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Technical > Installation Guide

March 2005 Issue

Project Maya Hunter, Part 3

Lighting The Way: Auxiliary lights, switches, and batteries add to Toyota Tacoma’s off-road prowess

story and photos by Bruce W. Smith

Editor’s note: This is the third of several installments on converting a stock 2005 Toyota Double Cab Tacoma 4x4 into a functional off-roading vehicle to tackle the harsh trail conditions it will encounter in the Guatemalan jungles. Toyota Motor Sales, USA generously donated this vehicle, along with Yamaha International’s donation of a Rhino vehicle, to help the Vanderbilt University archeologists further their studies of Mayan ruins in support of science and education of ancient cultures. Many aftermarket accessory manufacturers, who will be featured in upcoming installments, also contributed greatly to the success of this worthwhile project.

Nothing steadies a driver’s nerves at night more than good lights. This is especially true when running backroads or, in the case of our Maya Hunter Toyota Tacoma, navigating a dark, narrow jungle trail.

The 2005 Toyota Tacoma Double Cab 4x4’s factory headlights are terrific for everyday driving on narrow roads, over rougher terrain, or during nasty weather, similar to what the Maya Hunter will encounter — but the Tacoma’s stock lights don’t provide the kind of illumination true off-road adventurers seek. Companies such as PIAA Corporation (www.piaa.com; 800-525-7422) understand this and have lights to fit just about any specific need for an off-roader. PIAA lights are not cheap. But then again, the quality of its product isn’t, either; the technology, design, and lighting performance are second to none. That’s what makes them the ideal choice for the Maya Hunter Tacoma.

Light Saavy

Choosing auxiliary lights is like choosing tires: pick according to need. For instance, we needed strong driving lights to penetrate those long, lonely, boring highway stretches on 3,000-mile trips between Vanderbilt’s Nashville campus and the Guatemala highlands. The PIAA 540 Xtreme White Driving Lights are ideal for such purposes. PIAA says the 540s are designed specifically for small, midsize trucks and SUVs. The lights also are a perfect fit on a Tacoma with an ARB Bull Bar.

Buy PIAA Lights from www.4wheelparts.com.

Flat four-pin trailer harness works great for a quick-disconnect system on the Maya’s roof basket lights. We ran one pigtail through the roof into the cab, splicing it to the PIAA switch harness. The other pigtail was connected to the power and ground wires for the three sets of PIAA 1500 floods.

As with all of PIAA’s lighting kits, these lights come with wiring harness, relay, flush-mount push-button switch, and two black, mesh-style plastic light guards. The wiring harness is a simple plug-and-play installation — simple if you’re not doing a custom, multilight installation like the one planned for the Maya Hunter.

Vandy archaeologists need fog/rain lights that throw a wide, low beam for driving in jungle environments. PIAA has that covered with its 510 Series. These four-inch-diameter lights are available in fog and driving lens styles. We chose fog, with clear lenses for maximum weather penetration. The 55-watt halogen bulbs are of the super-white type and act more like 85-watt versions.

Our third lighting need was side and rear illumination; side and front for lighting up any work going on near the vehicle while it was parked, and rear to help the driver see trees and other objects that tend to jump in the way as one is backing up around campus, at a dig site, or in a jungle base-camp. The PIAA 1500 Back Up light kit comes with two lamps, each one casting a 180-degree swath of light to aid rear and peripheral visibility. The 1500 Back Up’s wide flood-beam pattern and ultra-low profile design fit perfectly with the Yakima Load Warrior roof basket and Yakima’s steel auxiliary-light brackets.

Here’s what we ended up with to put on the Maya Hunter Toyota Tacoma: One set of the 540 driving lights; a set of smaller 510 foglights; and three sets of 1500 floodlights for the roof rack (one pair to the rear, one on each side, and one pair in front).

Let The Fun Begin

Mounting aftermarket lights isn’t all that difficult. Find a location that fits your vehicle and lighting need and use an existing hole (or drill a new one) to bolt down the bracket. Pre-existing holes in the top plate of the ARB bumper were utilized to mount the 540s so they flanked the Warn winch control box. Then we drilled a new set of holes so the smaller 510s could be positioned on top of the bumper, just outside the vertical uprights that support the headlight guards. This positioning afforded maximum protection for the PIAAs from brush and limbs while centering the beams inline and slightly below the driver’s line of sight.

As with all foglights, it’s important they be positioned below the headlights and the driver’s eyes to minimize light bouncing back from adverse elements. If the light reflects off fog, rain, or snow, it creates a white-out, making night vision even more difficult.

Mounting the 1500s was equally as simple.

For the front and rear, we used the optional auxiliary box-like light brackets from Yakima. They fit snugly between the Mega Warrior’s upper and lower bars, making a neat and protective light mount. Unfortunately, the cool mounts don’t work on the sides. So off we went to Auto Zone (we made lots of trips to Auto Zone during this project) for rubber-coated hose clamps that fit the side tubes of the Yakima roof rack. We also bought a 100 pack of zip-ties, 30 feet of plastic split wire loom in several sizes, small rolls of 12-, 14-, 16-, and 18-ga wire — just in case we needed to splice or run new wires that the PIAA wiring harness didn’t address.

Switch panel is made from thick plastic sheet. Three-position toggle switch on far left allows rear floodlights to be activated manually or when vehicle is put in reverse. Far right toggle controls the side floods, while push-button switches in center handle the driving, fog, and front-facing floodlights.

Power Products

Easy part done, wiring begins.

Wiring lights using the supplied harnesses, relays, and switches is straightforward for installing one or two sets of lights. Five sets make a mess, not to mention wiring headaches for the novice.

To make this job as painless as possible, we asked for help from both Spears Auto Repair in Long Beach, Mississippi (228-863-1871), and Painless Performance Products (www.painlesswiring.com; 800-423-9696). Spears is actually an autobody shop that has specialized in repairing and rebuilding vehicles (for nearly 40 years). Warren Spears, head cook and bottle washer, knows how to wire a vehicle and make it look like it was done at the factory. Painless Performance Products is a manufacturer of wiring harnesses and all related wiring products for everything from street rods and race cars to boats and planes. It has wiring kits and accessories for anything that moves and one of the best online catalogs when it comes to wiring a vehicle. Upon the combined recommendations for the task at hand, we ordered the Painless components necessary to make the light install ultra-clean.

Painless says that having such an array of high-current-draw lighting accessories can send voltage spikes through a vehicle’s system, which tends to fry everything from light bulbs to computers. We decided to run power to all of the lights and CB radio through Painless’ seven-circuit, weather-resistant Cirkit Boss (#70207) — a relay activated fuse block that provides constant and ignition hot circuits.

Using the pre-wired Cirkit Boss eliminated tapping every light-wiring harness into an existing power wire or into a spare circuit at the Tacoma’s main fuse block. The Cirkit Boss also provided us with individual power connections for each light circuit, which actually simplified some of the wiring process. The Cirkit kit includes an inline circuit breaker, relay, mounting hardware and terminals.

We also ordered Painless weather-proof Extreme Condition connectors (#40065) for the exposed light connections.

Getting Wired

Pre-planning is a great help in wiring any vehicle. We literally sketched out a rough map of where we wanted which lights and laid them out on the shop floor to see how the wiring looked. It looked like a mess. But an organized mess.

Warren jumped under the hood to get the dual-battery setup handled first (see sidebar). We started running the power wires from the Cirkit Boss to power wires on the PIAA wiring harnesses for each set of bumper lights. Taken one set at a time that part of the job went smoothly.

Self-tapping metal screws were used to hold the PIAA relays to the back of the radiator support brace behind the passenger’s headlight, and, when the wiring was complete, we used whatever size split-loom worked best to give a clean, tidy look.

Front done, we headed into the cab where the majority of the fun work greets you.

Warren removed the center console and lower dash panels in no time. Wire strippers in hand, we routed the PIAA light switches and battery isolator wires through the firewall and under the dash. We found a piece of scrap quarter-inch black-plastic sheet (we actually used a piece of the Yamaha Rhino 4x4’s front skidplate) and cut it to fit the size of the Tacoma’s storage tray located at the base of the new model’s console.

After careful measuring, we drilled two mounting holes to hold the three-position PIAA toggle switches used for the side and rear-facing roof floodlights and a larger hole to run the three wires that connected the PIAA push-button switches to the front-facing lights. The switches were mounted into the plastic panel, and their wires zip-tied ready for connection to the wire leads from all the lights.

Buy Painless Wireing Harnesses and Accessories from www.4wheelparts.com.

Roof-Rack Lights

The roof-rack-mounted lights were even more fun. Once we figured exactly where each light was going on the Mega Warrior basket, we removed it, along with the Toyota roof-rack-mounting rail on the passenger’s side. We spliced common grounds and hot leads for the light pairs that worked together, basically making our own custom wiring harness.

Warren used his body-shop expertise and drilled a 7/16-inch hole through the roof above the B-pillar to run the power leads down inside the Double Cab’s center door post (a job best left to experts).

Before and after shots show how the Optima batteries fit neatly in place of the stock Toyota battery. Spears fabricated the dual-battery frame base and used kit from Painless Performance Products to wire the dual setup.

That done, he used a four-pin trailer connector and ran its wires down through a short length of plastic loom he’d epoxied into the hole (to keep hot leads from chafing against exposed steel) and fed them down into the cab. He silconed and reinstalled the roof rail back in place so that the trailer plug was the only wire left exposed. He then wired the other half of the plug to the hot and ground leads coming from the roof-rack lights. If the roof basket had to be removed, only the single connector needed to be unplugged to disconnect all the lights and basket at once.

Final Connections

Then came the tedious task of connecting and checking power wires from the roof and bumper lights to the PIAA switches on our new panel, cutting and attaching the common ground-wire for the PIAA relays hidden under the center of the console, and making sure to bundle the new wires in split looms.

After the dash, center console, and other panels we’d removed were put back in place, we fit the custom switch panel to the console insert and used quick-setting epoxy to bond the two together.

That done, Warren mounted the Painless dual-battery isolator toggle switch on the dash next to the Toyota foglamp switch. He found an “ignition on” source under the dash, connected that to one side of the battery switch, and ran the exciter lead back out the firewall to the Painless dual-battery solenoid.

A flip of that switch, and we had power to the vehicle again — and to our switch panel. Our long, tedious wiring day in the shop was wrapped up with high-fives all around when the Maya Hunter lit up like a handful of tiny suns.

We’ll cover the cool Yakima cargo racks, special Toyota accessories, and CB-radio installation in our next issue. Until then, enjoy your off-road adventures.

Yellow-Top Performance

High-power auxiliary lights and using a winch can put a big hurt on a truck’s electrical system, even with a high-output alternator. That’s why the Maya Hunter was converted to a dual-battery setup. To make the swap easier, Painless Performance Products’ 250-amp weather-resistant Dual Battery Current Control System (#40103) was used to convert the Tacoma from a single battery to twins.

Painless’ dual-battery wiring kit is designed specifically for heavy-duty off-road use. This kit uses the same grade components found in aircraft, spacecraft, and military vehicles, with each connection utilizing weather-resistant terminals. The kit just about includes everything: solenoid, switch, pre-terminated wires/connectors, fuse holder, fuse, and all mounting hardware. Batteries were an easy choice: Optima (www.optimabatteries.com; 888-867-8462) Deep Cycle “Yellow Top” batteries.

Optimas are compact and powerful. They use absorbent glass mat (AGM) to keep the electrolyte in contact with multiple layers of lead wrapped in spirals, which results in a much greater lead surface area to generate power. The design also supports a thicker layer of plate paste for prolonged service life — typically half again to twice the life of conventional batteries.

Our two Yellow Top D34 models have side and top posts for greater flexibility in wiring. The models also provide 120 “Reserve Minutes” and 870 cranking amps each-plenty ‘o juice for winching or lighting needs.

The installation isn’t that difficult — it just takes time. Warren Spears pulled the stock battery, set in the smaller Optimas, took a few measurements, and set out to weld together a sturdy battery tray out of aluminum channel.

A few stout, well-directed hits with a hammer flattened out a small hump on the inner fender allowing the new battery tray to lay flat. Self-tapping screws secured it to the bodywork. Warren then fabricated an aluminum top strap and used parts robbed from a battery-hold-down kit we bought at the auto parts store to secure the batteries in place.

The fit of the Optimas is tight against the Toyota’s main fuse block, but the setup fits and looks like a factory installation. The supplied battery isolator switch needs to be installed inside the cab and connected according to the instructions Painless provides.

The last step is mounting the Painless Performance dual-battery isolator solenoid on the driver’s side of the engine-compartment fender wall. The custom-made (read length) battery cables are then connected to the isolator and the batteries (following the instructions supplied with the kit).

Our particular dual-battery conversion took about two hours.

 

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