Under bumper reverse lights wiring question

[JoeCo]

Just installed some led reverse lights under the bumper and wired to the trailer wiring harness. When just the key is on and its in reverse they work great, but when the truck is running I dont get anything from them. Anyone run into this/have a solution?

 

[brandonjansen]

What do you have them grounded to?

 

[JoeCo]

What do you have them grounded to?

Just to the ground in the trailer harness.

 

[fla crkr 1 ton]

Wired mine directly to the reverse light wire at the tail light with a fuse in line, no issues work flawlessly!!!!

 

[Little Red]

Did you run a power wire direct from the battery (fused within 12inches), to a relay (keeps the power flow under control), and then to the lights, with your factory reverse lights hot wire as the trigger switch? That's how I wired mine up, and they turn on with my reverse lights whether it's running, or not.

 

[Rzrman328]

Just installed some led reverse lights under the bumper and wired to the trailer wiring harness. When just the key is on and its in reverse they work great, but when the truck is running I dont get anything from them. Anyone run into this/have a solution?

Weird....

I have mine running from trailer harness power and grounded to the truck frame.

No issues.

 

[avolnek]

Usually when the truck is actually running it will sense there is no trailer attached and not send any power to the leads.

I'd suggest powering off of the reverse lights themselves...

 

[JCARTER7]

Usually when the truck is actually running it will sense there is no trailer attached and not send any power to the leads.

I'd suggest powering off of the reverse lights themselves...

if you are going to power it off the reverse lights them selves use a relay, i did the same thing for my light bar up front, i used the signal wire on my corner lights. so my led would only turn on with my corner light but i also added a switch so i had control of it. all you will do is use the reverse wire from your tail light as your signal wire to the relay and that will power your lights. i am going to attach a wiring diagram for you.





SO: this is similar to what you need to do, easy! ground both of your aux under the bumper lights to the frame. (non painted surface) then splice the positive wires of the lights together into one wire, run that wire to the 87 on your relay. the 86 terminal of your relay will splice into your reverse light bulb wire from your tail lights.
USING ONE OF THESE:

Then the 30/51 terminal can run to one of two places, all the way up front to your battery OR to the 12v constant wire on your trailer harness. you can use a volt meter when the truck is on to check for that. But your black lead of the meter on your truck frame and with the red lead touch each pin on the connect till you find your 12v signal. then use then same inline splice connection to make the connection! then finally the 85 terminal of your real will go to ground (the frame) !!!! good luck any questions feel free to ask!

 

[JoeCo]

Thanks for all the responses, might be a few days before we get back into this but I think we are going to start with grounding to the frame/wiring to the reverse lights and will go from there.

 

[Rzrman328]

Usually when the truck is actually running it will sense there is no trailer attached and not send any power to the leads.

I'd suggest powering off of the reverse lights themselves...

My truck must have slipped through the cracks at the factory cause mine work fine hooked up to trailer harness with no trailer attached.

 

[Rzrman328]

Wired to trailer harness power...grounded to frame..no relays/in-line fuses.

Works fine with no trailer attached...

 

[brandonjansen]

Thanks for all the responses, might be a few days before we get back into this but I think we are going to start with grounding to the frame/wiring to the reverse lights and will go from there.

That's exactly what I would do. I have a feeling your ground isn't actually a ground when the truck is running which is what's causing your issue. There shouldn't be any issue running the pods off the wiring back there as LED's draw very little power. However I also do recommend that guys run reverse led pods on a switch rather than directly to the reverse lights so you can turn them off when needed. IMO they're far too bright to be using in crowded parking lots and such. No need to blind people.

 

[JoeCo]

That's exactly what I would do. I have a feeling your ground isn't actually a ground when the truck is running which is what's causing your issue. There shouldn't be any issue running the pods off the wiring back there as LED's draw very little power. However I also do recommend that guys run reverse led pods on a switch rather than directly to the reverse lights so you can turn them off when needed. IMO they're far too bright to be using in crowded parking lots and such. No need to blind people.

Awesome I'm hoping thats the case, we will be trying that tomorrow. A switch may be in the future but I'll be happy to get them working first.

 

[Little Red]

If you need a solid ground, loosen one of your bumper bolts, put the ground wire behind it, and tighten. That's how I grounded my relay out.

 

[JoeCo]

If you need a solid ground, loosen one of your bumper bolts, put the ground wire behind it, and tighten. That's how I grounded my relay out.

Thanks for the tip! I will let you guys know what happens, should be getting to around to this sometime this afternoon.

 

[Raist11]

Is anyone else wondering how the truck "senses" there is no trailer back there? Perhaps this is only a feature available on trucks with backup sensors...

 

[BeachinIt]

Wired to trailer harness power...grounded to frame..no relays/in-line fuses.

Works fine with no trailer attached...

Sheesh, that is sexy. Can I ask where/which company you bought them all from?

 

[Rzrman328]

Sheesh, that is sexy. Can I ask where/which company you bought them all from?

http://www.ramforum.com/f41/led_reverse_pods-76136/

 

[spoon059]

Is anyone else wondering how the truck "senses" there is no trailer back there? Perhaps this is only a feature available on trucks with backup sensors...

A trailer would be plugged in, it senses an active electrical connection at the plug.

 

[Limeybastard]

A trailer would be plugged in, it senses an active electrical connection at the plug.

Yes, I think so. I remember when I connected my opt7 tailgate led light bar, It used the 4 bar connector for the trailer light for power and ground and a seperate white wire that needed to be tapp'd into the reverse light signal.

I ended up get a curt 5334 trailer adapter that prevented me from cutting the existing wires etc. Might use this to tap into pods should I need to ever install reverse led pods.