Installed AAL Rack for chase lights and other stuff

[jordantii]

Today I finally finished the install of the @American Adventure LAb bed rack. I had originally wantted to mount some Nach Nano's on it. But after talking with Brit, Flavio and Dallin about these lights they decided to offer it as a lighting option for their racks. This took a couple of months to get produced but was well worth it and is available on their site for purchase.

Additional time was added to the install sourcing black SS hardware. (i think it should be offered this way, much cleaner look) There were a few hicups along the way in the design and shipping but I was able to to sort it out.

One thing I did do is modify the bed stake stack and one of the rack bases. I am running a tonneau cover and there is no way to route wiring to the ligts with the cover closed. There is a small space where wire will fit and that required modifying 2 parts of the rack. Not the cleanest but it works. AAL could easily make these changes to the parts and include it with the rack.

The instructions for assembly are pretty staright forward but need updating since they have made some changes since the original design. One thing they need to address is how the Nano's attache to the supplied brackets. They need to include spacers to clear the wiring from the bracket.

I use Deutsch connectors for everything and have them wired to Aux 3.

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[LALARange]

@jordantii

Jordan,

This looks great and I'm glad they were able to get your nanos into the design. I had a few questions;

1. Do you mind showing how and where you notched/modified the stake spacer stack to accommodate the wiring?

2. Are you running the deutsche connector from the light to beneath the spacers stack to connect to the other deutsche connector inside the bed, or are you running the deutsche connector from the bed through the stack then to the deutsche connector on the light. (i.e. (a) light -> spacers stack - > deutsche connector -> deutsche connector - Aux3; or (b) light -> deutsche connector ->deutsche connector -> spacers stack

Again, looks amazing and clean work.

Jeff

 

[jordantii]

@jordantii

Jordan,

This looks great and I'm glad they were able to get your nanos into the design. I had a few questions;

1. Do you mind showing how and where you notched/modified the stake spacer stack to accommodate the wiring?

2. Are you running the deutsche connector from the light to beneath the spacers stack to connect to the other deutsche connector inside the bed, or are you running the deutsche connector from the bed through the stack then to the deutsche connector on the light. (i.e. (a) light -> spacers stack - > deutsche connector -> deutsche connector - Aux3; or (b) light -> deutsche connector ->deutsche connector -> spacers stack

Again, looks amazing and clean work.

Jeff

As far as the wiring, the Nano's would only reach inside of the rack so I have the wiring in this way:

DT-Nano to DT harness for Aux 3. The entire Aux 3 harness is 1 piece to the Aux 3 wires which also has a DT on it.

I want to possibly rework the Nano harness for a little more stress relief. You can see in the second photo the Aux 3 harness going up to the left side of the rack. So when I remove the rack all I have to do is disconnect the Nano DT from the Aux 3 DT. Then the Aux DT can be tucked into the stake pocket. I have another empty DT connector that has "plugs" in it to keep water out when placed in the stake pocket.

It's the only way to make it work since the space to feed the wiring from the bed would not accommodate the DT connector passing through.

If I was to do it again, I would notch the stack a few mm more and instead of using 3 conductor wire I would probably just build a harness out of single wires. That just takes way more time.

Here is the notch on the stack.

Wiring from Aux 3 to the Lights.

DT wil fit in the stake pocket.

Very tight space to feed wiring from the bed up through the stake pocket.

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