Billet Aluminum triple Baja Designs 3rd Brake Light for 2G Tundra

I’m really excited about this thing we made… I’m gonna let the pictures speak for themselves. Then I’ll do a little write up.

Purchase link…










Ok now some boring words…
We’ve seen the other options and some are great, but we wanted to take it to the next level. So we started designing an we finally have something worth sharing. This this is A SOLID block of aluminum. It attaches using the factory mounting locations and accepts 3 @Baja Designs S2 Lights. The front face is a separate piece for a few functional reasons including making the installation easy. Removal of the original 3rd brake light is accomplished by pulling down the headliner but installing the billet can be done from the outside.
The S2s can be wired to the original harness but you do need to change the connector, we may make a plug and play harness later. At the time of wiring you can swap the 2 cargo lights and 1 brake light so that you have 2 brake and one cargo if desired.

This is a new product and we would love to get some feedback. Even if you’re not buying one…
What do you think?
Any questions ?
What would you change, add or remove?

 

Looks great! You should probably send me one for testing…. Just to be sure!


I do think most people will be interested in hearing about how it seals to the cab. A lot of people on here seem to have experienced their 3rd brake light leaking into the cab.

 

Couple things here. Cab seal, adding nmo antenna mount provision and some people like the ability to add a camera placement. I personally run an aftermarket third light with S2’s and added additional sealing for my pnw location.

 

Looks very nice

 

There is a flat surface behind the housing in the area surrounding the lights and mounting bolts. There is a matching flat surface on the cab side that surrounds the hole that is cut into the cab, the main seal is accomplished at this surface, we used silicone to seal that entire area. Then the perimeter of the housing was again sealed with silicone to prevent water even getting into the inner seal, also fills any gaps that may be present from roof to housing.
I’ll get better pictures later but here’s one for now…

 

No longer in a tundra, but here’s my 2 cents. Antenna mount, make one of the s2 housings camera mount or build a spot for a camera to mount

 

The cab seal is accomplished by a simple Fay Sealing operation. I know not everyone will be familiar with that but at least for now Fay seal is the way, a fillet seal at the perimeter is recommended as well.
Adding a camera would be awesome, we don’t have a solution for that yet but the faceplate can be easily removed so it would be relatively easy to design a plate that has a camera mount instead of a Baja light or next to it maybe.
NMO antenna is doable too. We don’t have too much experience with that though so we have some research to do before we throw that in.

 

X2 on that.

Great looking product.

If you're asking for the dream platform: Brakes + camera(s) + cargo light + NMO. I wouldn't use the cargo light most of the time (tonneau cover), but a rear-facing dash cam and/or a rear view mirror cam would be nice options. Squinting as I link this - - no offense intended at all: EVIL OFFROAD 3RD BRAKE LIGHT DUAL CAMERA SYSTEM — EVIL OFFROAD

 

Like said above, a rear camera location would be ideal for rear cargo or dash cam setup.

 

I really think the main problem with ANY aftermarket 3rd brake light setup for the 2-2.5 gen Tundras is the factory mounting. Relying on 2 small mount points that are sketch right off the line and get sketchier/weaker the more times you take the housing off, is a design flaw imo. The most success I've had against leakage has been with a housing that incorporates more anchor points than the OEM housing.

 

I think it's dope and absolutely gorgeous. If you sell them I'd do a raw option, anodizing away the beauty of machining marks is criminal

 

I agree that having more anchor points would help, however, I think that issue can be engineered out. The cab has the perfect flat surface, it should NOT be that hard to stop the leaks unless you don’t have a matching flat surface, we do. Adding holes to the cab to stop leaks also seems like maybe not the BEST way.

 

I agree but it’s worse than you think, we’re powdercoating these… it’s sucks that anodizing fades. But in order to get a durable finish, there aren’t to many options.
I can get you a machined one if you want…

 

Enough said. I’m already working on a module that will replace one of the lights with a camera and antenna mount.
Also a way to add that without removing any lights.

 

Make it plug and play with a harness and seal option. I’d rather not have a pound of silicone around such a nice piece. Can you cut a gasket into the backside to reuse the oem gasket or?

 

It’s cleaner if done right in my opinion but we’re looking for something that works better, the original sealant is basically glue. Can’t be reused.

 

I can’t think of the word to describe what I’m trying to say lol, chamfer edge maybe? A gasket over silicone, heck someone might be able to laser cut a gasket for the design making it seal to the cab. I’m just not a fan of silicone , windshield adhesive, or glue.

Ballpark us on a price

 

Awesome job! That is sweet! My only feedback would be I wouldn't want to sacrifice any light slots to brake lights to be BMV compliant. It's definitely a sleek clean look!

 

Looks awesome. I second the versatility feedback when it comes to a camera and/or lights.

I am rocking the stock setup. Always in the market for a cool upgrade.

 

It's not that there's an inadequate surface, but more of a size to adequate pressure against seal ratio. The weight of the piece + the length (even OEM length) necessitates more anchor points to ensure an adequate seal.

 

we already have this up online. …and we are exploring other seal options but at least for now, those that are ok to do sealant in this manner will be able to get one.

 

We’re going to be fixing that, I don’t know anbout adding dedicated brake lights but possibly a quick swappable lens that will turn white or amber into red.

 

Good looking product, needs a camera mount on top. Silicone is going to be the best bet given the way it mounts.

Speaking of how it mounts, looks heavy. Whats it weigh with lights ? Whats a factory light weigh ?

 

The other feedback I would suggest is to standardize the hardware type. Stainless everything and/or color match everything, Round socket head cap screws or countersunk if possible. For a premium product, standardization and corrosion resistance is expected. I know, knit picking, but the devil is in the details.

 

Haven’t weighed it yet but it’s not light. We did install it with just a rubber gasket and screws (no adhesive of any kind) and took it out to the desert, no movement. No problems. To it would seem
Like the shape along with the screws is enough force to keep it in place. Add the silicone and theres basically no way that thing is going anywhere. I could be wrong but that also why it’s good to have silicone instead of just a piece of rubber sealing the parts together.

 

Yes. That’s going to happen. This is an early version and the customer liked it like that. All hardware IS stainless though, even the black is stainless.

 

why not Type 3 Hard Coat anodize? That doesn't have near the fading issues.

 

My thoughts:

• It looks hawt™
• I'm curious how you are getting the "slot" look on the red BD's, and what BD says about that, because I know they are sensitive to lens colors and patterns based on their own performance testing regarding heat dissipation and output degradation (i.e. the reason they claim to only offer the green, red, and blue S2 lenses in a spot pattern).
• Looks heavy and is relying on two M6 bolts to hold it and provide the clamping force needed to bed whatever gasket is used. Up here in the PNW I'd be worried, and that bead of extra goop around the outside looks like ass. There's a reason the factory one uses a gasket that has adhesive on both sides.
• It provides no functional improvement over factory with an insanely premium price. The next closest competitors are Evil ($270 "bare" - which still includes the brake and cargo lights up to $675 with the TBL, cargo, and with S2 Pro "chase" lights and an NMO antenna mount) and Bullet Proof ($441 for dual NMO mounts and re-use factory TBL lens/guts, or $545 with the dual NMO mounts and adds BD rock "chase" lights). Both of those competitors are supplementing the TBL/Cargo lights with other features and functions (Evil offers a camera that will mount in place of one of the S2 chase lights)

For me, I like the look of this housing the best of them all, aside from my concerns on mount strength and waterproofing.
I think the mounting of the BPD one is the most rock solid and, well, bullet proof. Part of me wishes I hadn't sold it...
I think the flexibility of options in the Evil one takes the cake, other than the dual NMO of the BPD.
I think S2's are overkill for chase lights for all of these options. S1's aren't really much cheaper but are a bit smaller (maybe not in depth). Since your design is a swappable outer plate, perhaps work up a combination of S1's for chase (amber lens) and rock lights for cargo (clear) and brake (red) to provide the requisite output requirements without going overboard (not sure we need 43W of red LED light blowing out the eyes of the traffic behind us when we hit the brakes). Offer a blank plate for those that want to have a little DIY (some folks prefer the DD lights, others might want to just make up their own combinations). I'm not sure why you need the two vertical bars in the middle, and they detract from your ability to truly optimize the space inside. Drop the price of the bare unit about $100-$150. Put two NMO connectors through the top of it - either standard with caps for those that won't use them or as an option with a mild price increase (Evil is $35 extra for one).

Happy to critique V2 for you when you get there...

 

We’ve done that to other products. Still fades. Not as much but for a piece that is going to end up costing you just under a grand with lights, no one wants even a little fading.
Or maybe some of you do? That would get a big bold warning on the product page though…

 

I can tell its a heavy pig, thats why I asked, it could lose a LOT of weight. I think long term its going to be an issue, generic silicone doesn't last forever in an application like that. I'd actually have more concerns about it tearing out at the 2 mounting points.

Not bagging on you or your product, failure analysis was a good bit of my career.