Remember when we used to wire up auxiliary lights with basic toggle switches?

Back around 2011 I was running a single relay and a Radio Shack toggle for my bumper lights on a 92 F-150. Now I just bought a switch panel with built in fuses and a CAN bus controller for my 2020 Silverado, which costs $150 more but took 20 minutes instead of 4 hours. The old way felt more like real work where you could trace every wire by hand and actually understand the whole loop. Anyone else miss the simplicity of just cutting and crimping without a computer in the mix?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_leo7d ago

Man I feel this so hard. My buddy's got a 79 Bronco and we just wired a set of KC lights with a simple toggle and inline fuse. Took maybe an hour and I could draw you the entire circuit from memory right now. My 2018 Tacoma has all these modules talking to each other through a data bus and if one sensor goes bad the whole lighting system throws a code. The old way made you think about every decision - what gauge wire, where to ground it, how to run it clean through the fire wall. Now it's just plug and pray the computer likes your aftermarket stuff. You ever catch yourself staring at a harness and thinking a soldering iron and some heat shrink would have been way more satisfying?

dixon.james7d ago

My buddy fried his whole dash trying to tap into a modern canbus system, lol.