Story and photos by Richard Soult, www.4x4explorer.co.nz

I have to admit that the idea for this hack came from a guy called Aaron who I met on a recent trip up at the Macaulay Hut.

The initial idea was to take flexible LED strips and attach them to the rear of the truck to provide lighting for the cooking and food preparation area. I went to a couple of automotive and marine suppliers and found that they only sold LEDs in strips of up to about one metre and were relatively expensive. However, the local DIY shop had five metre rolls, complete with switch and joint connector, for around $50. So that’s what I went for.

I bought a roll and set about cutting and soldering it all together to fit the truck. It’s a bit fiddly but really pretty simple with the aid of some YouTube tutorials. All the joints were soldered and heat-shrink wrapped to avoid them coming loose over rough ground, then the lights were wired into the rear roof light.

Having completed this and being very happy with the result, I decided that I was going to fabricate a light bar for the side of the truck for use when the table is up and the awning extended.

For this, I bought an aluminium extrusion for about $70 from an electrical supplier and another roll of LEDs. I drilled a hole in the rear of the extrusion and fed the wire through the rear window and to the same light as the others, using the switch that they came with so that I can either have all lights on or exclude the side light bar.

I found that there wasn’t enough room in the extrusion for bolt fittings and the LED strip, so I attached the unit to the roof rack with cable ties. This seems to have been successful so far.

All in all, very happy with this Hack which took me a couple of hours and cost under $200.

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To read the full story in the October 2018 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (September 14) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store.