is too short to run all the way back to the battery.
Once this had all been dry-fitted, You may set about stripping and crimping the wires right in the parking lot of the marine store! everything go together pretty easy. You may leave enough of the wire that goes to the lights so that you could relocate them to the roof if you want to. Knowing what you do now, You wouldn't, but it was the choice you made at the time. In retrospect, this would be the only thing I would change about the install if you did it over again.
Testing
The night after installing the lights, you may take them for a test drive on a local dark road. You might be floored. You have NEVER seen lights so bright. The Hella HID lights MAY be as bright, or maybe a little brighter, but you'd need them next to me for an A/B comparison. In any event, the Hellas are about $700 each and these are $125 each. You will be able to test them in the forest against the IPF 90/145 E-Code bulbs. The consensus was that they seem to be about twice as bright as those. They will be tested again on the weekend of April 20th in the Osceola Forest in North Florida.