And Now For Something Completely Different

 Ah, showing my age there I know.

It's not completely different - it's still car mods.

Winter gives me a problem at my girlfriends house, The only practical way of us both parking outside is if I reverse my car in, But as her house is at the end of a short private drive past two other houses, there are all sorts of hazards from bushes to cars at odd angles. It's not a problem in the summer when I can see, but when it's dark, it's VERY dark & one of the TinTop's few downsides shows up - the reverse light is rubbish for seeing where you're going & there's no reversing camera.

This isn't the best pic!

So what to do? I considered fitting after market reverse lights, but they are mostly chrome, meant for '50s cars & would look stupid on the Cactus. Then I found an LED bulb that would do the job light wise, but how to mount it? The last post was singing the praises of the 3D printer & this one will too. I drew up a "cannister" & printed it in hard plastic, then in soft rubbery TPU I printed a seal ring & in harder (but still flexible) TPU I printed an end cap with two tiny holes to let the wires through. My first thought was to print a housing which would fit into a hole cut into the rear bumper, but then I saw the 10mm thick plate the bike rack slides onto & a plan hatched.

I drew up a "sleeve" to slide over the plate & hold a pair of the bulb barrels, each pointing down & outward. I ran a wire from the fuse box via a switch on the dash, back to the boot where I fitted a relay triggered by the reversing light, then down to the tow hitch where there's a "SuperSeal" connector.

So - the "light pod" fits over the bike mounting plate & is triggered by the reverse lamps, but I can also switch the whole lot off to avoid dazzling folk in "normal" reversing.

Blanking Plug - in case you were wondering

If the MoT man objects or I want to fit the bike rack, it just comes off & unplugs & I have another SuperSeal plug blanked off with another 3D printed sealing cover to keep the weather out of the socket.