interior dome light solution for dark soft tops - pics

[doccoch]

The interior of my Badlands is SO dark. I've come to the conclusion that those with soft tops just don't have good inside lighting. I thought about rigging up LED striping but this looks decent and is an easy fix.

Bought these cheap roll bar lights: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WFZ6DB4?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

and these higher quality 1" tube/rod boat clips: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G8437CQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details


Drilled out some extra holes in the back of the clips and then secured them flat to the back of the LED light via zip ties.

Then just snap it on to the soft top cross bars.

***EDIT: the crossbars are NOT perfectly cylindrical in cross section. They are oval. If you feel, they are kind of flattened (wider than they are tall). So you have to come at it from the side and push from the side and then turn in to place. Same when you take them off.

The soft top is attached to the bar permanently on the superior side (which is why me must use a C-type snap clamp and can't go completely circumferentially). You have 3 options where to put them. I chose all three: over the front seats, over the back seats, and over the trunk area. All are perfect. You can still operate the soft top lift fine. It does not interfere or come off.

These are pics with my garage completely dark (you can see I have a little dusk-dawn LED plugged into the back seat floorboard that gives off a blue ambient light at night to match the front footwell. Gonna paint it black cuz it bugs me:

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[Headsong]

Can you easily access the batteries?

 

[swami37]

Nice find. They look good

 

[2Jeeps&PatriotX1]

Assume you need to manually turn them on/off?

 

[UtahBrandon]

MIC top lighting really isn't any better.

 

[dcaero]

Pretty clever, well done!

 

[Ksjrb03]

MIC top lighting really isn't any better.

Beat me to it. All broncos are a dark cave regardless of top.

I’ve rigged up a couple different options for interior lighting around the roll bars and it works great. Unfortunately the dome lights are PWM and cannot be tapped to work from. Attention lighting vendors, million $ opportunity.

This is some cheap LED tape lights. My second product worked even better but I didn’t get a pic.

 

[UtahBrandon]

Beat me to it. All broncos are a dark cave regardless of top.

I’ve rigged up a couple different options for interior lighting around the roll bars and it works great. Unfortunately the dome lights are PWM and cannot be tapped to work from. Attention lighting vendors, million $ opportunity.

This is some cheap LED tape lights. My second product worked even better but I didn’t get a pic.

That is sick pimpin!

 

[Headsong]

PWM?

 

[Ksjrb03]

PWM?

Pulse Width Modulation. Layman’s terms they don’t work on a regular 12v circuit.

 

[doccoch]

Can you easily access the batteries?

Yes. From side without removing unit from bar. 3 AAA

 

[doccoch]

Assume you need to manually turn them on/off?

Yes, just reach overhead

 

[Ares]

Beat me to it. All broncos are a dark cave regardless of top.

I’ve rigged up a couple different options for interior lighting around the roll bars and it works great. Unfortunately the dome lights are PWM and cannot be tapped to work from. Attention lighting vendors, million $ opportunity.

This is some cheap LED tape lights. My second product worked even better but I didn’t get a pic.

you could still trigger them off a relay though, or is that what you did?

 

[doccoch]

Beat me to it. All broncos are a dark cave regardless of top.

I’ve rigged up a couple different options for interior lighting around the roll bars and it works great. Unfortunately the dome lights are PWM and cannot be tapped to work from. Attention lighting vendors, million $ opportunity.

This is some cheap LED tape lights. My second product worked even better but I didn’t get a pic.

When I get my aftermarket hardtop sometime around 2032, I’m def doing something like this.

 

[Ksjrb03]

you could still trigger them off a relay though, or is that what you did?

Nope. The “trigger” wire in the dome light is a PWM signal which is a constant 11v. It will force the relay to always on.

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