Under Bonnet Lamp

I was watching the infamous Ditchfinder show me the new electric fans he put on his Chevy 1500 pickup. I noticed the light under the hood. He pulled the bulb assembly off and reeled it out describing to me that he could take it all the way back to the rear tires. He then reeled it back in and locked it down. I knew right then I had to have one.

The first problem was locating a place to put the assembly. After some careful thought I decided to place it on the support that holds the expansion bottle for the cooling system. I thought of installing it to the hood and having a mercury switch that turned it on when the hood was open. But I though that might be much harder and I did not have all the parts for that type of install at the time I was ready to get started. So I went with the traditional low tech method. I needed to move the relay for the Hella's but I incorporated that into the install of the light.

I removed the expansion tank. I removed the support from the fender of the truck. I fitted the light on to the support and with the drill scratched the surface so I had a good mark for later. I drilled my holes, fitted the parts back on the support to make sure they would all work.

Time to reassembly and wire the electrics. I watched The Ditchfinder on the Hella install so I had a good idea how to get it done. I removed the positive wire from the battery. I fitted the connectors on the wires using heat shrink to secure a pretty install and to practically limit the bare wire visible. I used the support as ground as we had in the Hella install. I cut that wire and put the connectors on again with heat shrink where necessary. I ran the positive to the battery terminal and measured it and made my cut. I used the existing wire protector and attached the connector with a crimper and applied the heat shrink where necessary.

I tried the install and sure enough it worked. Excellent. A job well done. Pats on the back for all, etc... The next day I showed the install to The Ditchfinder. "Where is the fuse?" he said. "What fuse?" I replied. He then stated matter of factly, "You must have a fuse all electric circuits." Well so much for my pride in my install. I have to get a 2 amp in-line fuse this weekend and assure the circuit is protected from the rest of the truck and that the battery is protected from the lamp.

Rap up. I put the tools away after photoing them for this sight. All's well and the light is working great. The difficulty of this project is a 2 on the Difficulty Scale. I would say this is a 1 on the scale but you must use fire to melt the heat shrink if you are going to do this "right". It would have been easy enough to "rig" this up under the hood and it still function but decorum took over along with a healthy dose of imagined chastizing from The Ditchfinder. And so I decided to put the extra effort in besides 5 year olds know better than to play with fire. I also believe the installation of an in-line fuse and the connector to the battery is not your everyday project.

I have not had to use it as of yet and honestly hope I never do. But just in case the 1 million candle power flashlight fails me and the Mini-mag light fails to illuminate the after dark project I always have the under hood lamp to light my way. That is if the battery isn't dead. Maybe I should get a second battery. The only drawback so far is that the magnet does not stick to the aluminum panels of the Range Rover. Anyone know where I can get some aluminum magnets? Hello...is this thing on???

Thanks for reading and happy Rovering.