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Car Hood Light Strip Question

Mouse51180

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So I got the hood light strip and I am curious if everyone has installed it the way I am looking at installing it. Everyone post what it looks like with the hood shut, but never with the hood open.

So being a "hood" light strip...im guessing everyone is installing under the hood and not across the top of the grille and over the top of the headlights.

How is everyone securely running their wires to the fuse box and batter terminal to make sure the wire to flop around and possible get pinched\cut when you open and close the hood.

This is how I am thinking about running the wires.

Ford F-150 Car Hood Light Strip Question PXL_20230304_233328250

-The yellow line is the light strip itself.
-The red line is the electrical cables at the end.
I noticed there is a square hole in the hood I could run the wires into and secure them there with a zip tie or something. Really don't want to use a zip tie...want to look for something a little more professional. I'm tossing the idea of these
Ford F-150 Car Hood Light Strip Question 1677976168720

but not sure if they will fall off or not...or if there is a better option.

-The orange line just indicated the wire is inside the hood and them come out at the hole just to the left of the hoods hinge.
Ford F-150 Car Hood Light Strip Question 1677976421991

From the exit hole it looks like the wire can go through the side of the hinge with no issue and there is a channel that runs to the back of the truck and a wire connected to the firewall. I think I can run the cable behind this orange cable to keep it from becoming too loss and possible getting pinched in the hinge.
Then just finish running it up the side of the truck and down into the engine bay and back up to the battery with a pit stop at the fuse box.

Anyone else running the wires differently?

@fluffernutter @Spindrive @JIMFOUNTAIN @JediNut
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fluffernutter

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I installed on top of the grill.
There is a little channel for this to line up next to.

Here is the pic from the reddit thread:
Ford F-150 Car Hood Light Strip Question 9C892E95-2229-436F-A499-024C917E8BD0


I can snap some pix later.

The ground wire goes to the bolt by the battery, and the power wire runs to the fuse panel.

More pix of my install. Mine is covered with white duct tape for 2 reasons:
-didn’t want the hood temps to melt the glue
-because of my hood deflector I moved the light strip closer to the front (it was against the groove of the grill) and had to pull it up and remount it, so some tackiness was lost


The strip installed on the far edge (as far ‘out’ as possible, but the reddit user installed his as far ‘back’ against the groove):
Ford F-150 Car Hood Light Strip Question D8F27170-137B-4786-BE48-02CBC42B9A22

The ground:
Ford F-150 Car Hood Light Strip Question E078FCEC-7F7E-403D-8B19-A313D1FBB30F

Further shot of the ground:
Ford F-150 Car Hood Light Strip Question 1312DDE2-EA70-4F16-B6E2-BA4C571DAE10

The strip on top of the headlight, again mine is at the closest edge, but you can install back if you like:
Ford F-150 Car Hood Light Strip Question BDF0B297-3250-422B-80DE-04B38298BCC1

Again, may be hard to see under the white duct tape, but you can see the strip at the far edge:
Ford F-150 Car Hood Light Strip Question F909C950-B2A6-40D5-8136-79BB4DBF2DA8


Hope that helps :)

I guess you can also install to the hood itself, but I am fine with the way mine is installed. I like the piece of mind with the white duct tape so that it stays in place and with the hood down it keeps it nice and firm. Everyone I show this to when remote starting it loves the kitt vibe it has when turning on!
 
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jeepin95

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As long as the adhesive sticks to clean paint better than it sticks to the plastic of the grill it should be fine. The LEDs on the first 3" or so stopped working so I had to replace it. It was only there for a week but it pulled right off with very little effort. I had cleaned the surface with isopropyl alcohol prior to installation. I'm not to worried about it because the hood seal helps to hold it in place.

I also used clips that look just like those, they were OK but not great. One of them fell off, the others were holding in place. The thing I like about tie wraps over those is that you can decide how secure you want to make them. The wires on the strip light are so small those clips don't actually hold the wires as much as just have a tray for them to sit in.

The first one I used a fuse tap but couldn't find a good way to get the wire into the fuse box. I ordered one of the headlight harnesses so that it is powered via the parking lights.
 
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Mouse51180

Mouse51180

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Icecoldak

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Lets see some lighted pictures when you are all done!!!
 

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JIMFOUNTAIN

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I attached mine to the grill because I didn't want to have the wires dangle when the hood was open.. plus I needed to connect at the left front headlight.
 

Cb Mw

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Installed on top of grill. Actually reinstalled because the first attempt was too far back to get the full effect.
 
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Mouse51180

Mouse51180

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Installed on top of grill. Actually reinstalled because the first attempt was too far back to get the full effect.
How did you run/attach your wires?
 

Cb Mw

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How did you run/attach your wires?
It was 25 degrees during the install but i figure good enough until Spring. I'm going to rewrap the wires and clean it up a bit on a nice day.


Ford F-150 Car Hood Light Strip Question 20230305_074741
 
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Mouse51180

Mouse51180

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Looks good... didn't think about the corrugated plastic wire piping.
 

JediNut

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For wiring, I tapped into my "Raptor Light" plug-n-play adaptor. (Top piece in picture below)

Ford F-150 Car Hood Light Strip Question 1678204329384


So when the grill lights are on, so is my hood beam.
https://customautoworksstore.com/f-150/

I have a Lariate, so my grill lights have 4 LEDs.
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