When we first saw one of these products on a truck in one of the galleries over at Ford Truck World, we knew we had to have one of them on our truck. The Line of Fire is one of the best, most innovative truck lighting accessories ever created. It is really neat to see the truck at night with red led’s lit up across the back of the truck. Not only is it cool, but it also ads a greater margin of safety at night by providing a greater area of illumination without distraction.
So after we saw the Line of Fire online, we immediately contacted the Altec Products and explained what we’re building and they were more than happy to help us out. Because we have a service body, we got the shorter, 40″ Line of Fire that is designed for compact trucks. It was just a tad too long, but with a little help from a DeWalt reciprocating saw, it was cut to fit. We only had to remove about ½” from one end. We then sealed it back up with some black silicone just as it had been sealed at the factory. The
great part was that we didn’t even loose any led’s.
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Normally, the Line of Fire light strip would be mounted with the self adhesive mounting tabs that were provided. However, due to this being a service body it was to be mounted on, we found that it would mount perfectly turned upside down and mounted to the back of the bumper. Now what made this a little tricky was the shape of the Line of Fire extrusion. It had a slight lip towards facing outward which we guess is a means of providing extra rigidity. But because we wanted to adhere this side to the back of the bumper, we needed to trim it off. A quick trip through a table saw and the Line of Fire was ready to be mounted.
Next, we purchased some double sided foam type adhesive tape and cut several pieces to be applied to the Line of Fire. Once in place, we loosened the bumper and pulled it away from the truck bed. Now we could slip it in place and press the adhesive to the bumper. It was a very, very snug fit. All that remained was to make the electrical connections. Because we were going to hardwire the Line of Fire, we cut off the trailer plug and fed the wires into the rear power distribution junction box. In the box, then, we make all of the positive and negative connections. We opted not to have the lights brighten with the turn signals. They just remain on at a constant brightness whenever the parking lights are energized. Thanks to Altec Products, we have one of the sharpest looking trucks at night.