Review & Install Video
I'm Ryan from extremeterrain.com, and this is my review and installation of LED strips, fitting all 1987 and up Wranglers. Today we are going to talk through the installation of these LED strips, but also a few of the features and the construction. These strips are available in either 15 or 36-inch sizes, and they're also available in a variety of different colors. You can get these in white, red, blue, green, amber, or a color-change version, which is going to be more expensive because it does have a controller to adjust the colors. These can be put anywhere from interior to exterior to under the hood, anywhere you wanna add some light for either functional work light or for an accent light. These will also make a pretty good rock light if you're somebody who goes off road at night and wants their spotter to be able to see underneath their vehicle to avoid getting hung up.
Regardless of what color and what size strip you decide to go with, these are a flexible light, so again, they are very versatile as far as where you put them. They're also a very, very bright light, so you are going to get a ton of light output from these little strips. Something else that makes these very versatile is the fact that they have pre-determined cutting points. So if you have the 36-inch strip, you can certainly cut them at the pre-determined point, solder an additional set of leads onto it, and now you have two shorter lights. Speaking of the leads, that is how you will attach these to the vehicle and get them wired up. They do have a two-wire lead that is pre-soldered on there, so if you don't want to cut the light, you can certainly just attach that to any 12 volt source on your vehicle and you're good to go. However, if you do wanna cut, you will have to do a little bit of soldering to add a second set of leads onto that second light that you've created.
As far as actually attaching these onto the vehicle, these come with 3M adhesive on the back of them that will make it very easy to attach anywhere you wanna put them. Again, these are going to be weatherproof, so you can put them outside, under the hood, or inside your vehicle. Getting these lights attached to your Jeep is, as I mentioned, a very, very simple process. However, there is going to be wiring involved no matter how you decide to get these hooked up. So, I am going to give these a two out of three wrenches. If you're somebody who's very comfortable with automotive wiring, this won't be a big deal and should be a very easy install for you. However, if you haven't done a lot of automotive wiring in the past, this might take a little bit more research and a little bit more time to complete, or you may wanna take this to a shop and have them help you out.
Getting the light attached in its position, as I mentioned before, is done with the pre-applied 3M adhesive, so all you need to do is clean the surface you wanna attach the light to and give it a good press. After that, you will wanna route your wiring and make all of your wiring connections. I will say that this install will probably take you around an hour, that's if you are doing the wiring yourself. Of course, if all you're doing is sticking the lights on, that can be done in less than five minutes. As with any time you're using 3M adhesive for installation, you wanna make sure that the surface you're attaching the light to is very, very clean. You can wipe it down with an alcohol prep pad or any other alcohol-based cleaner, and that will ensure that this is going to stick and stay where you put it for a good long time.
Another tip for using this 3M adhesive is that it likes to be applied when it's warm. You wanna be sticking it onto your Jeep when it's about 70 degrees. So, whether that means in a heated garage in the wintertime or outside in the summer, you wanna make sure this is done when it's warm outside. If you do it when it's cold, the adhesive isn't going to set up, and you could end up with the lights falling off.
There are a lot of different places to get LED strip lights like these ones. However, these ones are going to be a little higher quality because they're very bright, they'll last a long time, and they have real 3M adhesive on the back of them. Some of the cheaper versions are going to use a lesser quality diode, which is going to burn out or not produce quite as much light, or they could have a cheaper adhesive on the back, making the light fall off very easily.
So those are the reasons that I think these are worth the a little bit of additional cost you have to pay for them over some of the other versions that are available in the market. So whether you're looking to add a work light underneath your hood, accent lights on your interior, or rock lights under your chassis, these flexible adhesive LED Strips are going to do the job.
So, that's my review of the LED Strips, fitting all 1987 and up Wranglers, that you can find right here at extremeterrain.com.
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