Car Lights and Pulling Fuses

[christopher-plant]

Well, I just went out to the HAS dark site last night, after misreading cleardarksy.com, lol. But it was good practice and I made mistakes without ruining other people's experience as I pulled in with my 2019 Ford Ranger. I tried my best to turn off the headlights, parking lights, and dome lights. I even turned off my gps screen and covered the instrument cluster. But some lights I could not turn off and my manual does not show any fuses for these lights.

Specifically, I found it was impossible to turn off some dim yellow lights other than the parking lights in the front. Additionally, I couldn't find a way to turn off the rear red lamps, back up lights, and the white cargo lamp that is pretty bright, shining into the truck bed. These will only turn off after I close the doors and push the lock button on the remote. I can maneuver the vehicle so that the white cargo lamp shines in the opposite direction of the pads. But that would position the dim yellow lights towards the pads.

Again, there appears to be NO fuses that I can pull to deactivate these (maybe someone here can point me in the right direction).

Would this be a big problem? Maybe I can tape some red film over these lights before I come in.

I do astrophotography so I would hate to drag all that equipment from the parking spaces.

Any suggestions?

Thank you!

-Chris

[andres-salaverria]

Hi!

I obsess about the car lights. My wife and I drive a Honda Civic and I finally figured how to turn all the lights, except for the panel instruments light. I make an effort to get there before dusk. Maybe a silly question, but did you try to google "Ford Explorer 2019 fuse box". That's how I found which fuses to remove from the Honda fuse box. I would not risk any lights outside of the allowed light windows.

A.

[christopher-plant]

The Ford Ranger 2019 manual shows the fuses but not a single one specifies lighting. The only exceptions would be trailer lighting. But there are two fuses for body control module lighting. I know that these are components that use the truck's computer to control the lighting. But I'm not sure if pulling the fuses on these will turn the lights off. Any ideas?

[christopher-plant]

Ok. Just called the dealership. They said there is NO WAY of deactivating the lights and THEY can't (or won't) even do it. But they recommended a custom shop I can go to that might be able to install a modification with a switch....once again proving that astrophotography is an expensive hobby

Maybe just taping cardboard over the lights before I come in is the way to go. I often can't get there before dusk because of my schedule.

[christopher-plant]

New member orientation meeting was very helpful. Here is the final solution. Park in designated parking spots on the north side and just haul my equipment. Already purchased a collapsible dolly for the task. No big deal.