DIY Chase Lights

TLDR: Made some chase lights with parts from Amazon and a 3d printer.

I was on a trail with some friends the other day and realized the importance of having chase lights. Didn’t want to spend a ton on them and I like doing DIY stuff, so this is my project, written up for the internet to enjoy…

Don’t think I need to explain the utility of chase lights too much, but basically these are rear facing lights that allow a following vehicle to keep track of you during low visibility conditions, i.e. dusty, snowy, rainy, etc. They’re usually mounted high up, away from the dust cloud that your tires are stirring up. I wanted mine to flash, to make it even easier to follow me, but I suppose you could keep them steady. I’ll be controlling the lights with my Auxbeam Switch Panel. The side quest of this project is to clean up the current wiring of the switchpanel under the hood, as it is currently very ghetto.


PARTS
Lights:
-

$20 BMPUG 2 Pack Amber Led Pods Light Bar, Yellow 2" 20w Spot Off Road Lights, Driving Fog Lamp, IP68 Waterproof LED Work Light, Mini Cube Lights for Motorcycle Boat Pickup Truck SUV ATV UTV Forklift 4x4

Cheap Amazon Special ($20)
Wiring:
-

$12 Nilight 10ft Wiring Harness Extension Kit, Plug and Play DT Connector for Offroad LED Bars, Work Lights, Fog Lights - 2 Year Warranty

Wire ($13)
-

$16 NAOEVO 2 Pin DT Connectors Waterproof, 2 Wire Connector 16 AWG Automotive Electrical Connector, 2 Pin Connectors Male and Female Wire with Heat Shrink Tubing for Car Truck Boat, 6 Kits

DT Connectors ($16)
-

$10 OFFROADTOWN 2PCS DT DTP Wiring Harness Adapters Connectors Splitters Plug n Play Wiring Harness 240w for LED Light Bar LED Pod Fog Lights Driving Light LED Cubes LED Work Lights

2-1 DTConnector ($11)
-

$9 iJDMTOY (1 Alternating Left/Right Strobe Flash Module Box Compatible with Car Fog Lights, LED Daylight DRL, Work Lights and More

Strobe Module ($9)
Misc.:
-

$28 KC HiLiTES 6300 Two-Light Switch Kit, Black

Wire Tunnel ($27)
-Custom Module Enclosure: $0 (3D Printed)
Already on-hand:
-Various Nuts/Bolts
Total: $97


DESIGN
Connecting two LED pods together and running them to a single switch on the Auxbeam panel is pretty straightforward, the only “complicated” part was adding the strobe module to make them flash. Because the module I bought isn’t waterproof and I didn’t want it dangling freely under the hood, I designed and 3D printed an enclosure that could be mounted near the switch panel under the hood. For the harness, I opted to use DT connections to make the lights easy to remove for maintenance or if I wanted to upgrade later, while also keeping some weather/water resistance. I have an LFD 7/8th’s roof rack that will serve as the mounting point for the lights, using provided hardware.



WIRING



As anticipated, this was pretty straightforward, except that the strobe module has a single positive output and two negative outputs. According to the module, the red wire is meant to be shared between the two lights, while each negative will connect to a single light. After some garage R&D, I found you can combine the two negative output wires together and the lights will strobe simultaneously. If you connect the lights as instructed in by the module, they will flash alternatively, i.e. the left will strobe for a second, then the right, then the left, ect. I prefer the simultaneous flashing that I got with my method, but either way works, you would just have to change the setup of the DT connections.


I started by adding the DT Connections at their respective points according to the diagram above. I soldered the two black output wires (from the module) together prior to installing the DT connector to the module, then I added terminals to the input wires on the module. After adding the connectors, I laid the whole thing out next to the truck and tested it prior to installation.




INSTALLATION
Installation was simple enough, I started by mounting the lights and worked my way forward, using zipties to tidy the harness to the rack . Once I fed it under the hood I let it dangle and started working on cleaning up the wiring and mounting of the switchpanel and the 3D enclosure. Didn’t take pics of this process, but I unmounted the current switchpanel, removed the mounting plate, and drilled four new holes. I cut some of the excess wire out and recrimped/soldered where needed. At this point I installed the module and enclosure onto the same plate as the auxbeam panel, tidied up all the wiring and connected the dangling harness to the module. Finally I installed the KC Hilites wire tunnel and tucked the wire into the channel.

Old Wiring:




New Wiring:



COMPLETED PICS:




REVIEW/LESSONS LEARNED

All in all this was a cool project that took me about a week from first thought to completion and I'm happy with how it came out. Once I had all the parts, wiring and installation took about 3.5ish hours. Cleaning up the current mess of wires took about an hour and a half, so I’d say it could easily be done in 2 hours. I think the lights look great! I was worried about them being a little big, but I think they are tucked away nicely.

If I had a SwitchPros or SPOD panel, I wouldn’t have had to deal with the strobe module because both of those have a strobe function built in, but I had fun designing and printing the enclosure. Besides, I really needed to clean up the switchpanel.

If anyone wants the STL file for the enclosure, I'll try to attach it here.

Thanks for following along!