12V To Tailgate, Best Route?

[Philip Male]

I want to put a light in the inside of the tailgate near the latch to light the boot and ground with the boot open, despite 2 LED panels inside the boot it's not enough to do what I want.

I've not found an easy way to get cables up there, wiggling round the screen, to the rubber boots.

Any one found a way??

Cheers.

[SeanW]

I've run a dashcam wire from the rear screen itself.

It is possible to wiggle a thick cable tie through the rubber trunking and route it around the plastic trim panels.

Routing the cable up the rear pillars from the existing light socket shouldn't be too difficult.

If you don't mind me asking, where abouts are your LED panels located?

I have 2 - one on each side and it lights the boot up like daylight

[Dee_82]

yeah, if your wanting lights in the actual boot hatch then your going to need wires going through the rubber thing. I used two red 48 SMD panels on either side of the boot and it lights it up nicely, granted white would have been brighter but not half as nice looking :)

I found the best way to get a wire through that rubber thing is to remove the rubber bung from the hatch and the car, then squash it together making the shortest possible distance between the two holes, then take a metal coat hanger (make sure its not got a sharp end) and poke it through from the hatch side towards the car body, attach your wire to this and then fish it through

then route the cable down the side in to the back and then do what ever it is you have planned with the lights. note that you will need to take both 12v and the ground from your existing boot lights or it wont work, you cant use a local earth.

in saying all that, might be worth taking a meter to the boot lock, there is about 6 wires on there, you might find an appropriate source there, id be cautious messing about with the lock, ive heard quite a few folk have issues with it and I don't think id want to tempt it unless I knew it was definitely not going to create more issues!

[madmole]

I run 2 rear view camera wires around the tailgate, under the trim and through the 2 rubber tubes (tons of room in them, I just pushed wire through), then under the roof lining to the front of car, you could just go down side to the rear fuse panel

[STEADS]

I've run my reverse camera through the trunking (with the help of a steel coat hanger) then along the side under the head liner down the a pillar cover to the sat Nav hardest part is getting it through the rubber even with the wire taped to the straightened out coat hanger can be fiddly once through just drop the door seals a bit and tuck it inside the headliner then push seals back neat job .

[Stoney871]

The best thing for running wiring through tight bends and trunking is a set of wiring rods.

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=271394876175&alt=web

[Philip Male]

Thanks guys.

the boot LEDs are in the normal place, i copied the location for the left side and the boots nice and bright.

but i also do rc flying and sometimes a bit of night flying. seeing whats in the boot is fine but i also need to see the thing at the back of the car or if i'm holding it plugging it in, hence i need a light up high.

i've got a switch already which i'll use to turn it on and off but it's supply will come from the existing boot lights so it can only be on if the boots open.

i've got a day running light as my low profile strip.

i could of used more boot style holders and gone flush but i need more light than that.

[troy45]

As the above posts, best way would be to route the cable through the umbilical joint between the tailgate and body of the car - my reverse camera is wired through this and in my case there was loads of room to get the cables through without needing a coat hanger or similar.

The feeds for tailgate latch motor and tailgate switch all go through the passenger junction box and are switched to earth via tailgate so there's no steady supply available there.

But if you wanted to pick up on a supply already in the tailgate the only one I can think of would be the number plate lamps - these are fed via the headlamp switch so you would need the side-lights on as a minimum.