Wiring up LED step lights

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Fishman1113

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I'm trying to figure out where the lighting wiring harness is for the door lights. From what I'm told, that's the usual hook up. I've tried looking at wiring diagrams and just getting confused. Lol. I have a 2012 1500 outdoorsman. Any ideas would be great. Thanks

Here's a pic of the steps. [emoji846]
a0da983e001edea6193a1fa636ece245.jpg


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jcarden10

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I wired mine into the drivers side footwell lighting. I was planning to find the wire under the driver side door sill that goes to the cargo lights and tie in there, so they wouldnt come on when I turn on the interior lights, but I ended up taking the easy way out.


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rabbitreborn

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I have the same running boards and I love the way they look and the sturdyness of them.

I was in the same boat as you are trying to figure out where to trigger them from. My truck is a 2016 Tradesman 2500 CCLB 6.4 Heni. My first trigger location was a temp spot just to get the lights up and running until I had more time. I triggered off the power from the BCM going to the door module. Bad idea as then the boards were lit the entire time the truck was running.....

After digging through some wiring diagrams, I decided to trigger from the puddle lights. This meant adding a wire to the door panel since the module in the door decides when the puddle lights come on. On my truck I found it was the Blue wire with a yellow tracer. I T-Tapped into that wire and ran the trigger to a relay under the hood so there was not alot of extra current draw on the puddle light circuit.
 
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Fishman1113

Fishman1113

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I wired mine into the drivers side footwell lighting. I was planning to find the wire under the driver side door sill that goes to the cargo lights and tie in there, so they wouldnt come on when I turn on the interior lights, but I ended up taking the easy way out.


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So do they turn on when you unlock the doors? My goal would be for them to turn on when I hit the unlock button on the key fob.


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jcarden10

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So do they turn on when you unlock the doors? My goal would be for them to turn on when I hit the unlock button on the key fob.


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Yes, they do. All interior lights come on when the doors are unlocked.


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Fishman1113

Fishman1113

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Yes, they do. All interior lights come on when the doors are unlocked.


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Great thanks. Where did you find that wiring harness? I'd that through the firewall under the dash?


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Fishman1113

Fishman1113

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I have the same running boards and I love the way they look and the sturdyness of them.

I was in the same boat as you are trying to figure out where to trigger them from. My truck is a 2016 Tradesman 2500 CCLB 6.4 Heni. My first trigger location was a temp spot just to get the lights up and running until I had more time. I triggered off the power from the BCM going to the door module. Bad idea as then the boards were lit the entire time the truck was running.....

After digging through some wiring diagrams, I decided to trigger from the puddle lights. This meant adding a wire to the door panel since the module in the door decides when the puddle lights come on. On my truck I found it was the Blue wire with a yellow tracer. I T-Tapped into that wire and ran the trigger to a relay under the hood so there was not alot of extra current draw on the puddle light circuit.



I pulled my door tonight and found that my puddle lights are the blue with yellow tracer also. I actually found the wire on the wiring harness under the hood. I will likely just tap into it there. Was your hot the black and white wire or the solid black. I'm assuming the black and white. My lights didn't come with a wiring diagram so I'll have to wing it. Unless I can find one online. I'll probably try searching for that tonight.


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MaizeNBlue

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I just tapped into the oem footwell light harness under the dash. I have a Express so it didn't come with the actual bulbs installed, but the wirimg is there for the footwells. I have since added a couple of red led strips that function as the actual footwell lights.
 
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Fishman1113

Fishman1113

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I just tapped into the oem footwell light harness under the dash. I have a Express so it didn't come with the actual bulbs installed, but the wirimg is there for the footwells. I have since added a couple of red led strips that function as the actual footwell lights.



Maybe I'll do that. Where did you attach your ground? I know there's a million places to do it. Just curious


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Fishman1113

Fishman1113

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Maybe I'll do that. Where did you attach your ground? I know there's a million places to do it. Just curious


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My Outdoorsman doesn't have the footwell lights either. Do you (or anyone) have a picture of the correct harness. I'll get out my multimeter again but figured if anyone had a picture handy it may save me some time tonight when I do the install. Thanks!


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MaizeNBlue

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I could get you a picture tonight of the drivers side... the passenger side is a little more difficult to find. There is a thread in the DIY section about footwell lights...its been a long time since I read it... but it does a great job of telling you how to locate them both. It's pretty easy.
 
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Fishman1113

Fishman1113

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I could get you a picture tonight of the drivers side... the passenger side is a little more difficult to find. There is a thread in the DIY section about footwell lights...its been a long time since I read it... but it does a great job of telling you how to locate them both. It's pretty easy.



63696869519aa4ccd6f600efe1e67d48.jpg

Was playing around this morning. Haha. I'll probably have them installed before tonight. I hate getting started on something and not finishing it. I hooked in here. This triggers when I hit the unlock button and I can turn it on and off with the dome light switch.



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Fishman1113

Fishman1113

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Not the best picture but here they are installed with red LED's. I think I'll install the blues tonight and see what they look like. My daughter really wants me to install the blues. Haha.

4d2fb7d787d7a13944ad23bd4c024a6c.jpg


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tnctx02

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Not the best picture but here they are installed with red LED's. I think I'll install the blues tonight and see what they look like. My daughter really wants me to install the blues. Haha.

4d2fb7d787d7a13944ad23bd4c024a6c.jpg


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Looks really good! I bought a LED string of 70 for each side. I am gonna try to get this done too!
 
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