{"id":3446,"date":"2025-07-02T12:18:32","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T04:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/?p=3446"},"modified":"2025-07-02T12:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T04:19:08","slug":"side-eye-diode-dynamics-ss2-led-pods-z1-off-road-brackets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/side-eye-diode-dynamics-ss2-led-pods-z1-off-road-brackets\/","title":{"rendered":"Side Eye: Diode Dynamics SS2 LED Pods + Z1 Off-Road Brackets"},"content":{"rendered":"

The third and final part of my (external) lighting upgrade from Diode Dynamics was to add-in some off-road specific ditch lamps. To keep the theme going, I chose Diode Dynamics SSC2 LED pods<\/strong> for my ditch lamps. These have the same rugged, high quality external design very similar to my SS2s – but at half the height, giving them a rectangle shape that is lower in profile. I went with the white \u201cflood\u201d optic, but I also picked up a pair of amber lamp covers to experiment with. Here\u2019s how the lamps look, easily identifiable as Diode Dynamics by the heatsink casing:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I wanted to add ditch lamps since 2020, but the available mounting options were limited. I actually bought a set of Rago Fabrication<\/strong> brackets a couple of years ago but I didn\u2019t like how they were such a pain to install (their \u201cinstructions\u201d basically tell you to yank your fenders outward just to sandwich the brackets under the hood hinges… LOL) and I didn\u2019t like how they smashed the corner windshield trim. It was also a no-go for the Nisstec\/P&P<\/strong> brackets as well; their design was easier to install (using the existing fender bolts) and had the bracket sticking up from between the hood and the fender; however, when I saw the instructions where it said, \u201c\u2026rubber strip protects your hood and fender paint” I passed on those too. Sometime in between then and now I was thinking of modifying a set of Tacoma hood-mounted brackets, but then I saw the Z1 Off-Road Ditch Light Brackets<\/strong> and ordered up a set.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Z1 Ditch Light Brackets<\/strong> (MSRP $99.99) arrived well packaged, and basically ready to install. Z1 also offers a combo set that includes the Ditch Light Brackets plus a pair of gas-charged hood struts for $155.99 MSRP, but I already had the Off-Road Gorilla hood struts installed on my truck. I was curious to see if the Z1 bracket would work with my current ORG struts. I removed one of my ORG brackets to compare:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Z1 bracket mounting ball was a hair larger than 10mm in diameter, while the ORG bracket mounting ball measured 9.88mm in diameter \u2013 mind you, the ORG brackets\/struts were originally installed back in 2017, so that measurement includes wear and tear. Anyhow, the measurements looked like it would work so I went ahead and swapped out the ORG brackets for the Z1 Ditch Light Brackets.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The swap was as straightforward as it gets; I replaced one side at a time, starting with the driver\u2019s side. This let me use my OEM hood prop to hold the hood up while I swapped the brackets. The swap took me about 15 minutes for both sides (at a leisurely pace) and the only tools I needed was a 12mm socket (to swap the brackets) and a flathead screwdriver (to pop-out the locking clip for the hood struts).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

With the brackets installed and ready, I turned to the ditch lamps themselves. I was worried that due to the easily noticeable location of the lights, some shady people might get interest. So, before installing the lights I looked into some security options. After some CSI I decided to use tamper proof bolts: the ditch lamp-to-bracket bolt and the main bracket mounting carriage bolt was replaced with tamper-proof hardware:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I know these aren\u2019t 100% theft-proof, but neither are car alarms. I figure it\u2019s enough of a deterrent to eliminate any opportunistic thief. I also made some harness extensions to make it plug-and-play under the hood (optional amber lens covers shown):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Going with the tamper proof bolts was the right move, as they were the perfect size and length to attach the Diode Dynamics bracket to the Z1 Ditch Lamp bracket:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Installing the actual lights to the bracket was elementary at this point \u2013 I did have a slight concern about the passenger-side, as it looked like there was a possibility that the Diode Dynamics lamp would make contact with my antenna. However once the lights were bolted on, there was ample clearance and nothing to worry about:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

With everything bolted down and wired up, here\u2019s the final product:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Not bad, not bad at all! I like how they aren’t too big to draw attention (*cough TRD people *cough) and I can easily remove them in a couple of minutes if needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The third and final part of my (external) lighting upgrade from Diode Dynamics was to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3558,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,14,188,24],"tags":[790,834,71,349,144,833,206,835],"class_list":["post-3446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exterior-parts-and-mods","category-lighting-mods-and-upgrades","category-new-stuffs","category-off-roady-things","tag-diode-dynamics","tag-ditch-lamps","tag-led","tag-led-lamps","tag-off-road","tag-ss2","tag-upgrade","tag-z1-off-road"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3446"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3561,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3446\/revisions\/3561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectkeira.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}