Chase light setup?

Anyone running a chase light?

I want to add one to the stock rack (I imagine the rack is the best place to mount it), but not sure of the best way to set it up.

Anyone have any tips?

Thanks!

 

I love my chase lights, probably my favorite part of my rooftop setup. There are 2 Baja Designs S2 Sports, wiring runs along the Prinsu rack, meets up with the XL linkable light bar, down the sides of the windshield and into the engine bay Switch Pros mount.

Easy to do if you have a full length roof rack. If you have the Oem rack, it could certainly be done. You'll love it, I've had two buddies tell me on trips in dusty conditions that the chase lights really helped them keep distance.

Also, have actually used them once on the street when a car became disabled in front of me to warn traffic behind. The first cop to show up was in his personal car and he actually asked me to turn on all my lights (chase and BD linkable front light bar) to strobe mode until the real lights and sirens arrived. That was pretty cool

 

Hi there. I am a new member to the 4Runner community. I circle the black panel piece on your picture. Did your 4Runner came from the factory like that or did you black that panel out yourself? On my 4Runner, it is silver and I would like to get it to be black like on your 4Runner.

 

Mine came standard with that in black, imagine it is either a part of the TRD Off Road "package", or perhaps it was an individual package. I believe there are all sorts of ways to turn those black. Black overlays perhaps, an OEM black piece from Toyota, or plast-dip is always an option. Others would certainly have more knowledge on that as I know a bunch of members have done it. I bet if you searched "black 4Runner tailgate badge" or similar on Amazon or google you would find some ideas.

 

What exactly is the purpose of a chase light?

 

Thank you

 

If traveling in a group on a dusty road, a helluva lot of dust gets kicked up. A chase light, usually amber, cuts through that and makes you MUCH more visible to the vehicles behind you.

In this pic there's actually a Tacoma in front of me.

 

Wow, yes, that’s a great idea!

It’s very dusty on my trails too. I’ve had a few times when I had to stop and let the dust settle so I could see where I was going.

 

Not sure what stock rack you have but I mounted some Diode Dynamics pods to my Pro rack using KC Hilites brackets.

 

I’m curious, how are you guys running the wire harness?

 

That's what I'm looking for too. I'm thinking maybe wire them into the taillights, but I really have no clue with electrical stuff.

I have a co-worker buddy who's an electrical engineer, I'm planning on hitting him up eventually, once I decide on which lights and how to mount them.

 

I have the stock OG Trail rack.

 

I’d have to look but if the rear hatch wire harness is on the outside of the main hatch seal then that would be the best way to get in. I would be reluctant to run wires through the hatch seal for possible water/dust leaking.

 

Been thinking of adding some chase lights and have a full rack Prinsu as well. Do you mind taking some pictures showing how the wires run from the chase lights to the A-pillar?

 

Well, wish I could provide some specific photos but unfortunately my truck is 750 miles away from home being fixed (had an issue on an off roading trip in UT - Hole in the Rock trail. That said, the wiring from the lights to the A-pillar is pretty simple. It is basically zip tied to screws that are bolted into the cross-rails (probably overkill, any other means of attaching the wires to the side rails would work), running along the side rails (by that I mean the front to back two main rails on each side of the car) all the way to the front. From there, the wires meet up with the front light bar, then run down each side of the windshield and into the engine bay. Here's some pics I have on my phone, though likely won't be very helpful.

 

Thank you, thank you! That was a very detailed description actually. Seems like a pretty easy install. Do the S2 lights come with the necessary harness?

 

I pretty much followed what this guy did.
https://trail4runner.com/2018/08/30/kc-hilites-flex-light-bar-install-4runner/

 

They do come with the wiring and a switch (I believe). The actual electronic wiring of it could be done a ton of different ways (individual switch, wire to a new switch, wire to a SwitchPros etc.). I'd check out @spyder918 's post above, that is a good route. Good luck !

 

I have 4 DD pods off the back, but I didn’t use their harness for the backlighting (way too much of a PIA for me). I have a 4 channel wire I run From the back of my rack into the window channel down into my power tray.

 

Spyder what wheels are on your 4R? Love those!

 

Gotcha! I’m planning on wiring it up to my SwitchPro as well. Is the supplied harness long enough for each chase light to have wiring run from each end on the rear to the front?

 

Oh thanks man! They are Summit Offroad wheels - Sierra model.

 

If you guys figure it out please let me know, the wire harness for the DD uses a switch like in the pic. Because of the way it’s wired I couldn’t get the backlight option to work with a switchpro. I had the choice of dual function toggle switch or no backlight option and run directly to switchpro.

 

Ok those are on my list, I love the classic silver style, kind of old school yet still modern. My 4R is silver, wish it was MGM like yours. Excellent taste you have ! Thanks again !

 

Yeah I'm a bit old school. I know dark rims are all the rage but I just wanted something old school and classic. Silver is awesome too! Silver wheels on your silver 4R is gonna look super clean! I hope you post pics when you get em.

 

You need to think of the backlight and the main light as two individual lights. You will need to wire the backlight function to one switch on the SwitchPro and and wire the main light function to another switch on the SwitchPro. If my memory serves me correctly, the blue wire is the backlighting and the red wire is the main light. You will then be able to control the functions independently with the SwitchPro.

 

Yeah, I tried it. For what ever reason it didn’t work. I even tried all main lights in series, 2 inside backlight in series, and 2 outside backlight in series.

I called up a local shop and they said the main light had to be switched “off” (3rd position) to allow the backlight to come on. So that would have been 4 buttons on the switch pro or 3 if I ran all the backlights in series. At that point I just said screw the backlight.

 

Gotcha. I was unaware you can't have power to both backlighting and mains at same time. Interesting. I will need to check my install later as I am not using the DD harness either and am using SwitchPro and the vehicle's lights as power sources.

edit: checked my install of SSC1’s and with the backlights on, I can turn on the main lights with my SwitchPro and they will come on and the backlights shutoff. If I turn off the main lights, the backlights will come back on. It seems the internal circuitry of the lights will automatically shut off the backlights when it senses power for the mains.

 

The wires to the lights are exposed on my setup. I just ran them up the side of the windshield, under the weather stripping per the link I posted earlier, up through the foot of the rack (drilled a small hole on the side of the foot to feed the wiring through, sealed with butyl tape), then zip tied the wiring along the inside part of the rack/bar to the lights. You really don't even notice it. I've heard some guys are running the wiring actually inside the tube then drilling a hole to feed the wiring out to the lights but I didn't feel like removing my whole rack just for that nor did I want the chance of water getting inside the tubes of the rack.