Bed Light Wiring Harness

[GlennWest]

Thanks.

[Nuke-E]

Thanks, Scrap! Are they actually using all 6 wires (left stop/turn, right stop/turn, reverse, tail/marker, ground, ???)?

 

Glenn, the plug shell and pins are different, so it won't be as simple as moving pins around, but it won't be too difficult to make up an adapter for you. I just might have to crawl under one of the other Kenworths that will be at the rally next month.

[Scrap]

They do use all 6. The last one is an aux circuit. A guy can plug his stuff into the bullet sticking out of the chassis harness at BOC and it comes out at the bullet in the taillight harness. T2's should direct plug into your harness though. Most of them used the grey 280 connector if I remember right.

[Nuke-E]

Excellent! Thanks a bunch!

[Radar274]

Dave are you any closer to finishing the harness?

[Nuke-E]

Yes! After a busy few weeks, I finally got the last few details taken care of this week. Over the next week or so, I'll be putting together an ordering tool on the website, where you'll be able to specify the number and type of certain lights (e.g. multiple stop/tail/turn lamps), and which light connector you want for those (either the standard 3-pin male connector, or the 3-pin female AMP connector used on some of the newer LED lights).

[Radar274]

Great! Temporarily hooked the lights up for DMV inspection and a trip out east. The trip proved the head light upgrade is a must as well. Could not see 30' in front of the vehicle without the bright lights on.

[Jack Mayer]

Great! Temporarily hooked the lights up for DMV inspection and a trip out east. The trip proved the head light upgrade is a must as well. Could not see 30' in front of the vehicle without the bright lights on.

Believe me, you will want the headlight upgrade. It is "night and day" difference, so to speak....I also replaced my housings.....a good way to go if they are at all old. Makes the truck look SO MUCH better. Polishing is only a temporary solution, no matter what you do. Nothing like an all new lens.

[Radar274]

You Guy's said that the lights were bad... that was an understatement!!! We traveled 600 miles (daylight), what a treat compared to the F350. After settling in for a few days we decided to go dinner in town with some friends. We picked them up knowing they wanted a ride in the truck, (it was Daylight). Finished dinner and proceeded home, it's now DARK IN THE COUNTRY, OUT EAST, NO SHOULDERS, NO WHITE LINES AND NO BLANKING LIGHTS! It Was Scary! Our truck is a 2012 there is no excuse for the lack of quality of the head lights in these Volvo's! It's Totally Dangerous!

 

Where do you get the Housing at a reasonable price. Or is $400 the price?

[Nigel]

Where do you get the Housing at a reasonable price. Or is $400 the price?

 

Aftermarket is available for less than half of that price. Ask David (Nuke-E) he knows which brands are the best for the money.

 

Nigel

[Radar274]

Thanks Nigel

[Jack Mayer]

 

Aftermarket is available for less than half of that price. Ask David (Nuke-E) he knows which brands are the best for the money.

 

Nigel

David put together his lights with a new housing for me. Turnkey. The housing I have is aftermarket but looks to be high quality. It sure fits like the OEM. Makes the truck look WAY better than it did.

[Radar274]

Thanks Jack

I am all about Turnkey, spent to much time looking for lights for bed build.

Bob

[JC and Angie]

Believe me, you will want the headlight upgrade. It is "night and day" difference, so to speak....I also replaced my housings.....a good way to go if they are at all old. Makes the truck look SO MUCH better. Polishing is only a temporary solution, no matter what you do. Nothing like an all new lens.

Ok I'm confused. Why would you say polishing is only a temp solution, As opposed to buying a new one. Wouldn't both be temporary solutions as they are both going to be subjected to road grit and grim and tetereriate at the same rate over time???

 

If your willing and able to polish the lens would you not seat at the same place as a new lens. But save the cost????.

[Jack Mayer]

Ok I'm confused. Why would you say polishing is only a temp solution, As opposed to buying a new one. Wouldn't both be temporary solutions as they are both going to be subjected to road grit and grim and tetereriate at the same rate over time???

 

If your willing and able to polish the lens would you not seat at the same place as a new lens. But save the cost????.

I polished my lenses several times. All with the 3M kit, which people claim is the best. They always looked great after the polish.....but very quickly yellowed again. The last time I did it on my '99 with original lenses I took it down pretty far, polished it and then cleared it. They lasted a little longer with the clear on it. But still did not look as good as replacement lenses.

 

On this truck the lenses were polished by Gregg before purchase - as yours likely were. They were not "bad", but were starting to haze after 2 years. I made the decision to replace them for the new owner while I was upgrading the bulbs, since someone will buy this truck (eventually). Hopefully they last longer than just a polishing. But perhaps a polish with the clear lasts as long as new lenses.....I don't know, but my experience with the '99 tells me it does not.

[Mark and Dale Bruss]

When the lens are first manufactured, there is a coating that hardens the surface. Over time that surface get eroded.

 

Polishing restores the surface to a smooth finish but none of the "coatings" supplied with the polishing kits are equal to the original factory coating. Hence polished lens have a shorter life than new lens.

[Jack Mayer]

When the lens are first manufactured, there is a coating that hardens the surface. Over time that surface get eroded.

 

Polishing restores the surface to a smooth finish but none of the "coatings" supplied with the polishing kits are equal to the original factory coating. Hence polished lens have a shorter life than new lens.

....and hence why I replaced my lenses. I found even the clear coated ones did not perform like I expected.

[Nuke-E]

An update here is long overdue--I've been going in a bunch of different directions, and have finally gotten this moving along. I think it's actually going to turn out to be a lot nicer than I originally expected.

 

• Made in USA. Assembly, and all of the wire, connectors, seals, terminals, sleeving, etc.
• All connectors, seals, terminals, and TPA are Delphi Metri-Pack.
• Wire is cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) TXL wire, run in braided expandable sleeving. This keeps the outer diameter relatively small, and makes it easier to feed the harness where it needs to go.
• Wires color-coded by function.
• Every connector will have a color-coded tag, that will say what it is on one side, and where it goes on the other. If it's a connector that goes to a light, it will have a colored background to show whether the light needs to be red, amber, or white.
• Stop/Tail/Turn and Reverse light connectors will be set up for Truck Lite's Fit-n-Forget or Maxxima's Dri-Fit connectors, with adapters available for redundant lights or PL-3 connectors (the 3-prong male plug most of us have now).
• There will be a harness section that's a straight "extension" that will be made in custom lengths. Over time, I expect we'll find that there are maybe 3 or 4 lengths that effectively take care of everyone.
• No splices anywhere on the harness. All junctions will be at terminals.
• Intermediate side marker lights will be connected via an optional add-on harness that will plug in between the factory harness and the extension harness. Intermediate side marker lights are required once the truck hits 30' in length, but are a good idea even if shorter.

I've been asked about a complete kit with all of the lights included as well. I didn't really come up with a good solution in terms of pricing--I couldn't get to where I could buy the stuff cheap enough to make it worthwhile stocking and including it. But I have another solution that should work nearly as well. I've tested generating links to add items to an Amazon shopping cart. When it's live, I'll have a button that will take you to an Amazon page with a list of the items and quantities, and ask you to confirm putting them in the cart. This also allows me to put together a few different configurations (e.g. round vs. oval lights), and you can add more or delete stuff you already have.

 

The main harness kit is going to be $250, with the intermediate side marker harness $50. There are about 200 parts on these harnesses not counting pieces of wire, sheathing or labels, so I'm probably forgetting a few things I wanted to say here, but if you have a question or see something you do/don't like, send me a PM or e-mail. I should have the first few harnesses ready by the end of next week to send out to a few guinea pigs.

 

I also saw a post I missed where Bob asked about replacement housings. What went on Jack's truck--and what I've been happiest with--are Depo housings, and I've been very satisfied with Advantage Truck Parts. There are a lot of lousy, cheap lights out there, and everyone seems to use the Volvo part numbers and imply they've got the real deal (often showing pictures of the real deal too).

[Jack Mayer]

Since David mentioned my truck (above) let me comment on the light and housing - complete with a new lens - that went on my truck.

 

It is a high quality lens/housing that looks BETTER IMO than the original Volvo part. It work spectacularly well. If you purchase the completely integrated housing/lens/bulb from David then it is a snap to put in. David slipped both new housings into my truck while Robert and I were chatting inside the coach - in about 20 minutes - we did not even know he was doing it. (So we could not "help".)

 

Adjustment of the beam is very simple, too.

 

I highly recommend that the entire housing and lens be replaced if doing the lighting package. You will be glad you did that later. Polishing works to various degrees, but it is not a very satisfactory long-term solution.

[jkennell]

And as somebody who builds wiring harnesses for Ag....$250 is dirt cheap!

 

I do have one "concern"...your comment about 'no splices..all junctions done at the terminals'. You don't mean running 2 wires thru the seals on the plugs do you?? BAD juju! Or are you using a MtPack 280 "splice pack" with the shorting bar and cap, or similar?

 

From what I've seen of your work, I can't imagine the former....just making sure.

[Nuke-E]

Jeff,

 

It's somewhere in between those two. There are 2 wires coming through a single seal, but it's a custom seal with 2 holes in it, that seals just as well as a normal 1-wire seal. They should be ready by Wednesday or Thursday.

 

David