Bed wiring lights

[Ramdart73]

I have a 2016 Ram 2500 Big Horn. I have a camper top and the third brake light is hooked up (tapped into the correct wiring next to the spare tire). Their are 2 other wires capped off looped with the third brake light wire. One is red with a white stripe and the other is pink. I have tested both with ign on/off and nothing out of them. I thought these would be one hot all the time and the other hot with the ign. I am trying to power my camper top int light. I do not want to have to run a wire all the way to the back to power this light.
My truck does have the pre wire for the factory bed lights but they are not hot either.
Any ideas what these wire are or how to turn on the factory bed light harness?
Thanks

 

[Brian2081]

Hello Rampart, look for this button just under your headlight switch. This turns on the bed ights. The lights also come on when you unlock or open the doors. The factory bed lights do a decent job of lighting up the bed.

 

[John Jensen]

You identified the two capped off wires correctly. They are energized via the Aux Switch system. Att is a good video and description of how I did it. Hope that helps you.

How to wire and configure the AUX switches in a 2019+ Ram pickup

If your 2019/2020 Ram truck has AUX switches, this video will show you how to use the wiring kit that comes with the truck and how to configure the AUX switc...

youtu.be

 

[John Jensen]

Deleted

 

[Ramdart73]

I have searched under the hood for the upfitter plug and don’t see it. I do not have any of the aux switches. I also don’t have a way to turn the power on/off using the EVIC. It doesn’t show an option for that. Do I need to buy a alfaobd to program the system and turn on these wires in the back?

 

[Ramdart73]

Hello Rampart, look for this button just under your headlight switch. This turns on the bed ights. The lights also come on when you unlock or open the doors. The factory bed lights do a decent job of lighting up the bed.

I don’t have the factory bed lights. Just the plugs under each side to put them in if I wanted too. I have tried to push that button and I still do not have power to those wires. I looked on YouTube and seen a video where it said it has to be programmed to turn them on through the OBD system.

 

[John Jensen]

I have searched under the hood for the upfitter plug and don’t see it. I do not have any of the aux switches. I also don’t have a way to turn the power on/off using the EVIC. It doesn’t show an option for that. Do I need to buy a alfaobd to program the system and turn on these wires in the back?

Sorry Ramdart,

I thought you had Aux Switches. My info/post would not help you at all.

 

[Brian2081]

Ramdart, I will get my alfa out and look through my settings sometime Thursday and let you know if you need get into the system and enable the lights.

 

[Brian2081]

Hello Ramdart, sorry I haven't gotten back to you sooner, wound up working 30 hrs ot and just woke up for my one night off. Waiting for the sun to start going down along with the temp, humidity I am stuck with. Then I will get after it.

 

[Brian2081]

Ok, sundown, temps down and humidity sucks !!!. Ok went into BCM and there it is "cargo lights", so you will need ALFAOBD to activate the system.

 

[GTyankee]

I seem to recall reading on this forum, that Ram puts an extra leg in the wiring harness, that is there to be used with a Topper or Shell.
They had mentioned that it was zip tied off above the spare tire.

The body shop just laid all of the wiring harness that attaches to the bed, to anywhere they could & still be able to roll the truck to any place they needed it, so there is no order to the mayhem

I don't know if my 2016 Ram Bighorn 1500 has it
Although, that section of harness above the spare tire looks like it has special fasteners every 8 inches or so along sub frame that holds the spare in place does look somewhat different