SSVi
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Damon
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2018
- Threads
- 14
- Messages
- 124
- Reaction score
- 270
- Location
- Idaho Falls
- Vehicle(s)
- 2021 392XR
- Occupation
- Extreme metal drummer/ large cat wrangler / gun modder
- Thread starter
- #1
Ok like many of you, I haven't been a fan of how dim the dome lighting system is, even in the 2019 model. I came across a pair of low power rock lights by Rigid and hoped I could make an improvement without making a mess of things.
Taking down the dome light fixture in the JL really isn't tough, there's three screws to deal with in the front and other than that its all clips. Now if you’re anything like me, you make sure to break at least one thing whenever you try to improve something else, in this case one of the two clips holding the actual dome light itself snapped when pulling everything down, so be careful. I knew exactly where I wanted to mount the lights, but as I pulled the molding down I realized it was about to become a pain. The plastic is closed off where I wanted to mount the lights, angled slightly forward, so I took my Dremel and a cutting wheel (after marking and drilling the mounting holes and cut a square out of the back, luckily its nowhere that can be seen when its all back together. Threading the nuts onto the screws was tough at first until I realized if I just use one finger and hold the locknut in place over the hole I could at least get the screws started, and then switch to the 11mm wrench to tighten it down.
I couldn't come across a good wiring diagram, my options were black (neg), yellow/blue or yellow/purple. Yellow/blue being the incorrect one, I of course tapped into that one first, and found it to be an always on switch, so I carefully pulled the tap back out, taped and sealed that wire up and tapped into the yellow/purple wire (also a smaller wire of the two options.) The Rigid lights operate just like factory, fade on with unlock, and slowly fade off when the doors shut. Its broad daylight right now but the difference is pretty significant, I’ll post a couple pics tonight for comparison.
Overall it was a very simple install, cutting the access holes and threading the nuts were the toughest part of all of it. If I had known the tricks earlier (and which wire to tap) this could have easily been an hour job.
Taking down the dome light fixture in the JL really isn't tough, there's three screws to deal with in the front and other than that its all clips. Now if you’re anything like me, you make sure to break at least one thing whenever you try to improve something else, in this case one of the two clips holding the actual dome light itself snapped when pulling everything down, so be careful. I knew exactly where I wanted to mount the lights, but as I pulled the molding down I realized it was about to become a pain. The plastic is closed off where I wanted to mount the lights, angled slightly forward, so I took my Dremel and a cutting wheel (after marking and drilling the mounting holes and cut a square out of the back, luckily its nowhere that can be seen when its all back together. Threading the nuts onto the screws was tough at first until I realized if I just use one finger and hold the locknut in place over the hole I could at least get the screws started, and then switch to the 11mm wrench to tighten it down.
I couldn't come across a good wiring diagram, my options were black (neg), yellow/blue or yellow/purple. Yellow/blue being the incorrect one, I of course tapped into that one first, and found it to be an always on switch, so I carefully pulled the tap back out, taped and sealed that wire up and tapped into the yellow/purple wire (also a smaller wire of the two options.) The Rigid lights operate just like factory, fade on with unlock, and slowly fade off when the doors shut. Its broad daylight right now but the difference is pretty significant, I’ll post a couple pics tonight for comparison.
Overall it was a very simple install, cutting the access holes and threading the nuts were the toughest part of all of it. If I had known the tricks earlier (and which wire to tap) this could have easily been an hour job.
Sponsored