Tailgate Brawlee LED light

[SeanD]

Just installed mine, love this thing. SO BRIGHT. Little suggestion to everyone wiring this, you can actually very easily route the wire into the hardtop where the wiper tube goes into and fish it out where the other disconnects come out, makes for a much cleaner install without the clips and wire showing at all on the window or on the inside of the hard top. Decided to put my switch in a slightly different location than the OP so it doesn't get bumped by cargo since my switch didn't have a cover.

Nice install. Really like your choice of switch and location. I may have to rethink my traditional install!

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[paulr]

Nice install. Really like your choice of switch and location. I may have to rethink my traditional install!

thanks! very happy with it so far!

the ONLY thing I wish is that Brawlee would release a version of this light that matches the LED color temperature of our existing LED interior lights (they are about 4000k) since their light is so blue it doesn't match as nicely as it could... oh an fix the curvature of the light so it can be installed the "backwards" way to conceal the wires!

 

[SeanD]

thanks! very happy with it so far!

the ONLY thing I wish is that Brawlee would release a version of this light that matches the LED color temperature of our existing LED interior lights (they are about 4000k) since their light is so blue it doesn't match as nicely as it could... oh an fix the curvature of the light so it can be installed the "backwards" way to conceal the wires!

Agree! I would think they could tweak the curvature design to allow it to be reversed more easily. Or since most of us seem to prefer the reversed mounting, they should just change it to make that the standard.

 

[paulr]

Agree! I would think they could tweak the curvature design to allow it to be reversed more easily. Or since most of us seem to prefer the reversed mounting, they should just change it to make that the standard.

I decided to email them and point them to this thread and just got this reply:

Thanks for the information. We actually have a light for the JL that will install with the cord on the drivers side. We just finished it this weekend. Should have it for sale on our website next week and on Amazon in a couple of weeks. So many people try to install it backwards that we felt it best to make a stand alone light for the JL only.

It seems like you should be able to flip it but it is bent in one direction only which when flipped is up.The biggest difference is that it is much more work to get to the dome light wiring on the drivers side. Not harder, just more involved.

As for the lower temperature lights, since it will be a model only for the JL it is possible sometime in the future. I'll check out the thread. We are always looking to make the light better.

 

[SeanD]

I decided to email them and point them to this thread and just got this reply:

Thanks for the information. We actually have a light for the JL that will install with the cord on the drivers side. We just finished it this weekend. Should have it for sale on our website next week and on Amazon in a couple of weeks. So many people try to install it backwards that we felt it best to make a stand alone light for the JL only.

It seems like you should be able to flip it but it is bent in one direction only which when flipped is up.The biggest difference is that it is much more work to get to the dome light wiring on the drivers side. Not harder, just more involved.

As for the lower temperature lights, since it will be a model only for the JL it is possible sometime in the future. I'll check out the thread. We are always looking to make the light better.

Funny, as I was thinking of doing the same! Good to hear! Of course, now I wish I’d waited to buy mine.

 

[SeanD]

I’ve installed this light following the instructions to tie it into the dome light wiring in the passenger side. While I originally wanted to reverse it like many here, the curvature of the light just wouldn’t allow me to get a clean fitment even with more 3M tape. So I went the traditional route.

The problem I have is I can’t get enough access to the dome light wiring on the passenger rollbar to hardwire it. I can pop off the plastic covers around the seatbelt and taillight access portal, and can pop the retaining clips on the plastic housing around the rollbar, but can’t pry it open enough to get my hands in there (although I can see the wires). It feels like I will break it if I pry too hard. It seems this is because the Alpine subwoofer enclosure is much bigger than the standard housing which I believe is pictured in the Brawlee light instructions. I thought I might be able to pull the sub cover off and find a way to give the housing more flex, but that didn’t work either. Anyone else run into this situation and if so how did you deal with it? I’ll be sending an email to them, but thought I’d also check this thread. Thanks!

I emailed them (Donerightled.com customer service) yesterday and Brad responded right away. He couldn’t help with my subwoofer question as they didn’t do the original instructions on a JL that had the sub. However, he also confirmed the new JL model with the wiring reversed will be ready in the next week as @paulr discovered yesterday. Since he couldn’t help me with my install question and he knew I originally wanted to install it reversed, he’s sending me one of the new lights when they are ready. How’s that for great customer service?! Also love that they are listening to customers on design.

 

[Jeepmarkjl]

Nice clean install with switch tapped into 12v outlet. Installed in the reverse with "old" version. No issue with curve. Put extra 3m VHB on both sides. Really bright. I turned my Dealer Service Mgr on to it so he installed mine too with same tech for his Jeep as well.

 

[HotKarlTheJL]

Also just installed it with it rotated to fix the curve issue. Added a few pieces of double sided 3M and it hasn't budged. I also put the button on the tail light access door so that if I removed the light, I could replace the piece easily and not have a huge hole in the larger plastic pieces. It's wired into the 12v outlet below.

 

[SeanD]

Also just installed it with it rotated to fix the curve issue. Added a few pieces of double sided 3M and it hasn't budged. I also put the button on the tail light access door so that if I removed the light, I could replace the piece easily and not have a huge hole in the larger plastic pieces. It's wired into the 12v outlet below.

Smart switch location. Can you share what switch you used?

 

[HotKarlTheJL]

Smart switch location. Can you share what switch you used?

Here is the link to the switch: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KA4FM4Y

I had to use a step bit to drill out some of the support stuff on the back side, but no big deal. The hardest part was soldering on the wires on the back side.... tiny little terminals.

 

[Bearman95]

I’ve installed this light following the instructions to tie it into the dome light wiring in the passenger side. While I originally wanted to reverse it like many here, the curvature of the light just wouldn’t allow me to get a clean fitment even with more 3M tape. So I went the traditional route.

The problem I have is I can’t get enough access to the dome light wiring on the passenger rollbar to hardwire it. I can pop off the plastic covers around the seatbelt and taillight access portal, and can pop the retaining clips on the plastic housing around the rollbar, but can’t pry it open enough to get my hands in there (although I can see the wires). It feels like I will break it if I pry too hard. It seems this is because the Alpine subwoofer enclosure is much bigger than the standard housing which I believe is pictured in the Brawlee light instructions. I thought I might be able to pull the sub cover off and find a way to give the housing more flex, but that didn’t work either. Anyone else run into this situation and if so how did you deal with it? I’ll be sending an email to them, but thought I’d also check this thread. Thanks!

I think there’s a screw in the side cover that needs to come off to be able to pop all of that plastic off on the passenger side rear. I remember seeing one screw and one screw only on the sub cover. And I remember another thread on the site where someone took off all of the plastic part on the passenger side to run some type of wiring, he also was talking about taking that one screw on the sub cover out to do that , hope this helps you?

 

[SeanD]

I think there’s a screw in the side cover that needs to come off to be able to pop all of that plastic off on the passenger side rear. I remember seeing one screw and one screw only on the sub cover. And I remember another thread on the site where someone took off all of the plastic part on the passenger side to run some type of wiring, he also was talking about taking that one screw on the sub cover out to do that , hope this helps you?

Thanks. I’ll have to take a closer look this weekend. They are sending me the new version so I can do the install on the driver’s side with a switch, but would still be nice to know for those that have the old version and want to tie into the dome light wiring. I’ll post an update if I figure it out.

 

[SeanD]

Thanks. I’ll have to take a closer look this weekend. They are sending me the new version so I can do the install on the driver’s side with a switch, but would still be nice to know for those that have the old version and want to tie into the dome light wiring. I’ll post an update if I figure it out.

Quick update on this: a buddy of mine who has an ‘18 JLUR with the sub was able to confirm there is a single screw that holds the sub cover (partially hidden by the rear seat, so just need to lay the rear passenger side seat flat and then you can access the deep pocket where the screw is located). He said otherwise you just need to pull hard to release the clips and it comes apart. He installed his the traditional way tapped into the dome light wiring with no problems. See pics below...

 

[MoparTH]

Just installed my Brawlee LED light and did the wiring and switch a little different. I wanted choices on how the light was operated, so I found a cheap 3/4 hole mount double throw center off switch and wired position 1 to operated the light with the dome light, position 2 to manually turn the light on and center off to disable the light. Install went well and switch looks good, I did remove the Brawlee adhesive and added my own to the opposite side so the curvature would be right for the cable to be on the drivers side.

 

[LouNYC]

Are they offering the Brawlee for JL's yet?

I have the JK model installed with extra 3M double sided tape and it doesn't sit flat. I want to get the JL version.

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