JK S2 Pro Rear Bumper Lights

The backup light upgrade:

Backup lights on the JK leave a lot to be desired- especially when on the trail in otherwise total darkness. Fortunately our Jeep is equipped with this AEV bumper that has perfect flat spots for a pair of Baja Designs Flush Mount S2 Pro lights. These little things produce an enormous amount of light and are built to the highest quality. 

Installing the reverse lights:

We wanted to be very precise in mounting the lights, so with a little effort in CAD, I made this template and taped one to each side of the bumper. This allowed for center punching for all the mounting holes and the corners of the opening. With a step bit, the corners were drilled to the appropriate diameter:

The tools:

I then removed the rest of the offending metal with my favorite assortment of power tools for this type of thing:

1. M18 Fuel drill 
2. M12 fuel drill 
3. M12 Fuel cutoff tool 
4. M12 Fuel Right Angle Die Grinder 
5. M12 Fuel 18" Bandfile - this is where the real magic is! 
6. M12 Rotary Tool 

Here you can see the hole prior to touching up all the bare steel edges with paint to prevent rust:

After painting the edges, I installed the lights and we wired them back to our modified sPod controller. This setup allows us to either turn them on manually with a switch, or have them come on with backup lights. This allows us to be less offensive to our friends on the trail or in parking lots when we put the Jeep in reverse. And while you've sene the pic before - he's the lights installed in the bumper:

Final Thoughts 

These lights are a huge improvement over the stock backup lights! We've been out on a few longer trips in the dark since installing them, and we wish we'd had them sooner. The ability to disable the "on with reverse" feature came in handy when our friend Ben followed us over Rimrocker Trail from Utah into Colorado in the dark too. 

To be transparent as possible, I want to add that we bought these lights retail through an authorized reseller. Also, we will earn some commission if you buy through one of our provided links. If you found this information useful, and want to help us out, click a link on this page to shop and we'll earn a couple percent. This does not affect the price you pay, and we greatly appreciate it! In fact, any shopping through our affiliate links, like this one to Amazon.com, and this one for Summit Racing, works the same way. For the full affiliate disclosure and vendor list, click here. I wish you the best of luck with your lighting project - Thanks for visiting!