Whilst the Perentie has lights on both sides of the vehicle (Scene Lights) and on the front, I wanted to fit one to the rear. This would help reversing and give us more light when camping.
I got an LED work light from Car Builder Solutions ages ago and a lovely aluminium bracket from Mill Spec in Holland. I did postpone fitting it when I decided to get the Alu Cab awning as I thought it might get in the way of the fixing brackets – I was right! So I got a standard aluminium bracket from e-bay – not cheap but nice quality.
I could just fit this bracket with room behind to bolt it up and without fouling the locks for the pop up roof. Stainless Steel fixings as usual and a good dollop of sikaflex to stop leaks!
Light bracket with a bit of swarf still present!
Talking of leaks I needed to get the cable through into the vehicle without the water, so I got a scan strut cable seal (DS-H6) from Mud Stuff, which promised not to let let water in!
This was, in reality a bit of a pain to fit. It has a back plate that needs to be attached to the vehicle; in exactly the right position. Then the cable has to be fed through the front casing which has the waterproofing grommet (select the right size for your wire), then though the back plate into the vehicle.
If you had been feeding a wire from the vehicle through to the outside this would have been easier. But because the cable was attached to the lamp, it had to be fed from the outside in……….through the outside casing, through the back plate into the vehicle; so you had to hold everything in the place at the same time and that was just to drill the holes in the right place for the holes to secure the back plate. If I had been an Octupus it would have been simple!
I didn’t want to oversize the hole into the vehicle to add conduit, so I made sure I filed the sides of the hole so that there were not sharp edges and added cloth insulation tape to avoid chaffing. A good dose of sikaflex will make it double waterproof and I will make sure the cable does not move once fitted in finally.
The e-bay bracket was good, so I have ordered another, so I can fit a light to the other side of the back door. One of these I will switch from the rear of the vehicle, so handy when you are putting up the awning or last thing at night, and the other from the front, so for reversing if you are driving – clever Huh!
For the other side I used a different type of Scan Strut cable seal, (DS-16) where the cable comes directly through a hole in the panel. Easier to fit and the seals are split, so if your wire has a connector on it, the connector does not have to be removed. I will use one of these for the CB Aerial along with my nice bracket from MillSpec.
All fitted and quite straightforward. I decided to hang the light down, so the beam would not be blocked by the back door when it was open; but I can change this if needed.
48 States of Gray 