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.
The honest answer is that it depends entirely on the position. One of the four moves in an evening. One of them is the whole install again. Two of them were sized to the truck they came off, which is the part people do not expect.
Rock lights on magnets: the easiest thing on the truck to move
If your rock lights are on magnetic mounts, removal is lifting them off. Each rock light takes two magnets, so a set of four mounts is eight magnets and covers four lights, and the mounts stay attached to the lights rather than to the truck.
The mounts are matched to the rock light they are fitted to, not to the vehicle, so they move with the lights and keep working. That is the whole argument for magnets that people underestimate at the point of sale, and it is set out in magnetic vs bolt-on mounting.
Rock lights that were bolted on: the lights move, the holes stay
Bolt-on rock lights unbolt in minutes too. The difference is what you leave behind, which is a set of drilled holes in a frame that now belongs to somebody else.
That is not a reason to avoid drilling. It is a reason to decide at purchase time rather than at sale time. If the truck was always a keeper, bolts were the right call. If it was a lease or a two year truck, magnets were, and that decision is made once.
What a magnet needs on the next truck
Do not assume the mounts that held on the old truck will hold on the new one. A magnet holds on bare ferrous steel and nothing else.
Frame rails and crossmembers are usually steel. Aluminium body panels, plastic wheel well liners, composite bumpers and painted trim are not, no matter how strong the magnet is, and heavy undercoating sits between the magnet and the metal. Walk the new truck with one mount in your hand before you plan a layout, and pull sideways rather than straight out when you test a spot, because sideways is how road forces actually load it. The fitting detail is in the magnetic mount guide.
Wheel lights: budget for the same job twice
Wheel lights are the position where moving them is a real decision rather than an afternoon. The ring mounts to the dust shield, which means the wheel, caliper and rotor come off to take it out, exactly as they did to put it in. Two to four hours to remove, and the same again to fit.
Three things are worth knowing before you commit to moving a set. The rings are handed, two directional rings per side, so mark them as they come off. The supplied nuts and bolts have to go back on, because using anything else voids the warranty. And the wire slack has to be planned again from scratch on the new truck, because insufficient slack voids it too and the new truck routes differently.
Replacement brackets at $35 are worth ordering alongside a move, since the older aluminium brackets are the part most likely to be tired after a teardown. The full job is in how hard is it to install wheel lights.
Trac bar and valance were sized to the truck they came off
These two are the surprise. Both are sized rather than universal.
Trac bar light strips are 53 inches and come two to a set, mounted along the lateral bar. They also only make visual sense once there is meaningful lift, so a set that looked right on a lifted truck may have nowhere to go on a stock height one. That trade is explained in trac bar lights explained.
Valance kits come in 10, 15 and 20 piece sizes chosen to suit the panel under your front bumper, and the strips mount on adhesive rather than hardware. Measure the new truck's valance before you assume the old kit covers it, using the method in what a truck valance light actually is. If you want to move an adhesive-mounted kit rather than buy a new one, ask sales@southernlumen.com first rather than pulling at it.
The harness and the wire are the parts people forget
The 30A harness at $55 is one harness per vehicle. It covers a set of rock lights, a set of wheel lights, or both on a single truck, and it ships with the relay, switch and fuse. It comes out of the old truck and goes into the new one, but it has to be mounted and routed again, not transplanted as an assembly.
Wire is the part that rarely transfers. Runs were cut to the old truck's routing, and a longer wheelbase or a different frame turns a run that was exactly long enough into one that is four feet short. Either budget for the 50FT 2PIN 16GA spool at $35, or plan around extension wires, and walk the new route with a tape before you cut anything. The whole method is in planning your lighting wire run.
Registration follows the order, not the truck
Warranty registration is tied to your order rather than to a vehicle. It is one registration per order, filed within 30 days of the order date, and the registration number is what a claim is filed against, so keep it whatever happens to the truck.
Two practical consequences. If you are selling the truck with the lights still on it, do not promise the buyer anything about cover until you have asked sales@southernlumen.com what applies. And if you are moving the lights, the install conditions on the warranty page apply to the refit exactly as they applied to the original install, which is the main reason to do the second install as carefully as the first.
What to decide before you list the truck
Work out which positions are actually coming with you, and price the difference. Rock lights on magnets are close to free to move. Wheel lights cost an afternoon at each end. Trac bar and valance may not fit the next truck at all, and leaving them on a truck you are selling is a legitimate answer rather than a loss.
If the new truck is a step up in size, read which position to fit first before you rebuild the whole thing, because the sensible order changes when the harness is already in your hands. Browse rock lights, mounts and accessories, and check current lead times before you plan the swap weekend. Shipping is $10 flat rate, free over $150.