Installing a Lighted Truck Box Was Remarkably Easy
Updated: Mar. 17, 2021One of our editors took a crack at installing a Weather Guard lighted truck box. It went smoother than you might have thought.
Picture this: you are sitting in the driver’s seat of your trusty truck on the way home from a long day on the job. You are trying to relax, but all you can focus on is the sound of your tools clanking together as they roll around in the bed of your truck. Sounds like a nightmare, right?
Good news: truck boxes are a great way to store your tools in your truck and they are surprisingly easy to install. I should know, because last week I got the opportunity to go through the entire process of setting up a Weather Guard Full-Size Saddle Box with Integrated Lighting and the whole thing took under 30 minutes.
A little bit of context: I had never installed a truck box before last week. I am actually a part of the rare breed of people that have worked in the construction industry, but never owned a truck (there are more of us than you might think). That should tell you all you need to know about how easy it was to install this lighted truck box from Weather Guard.
(Note: This truck box is made to work with full-size Ford, Nissan, or Toyota trucks.)
Step One: Attaching the truck box
Getting the box into the bed of the truck and bolting it down was actually the easiest part of this installation. The box itself is relatively light but awkward, so I needed some help lifting it up and getting it into position. The rest of the install was a solo job. The truck box rests on small rubber pads on the walls of the truck bed and attaches to it with two j-bolts on either side. Do not immediately bolt everything down all the way, though. Keeping the box loose will give you more wiggle room as you set up the lighted part of this lighted truck box. Just be sure to remember to finish tightening everything up after you have connected the lights.
Step Two: Hooking up the lights
Setting up the truck box’s built-in lights to run off of the truck’s battery was slightly more complicated than getting the thing into place, but should be doable for anyone who knows anything about how trucks work and is not afraid of getting a little dirty. The first step was to disconnect the negative battery terminal from the battery so that you do not end up on the receiving end of an unwanted electrical shock.
The truck box came with a long wiring harness, one end connecting to the fuse box at the front of the truck and the other connecting to the box itself. After connecting the wiring harness to both the fuse box and a nearby existing ground, I slid the wire down and through the truck’s engine. That was when things got a little messy, as I had to get on my back under the truck and snake the wiring harness along the truck’s bed, connecting it with zip ties every few feet.
Once the wiring harness was near the truck bed, I popped out the knock-out plug that is built into trucks for exactly this sort of thing and pushed the wire through. Then I fed the harness through an access point in the side of the truck box and connected it to the box’s built-in 2 pin connector.
That was all it took. Once the wiring harness was connected at both ends I finished bolting down the sides of the truck box and opened the lid. Inside, the lights were shining, noticeable even in the full mid-afternoon sun.
