Installed these LED light strips in the Maverick bed and I’m very pleased with how it turned out. I mounted mine to the underside of my tonneau rails and trimmed them to length for a clean look. While the kit comes with a standalone switch, I spliced these into the switch that already operates the bed lights that came with the XLT, so they can be operated by both the bed and cab switch and come on when a door is opened or the truck is locked or unlocked. I might eventually look into a tailgate magnetic or mercury switch so they automatically turn on when the tailgate is opened, but preliminary research tells me that’s more trouble than it’s worth for now.
Other items I got for the install were this stronger double-sided tape to make sure they adhered well, this protective wire loom for the wire I had to run along the bottom of the truck (I went with 1/4 inch but I think 1/2 inch would have been easier to work with), and these Posi-Taps for easy splicing into the switch wiring. All in all, a roughly $50, couple hour mod that significantly improves bed visibility.
@Blair
I used Posi-Taps for my install as well. Fantastic product.
@Blair
This is awesome. Would you be able to take some additional pictures, like of the wiring with the wire loom and maybe where it splices in?
Joss said:
@Blair
This is awesome. Would you be able to take some additional pictures, like of the wiring with the wire loom and maybe where it splices in?
Thank you. I should’ve taken more photos while doing the install. I found a few YouTube videos and posts in other Maverick forums that I used as guides, but they were all incomplete or lacking helpful detail in one way or another. If I get a chance between work and obligations over the next day or so to get back in there and take pics, I’ll update this post or add a new comment.
I first mounted each LED strip to each side of the bed where I wanted them, then snaked the power cord for each through a small factory hole near the tailgate under the upper lip of the side rails of the bed. I then took out each taillight (easy to do, just two screws and a wiring harness), and snaked the LED power wires down through the cavity behind the taillights until they were both hanging loose below the truck. I connected them together with the provided wiring harness below the truck and then fed the exposed splicing wires from the harness back up the driver-side taillight cavity. From the taillight cavity, with a pair of needle-nose pliers, I unclamped the wire connector where the light switch is and pulled it out a bit to where I could work with it. I used Posi-Tap connectors to splice the positive and common wires from the LED wiring harness into the positive and common wires heading into the factory light switch. I then plugged the switch back in, went back over all the wire I had added, covered it with the wire loom, bunched up wire slack where I could, and zip-tied it all along the underbody of the truck to keep it in place. Since I didn’t use the aftermarket switch attached to the wiring harness that came with the LEDs (since I opted instead to splice into the factory switch), I just made sure the aftermarket switch was clicked to the ‘on’ position and zip-tied that out of the way in the taillight cavity as well. Sorry, I know photos would be helpful along with this explanation and I’ll see if I can go back and get some.
@Blair
No worries; that detailed explanation should be plenty! I appreciate the write-up.
Where did you get the inflatable bed mattress for the Maverick?
Ray said:
Where did you get the inflatable bed mattress for the Maverick?
I got that here. It fits well flipped around with the head side of the mattress towards the tailgate like it is in the photos.
@Blair
Where is here?
Anytime lettering is blue usually means it’s a link.
I’m aware! I triple-checked; it was not a hyperlink when I commented!
@Sage
Gotcha.
Where did you run the wire loom?
OP is using a reference link all over for their Amazon links by the way.
Do you have some type of setup to protect you from the elements?
Wei said:
Do you have some type of setup to protect you from the elements?
@Blair
This is a sweet setup! How much time to install it?
Edit: I mean deploy it once at your camping site.
Where did the mattresses come from?