2020+ Ford Explorer Tailgate Scene Lighting

Sfd295

Member
Jul 6, 2010
39
Massachusetts
Looking for some area lighting suggestions for a 2021 Explorer's liftgate. I need some white area lighting that mounts to the liftgate and is aimed down at the asphalt when open. I've looked a lot of options, like the Whelen 200 series round, 3" round, strip-lite plus, Flourent tube, and various other solutions. Anyone have a suggestion that will work best in this situation? I'm looking for something low profile and relatively small. The 200 series Whelen lights are a little large for my liking. Whatever I choose will also likely be mounted on the R and L trim panels in the cargo area to supplement the OEM LED trunk light. I like the idea of having red lighting in the same lightheads but I'm not tied to it. I really want whatever I install to be relatively small and low key but bright enough to adequately illuminate the area and not die after a few hours of use. Probably going to tie whatever I install to a tilt switch I'll mount in the liftgate as I hear tapping into the wiring harness can harm the BCM.

What has everyone who works on these vehicles been putting on the liftgate? I bought a strip-lite plus PSCOMPH to try out but I haven't mounted it yet. The panel is contoured so mounting the strip-lite flush may be a problem.

Right now I have a Dominator Plus T/A mounted to the liftgate upper trim panel (on the liftgate itself) so that mounting area is out of the question.

Back in the day we used to mount two white TIR3's on steady in our Chevy vehicles but I know there's got to be better options out there now.

Thanks in advance.

Dave
 

Sparky_911

Supporting Donor
May 15, 2013
2,648
Central Illinois
Whelen vertex or feniex cannon would fit the bill. Multi color options, compact, pretty bright. Can surface mount or cut holes for flush mount.
 

Sfd295

Member
Jul 6, 2010
39
Massachusetts
View attachment 236499
This was a Whelen perimeter enhancement light. This was installed to light up the drawer while it was open. It works really well.
Thanks for the suggestions. I've looked at the Whelen PEL but unfortunately where you have it mounted is where my Dominator is and based on the angle that's about the only good location for it. I wanted to retain the size of the cargo opening so I put it there instead of hanging down in the interior where it could potentially get in the way.
 

JNST140

Member
Jul 15, 2021
34
SC, United States
Whelen 3" Compartment light in the center of the lift gate trim. You can get it in white or white/red, and should give you more than enough down lighting. You could also go with two on each side of the trim
 

NoLimitSquads

Member
Feb 11, 2021
330
Minnesota
Ive never done it on a dominator, but I have mounted a perimeter light to the bottom of an inner edge. But Ive also mounted the 3” compartment lights to the hatch itself that also work well. I usually make them come on automatically with Core, but I install a switch somewhere in the hatch that allows the light to be turned off if necessary.
 

Sfd295

Member
Jul 6, 2010
39
Massachusetts
Ive never done it on a dominator, but I have mounted a perimeter light to the bottom of an inner edge. But Ive also mounted the 3” compartment lights to the hatch itself that also work well. I usually make them come on automatically with Core, but I install a switch somewhere in the hatch that allows the light to be turned off if necessary.
Thanks for the advice. I actually completely forgot about the ability to have the Cencom Core run the light vs a tilt switch. Thanks for the reminder, saved me a bunch of time. I'm thinking about doing the whelen 3" R/W compartment light probably with the grommet mounting. I'll try to post some pics when I finally get it done.
 
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Sfd295

Member
Jul 6, 2010
39
Massachusetts
Look at these, they are selling extremely well in NV and CA for just what you are asking for.

Actually I have these in one of our newest rigs at work. Never really thought about using one though. Probably going to buy one or two of these (which are surprisingly reasonably priced) and two 3" red/white Whelen units and see how they look. Also got some Whelen 0S units to play around with. They're the ones with the single COB LED specifically meant for steady lighting.

I've had issues at work when a brush truck we have had Vertexes mounted as "curb"/scene lights before the V series lightheads came out. Slowly but surely each one lost LED's until they were replaced with V2's. They'd flicker, go dim, barely glow and then die altogether. I'm assuming they were overheating. The plastic domes on some of them also discolored which drove me insane. Yellowed cracked plastic doesn't look very nice.

Thanks everyone for the ideas. You saved me hours of extra work and frustration.
 

CD3

Member
May 25, 2010
411
USA, CA
You can also try Code 3 M180S with puddle and spot LED's I sell a lot of these to B.C. trucks out here in CA. Alsi in Red/White multicolor.
 

Sfd295

Member
Jul 6, 2010
39
Massachusetts
I ended up ordering the Code 3 Red/White light and a 2 Whelen 0S lights. Got the 0S's today and they're awesome. Smaller than I even expected, there's endless places to mount in the cargo area. Can't wait to get them installed. Going to tie them to the Core and also hook up an external switch mounted in the cargo area to override and turn them off if necessary, just in case. I'll probably just wire the switch as an input to the Core for simplicity sake. It's a double rocker so I'd like one switch for the area lighting override and one to override the two Ion T's on the liftgate hatch that offer rear warning when the hatch is open.

I did purchase one of those flexible strip led's but I'm wary of their durability as they age. I'd love to use them as running board lights but I'm hesitant they won't hold up between the winter salt and summer sun exposure. The Whelen Tracers are overpriced for what they offer in my opinion.

I'll try to post some pics once everything's in. Thanks all for the help.
 

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