Truck Lighting Guides
Aug 25, 2026
Making Your Truck Lights Match: Planning a Cohesive Setup
A truck with mismatched lighting looks worse than a truck with no lighting at all. One set that reads warm white, another that reads blue, a valance strip a shade off, and the eye catches every seam. The trucks that...
Aug 25, 2026
Cheap Rock Lights vs the Real Thing: What a Bargain Set Costs You
Search rock lights and you will find sets for the price of lunch and sets that cost real money, and from a thumbnail they look identical. They are not. The gap is in the parts of the light you cannot...
Aug 24, 2026
Switch, Upfitter, or Harness: How to Power a Truck Light Set
Every light set we sell, rock lights, wheel lights, valance strands, all of it, needs a source of power. The lights are the easy part. The question that trips people up is how to feed them cleanly and safely, with...
Aug 24, 2026
Truck Valance Lights: Where They Mount and What They Light Up
Valance lights are one of the most asked about setups we sell, and one of the least understood, because the word does not tell you much on its own. This is a plain guide to what they are on a...
Aug 23, 2026
RGBW Wheel Lights: Color You Can Change
Most of our wheel lights do one color and do it well. The RGBW set does something different: it changes color on command. Red, green, blue, and a true white channel in the same ring, run from your phone. Here...
Aug 23, 2026
The Wiring Harness and Wireless Remote, Explained
Every light we sell needs power and a way to switch it on. That is what the wiring harness and wireless remote do. The lights get the attention, but the harness is the part that decides whether the install is...
Aug 21, 2026
Switchback Turn Signals and the Startup Animation, Explained
Switchback is one of those words that turns up in a product title and never gets explained. It is not a brand and it is not a single color. It means two colors living in the same strip, white and...
Aug 21, 2026
48 LED Rock Lights: The Step Up From the 36
Our rock light sizing guide walks the 9, 24 and 36 LED, the three sizes most trucks end up running. The 48 LED came after that guide was written, and it answers one specific question: what do you buy when...
Aug 20, 2026
Will Wheel Lights Survive Brake Dust, Road Spray, and the Car Wash?
Wheel lights mount to the brake dust shield behind each wheel. That is about the dirtiest, wettest spot on your whole truck. Brake dust bakes off the rotor, road spray comes up off the tire, salt gets thrown around all...
Aug 20, 2026
Do Rock Lights Drain Your Battery?
It's a fair question to ask before you buy. You are about to wire a set of lights to your truck, and you don't want to walk out one morning to a dead battery. The short answer is no, rock...
Aug 18, 2026
What "Plug and Play" Really Means for Truck Lighting
When people search for "plug and play" truck lighting, they are almost always asking one thing underneath it: will I have to cut wires, solder, or pay someone to install this. That is fair to want to know before you...
Aug 18, 2026
Starlight Headliner Design Ideas
A starlight headliner is one of the few truck lighting projects where the design decisions matter more than the parts. Two trucks can run the exact same kit and look completely different, one reads like a real night sky, the...
Aug 16, 2026
Wheel Light Intensity: What Ride Height Decides and What the Names Hide
Search for high intensity wheel lights and you find four names in a ladder, four prices, and almost nothing about which one belongs on your truck. Standard, High Intensity, Extreme, Ultimate. The order is real, but two of the four...
Aug 16, 2026
Pure White Rock Lights: What Pure White Actually Means
Search for pure white rock lights and most of what comes back is a listing with the word white in the title and nothing behind it. White is not one color. It is a decision, and the two ways it...
Aug 14, 2026
Moving Your Lights to a New Truck: What Comes Off and What Does Not
People buy lighting for the truck they have. Trucks get sold. The question that follows is a fair one and nobody answers it on a product page: when the truck goes, what comes with you. It depends entirely on the...
Aug 14, 2026
Wheel Lights and Brake Jobs: What Mounting to the Dust Shield Means Later
A wheel light kit is the only lighting job on a truck that touches the brakes. That is worth understanding before you order rather than after, because it changes how one routine piece of maintenance goes for as long as...
Aug 13, 2026
A Truck Light Stopped Working: What to Check, in Order
Something on the truck has stopped lighting up. Before you start pulling brackets off, it is worth knowing that the light itself is rarely the part that failed. On almost every set we see, the fault is in the wire,...
Aug 13, 2026
Rock Lights for a Ford F-150: What the Aluminum Body Changes
Search for rock lights for a Ford F-150 and you will find listings with a Ford badge on them and very little about what is different on this truck. The hardware is not different. One thing about the truck is,...
Aug 12, 2026
Rock Lights for a Jeep Wrangler: What Actually Matters
Search for rock lights for a Jeep Wrangler and you will find plenty of kits with Jeep on the box and very little explanation of what is actually different about putting them on one. The answer is that the hardware...
Aug 12, 2026
Rock Lights, Wheel Lights, Valance or Trac Bar: What to Fit First
Most people do not build a truck's lighting all at once. They do one position, live with it for a few months, and then add the next. The order you do them in matters, because the first one sets your...
Aug 11, 2026
Rock Light Magnetic Mounts: What You Get and How to Fit Them
Every rock light we sell arrives ready to bolt on, with the holes in the housing and the hardware in the box. Magnetic mounts are the alternative for people who do not want to drill a frame, or who are...
Aug 11, 2026
How to Plan a Lighting Wire Run Before You Order
Most lighting installs do not stall on the lights. They stall on the wire. Somebody gets three wheels done on a Saturday, reaches the rear driver side, and finds the run is four feet short. That is a parts order...
Aug 10, 2026
Replacing One Wheel Light Strip Instead of the Whole Kit
Curbs, road debris and a badly judged parking block all do the same thing to a wheel light: they take out one strip on one wheel. That is not a reason to rebuy a set. Every strip we build is...
Aug 10, 2026
9, 24 or 36 LED Rock Lights: Which Size to Buy
Southern Lumen builds eight sizes of pure white rock lights. This guide covers the three smallest, the ones most people start with: a 9 LED rock light, a 24 LED rock light and a 36 LED rock light. For more...
Aug 9, 2026
Quad Row vs Dual Chip Switchback Wheel Lights
Southern Lumen builds switchback wheel lights in two versions, and the product names do not make the difference obvious. One is a quad row kit, the other is a dual chip kit. They cost different money and they change color...
Aug 9, 2026
Rock Lights for a Ram 1500: How Many and Where They Go
If you have searched for rock lights for a Ram 1500, you have probably noticed something odd: almost nobody sells a kit labeled for your truck specifically. That is not an oversight. It is because rock lights are one of...
Aug 8, 2026
Are Rock Lights Legal in Texas? (And Wheel Lights Too)
Short answer: steady pure white or amber accent lighting is generally allowed on Texas roads, while flashing, strobing, or emergency colors are not. This is general guidance, not legal advice. Generally allowed: steady, true pure white or amber accent lighting....
Aug 7, 2026
How Hard Is It to Install Wheel Lights?
Moderate difficulty, two to four hours, and that estimate is real. Here is what is in the box, what else you actually need, the order of the job, and the one thing that decides whether your install takes two hours...
Aug 6, 2026
What Actually Kills a Rock Light? IP Ratings and Real Failure Modes
An IP68 rating tells you the rock light is sealed. It tells you nothing about the wire, the bracket or the connector, the parts your install decides.
Aug 6, 2026
Will Wheel Lights Fit My Wheels? What You Have to Measure
No wheel diameter to measure and no size to pick at checkout. Here is what a wheel light kit mounts to, and what to check before you order.
Aug 5, 2026
Trac Bar Lights: What They Are and Where They Go
The lighting most people have never heard of, and one of the few that changes how a lifted truck looks from the side at night.
Aug 4, 2026
Rock Light Wiring 101: The Harness, the Remote, and What Install Involves
What actually happens between opening the box and lighting the underbody: the harness, the remote, planning the run, and the mistakes worth avoiding.
Aug 4, 2026
Wheel Light Rows Explained: What 2, 5 and 7 Rows Actually Mean
Rows are the one wheel light spec you can count with your own eyes. Here is what each tier gives you, and what row count does and does not tell you.
Aug 4, 2026
Magnetic vs Bolt-On: Mounting Rock Lights Without Drilling
Every rock light we sell can bolt on, and most of them can mount magnetically instead. Here is how to choose, and when drilling is still the right call.
Aug 3, 2026
What Is a Valance on a Truck?
The valance is the low panel under your front bumper. What it does, why trucks have one, what happens if you lose it, and why people light them.
Aug 3, 2026
Switchback vs Pure White Wheel Lights: Which Should You Buy?
Switchback adds an amber turn signal to your wheel lights. Here is what that actually means, how quad row and dual chip differ, and when plain white is the better call.
Aug 3, 2026