Reversing Light upgrade

I am finding my reversing lights a little inadequate on occasion and am looking to upgarde one way or another. I am reluctant to drill the body to mount a light on the roof or rear as I have done with previous Defenders as the cars fairly standard. If I did do this I assume I could just wire into the current reverse lamp wires?
I was wondering these days with LEDs if there is a bulb upgrade I could do instead? It would be easier and would keep the disco looking standard.

When i put LED bulbs in back of my disco on low level lamps the polarity was wrong on the bulb holders so had to cut all the wires and swop positive to earth a visa versa. If i was u id mount so work lamps and wire them in via a relay to the reverse lamp

I've used LEDs in the reversing lights with no real problems, but as bencorkill mentioned, LEDs are polarity conscious so you might have to change the wiring over on the bulbholders.

The type I used were 382 LED CANBUS CREE they're a direct replacement for the normal filament bulbs, provide a bright white light and are easily available on that well known auction website. Since there's a lot less electronics on the Disco 1 as opposed to the Disco 2, I would hazard a guess that you don't need canbus fittings, so there'll be even more 382 CREE LEDs on the site.

If you don't want to drill holes in the bodywork you could always mount a work light to the gutter using a CB antenna mount and then have it wired (via a relay) to come on with the reversing lights?

Not the best image....but this is how I have mine.



It isn't actually wired to come on with the reverse lights but is switched from the dash using the redundant front fog light switch, it's also possible to turn it on as a work light using a 2 way switch just inside the back door.

Cheers gents for your thoughts. I have a disco 2 so sadly canbus may be an issue for me. Never considerd a cb mount before, what do you do with the wires? take them through the door seal? Shame I cant just bang higher wattage normal filament bulbs in.

Stick a lamp in the middle of the spare wheel. Either drill the wheel mount or use one of the bolts that hold the spare on to fasten a bracket to.

you can buy 12v magnetic lamps

Cable for mine goes through the door seal - poked a hole in the seal and shoved the cable through before connecting it up to the wiring inside. Nice and simple - doesn't get in the way!

It's the same way that I have the cable for the CB exiting the car as well (albeit on the other side of the door opening....

It's worth buying a decent CB mount as I snapped 2 cheaper ones off when I first did it when I drove some fairly tight lanes. In fact I snapped the CB off as well last week (cheap mount that came with the kit) so just replaced that with a decent one, even then it was only a tenner or so.

I have ordered a couple of led bulbs from ebay for about £2 to see if they are any good. If not Ill have to re assess. got to admit my expectations for £2 are not high but stranger things have happened.

I went along the cb mount for my work light too as I didn't like the idea of drilling holes in the bodywork, ( nothing at all to do with rust, you understand!). I've made a switch on the speaker panel that I've powered off the towing relay; don't need the ignition on to use it. Think I'll put one on the other side too and use for reversing. Led is the forward IMO.