matthewharrison
Member
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2017
- Posts
- 62
- Reaction score
- 18
- Location
- Cape Breton, NS, Canada
- Ram Year
- 2017
- Engine
- Hemi 5.7
Alright, so I’ve finally got my auxiliary switch panel into my truck and lighting up my new light bar I just installed.
I’ve decided to share my process with you guys for anyone interested.
1. Bought a used auxiliary switch panel from a ram 2500 on eBay.
Now from what I’ve read on the internet, people have been saying to make sure the panel you buy matches the one that was in your truck exactly, or it won’t work. So if the only buttons you have is tow/haul & traction control, then that’s all that should be on the auxiliary panel.
Now being as stubborn as I am, I didn’t listen and bought a panel with 2 park assist buttons, which my truck doesn’t have, and I had no issues with it. My traction control & tow/haul still work the way they should. That being said, I can not confirm nor guarantee everyone else the same result.
Another thing I read was that the truck would need to be flashed, again, I didn’t have my truck flashed and everything works.
Onwards....
2. Now I had to take the dash off and swap the panels out.
There’s a little rubber mat up there that will just pop out and there are 2 Torx screws underneath it, take them out then carefully pop the dash out. Once out there are 4 screws holding the panel in, simply take them out and put the new panel in place.
3. Now I had to wire it in. With the OEM option in the 2500’s the panel runs to a module which then runs to 2 plugs under the hood to pin your accessory’s in to, but instead of buying the expensive module I decided I was going to make my own bank of relays & fuses.
First thing I had to do was find terminals to add to my OEM plug as there were no wires in place where the pins for the auxiliary buttons on the panel are. I didn’t have a lot of luck online and I found some from a chev at work that I just slightly modified to make work, so I don’t have a good answer for anyone as to where you can get the proper terminals, but I would still like to know myself.
4. Next I had to make a fuse/relay box.
My box consists of 3 harnesses.
First harness is a 6 wire and consists of 5 power wires running from a stud on the fuse box to each of the 5 relays, and the sixth wire is split between all the signal sources on each relay (I did the split in the box).
Second harness is the ground inputs from the OEM switch panel in my truck. This one is a 5 wire harness which wires into the ground side of the signal on their respective relays, these will act as the switch for the relays.
Third harness is the output power for the accessory’s. This is another 5 wire harness which is bundled together, but I’ve split them at the end into 5 different plugs for each accessory option. I used 2 wire plugs and bundled the grounds of each together and tied them into a grounding point on the chassis, so for every accessory I just run 2 wires right to the front for easy plug & play and switch-ability between switches in the truck. If I ever decided I wanted an accessory on a different number switch in the truck it would just be a matter of swapping which plug it is plugged into.
I’ll add some pictures of my mounting point once I get it mounted properly.
It was a pretty simple task to get an OEM switch panel in my 1500, anyone with heated seats or anything in that lower section is kind of out of luck I guess.
All in all, works great and I love the look!
Just added bed lighting to my switches!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I’ve decided to share my process with you guys for anyone interested.
1. Bought a used auxiliary switch panel from a ram 2500 on eBay.
Now from what I’ve read on the internet, people have been saying to make sure the panel you buy matches the one that was in your truck exactly, or it won’t work. So if the only buttons you have is tow/haul & traction control, then that’s all that should be on the auxiliary panel.
Now being as stubborn as I am, I didn’t listen and bought a panel with 2 park assist buttons, which my truck doesn’t have, and I had no issues with it. My traction control & tow/haul still work the way they should. That being said, I can not confirm nor guarantee everyone else the same result.
Another thing I read was that the truck would need to be flashed, again, I didn’t have my truck flashed and everything works.
Onwards....
2. Now I had to take the dash off and swap the panels out.
There’s a little rubber mat up there that will just pop out and there are 2 Torx screws underneath it, take them out then carefully pop the dash out. Once out there are 4 screws holding the panel in, simply take them out and put the new panel in place.
3. Now I had to wire it in. With the OEM option in the 2500’s the panel runs to a module which then runs to 2 plugs under the hood to pin your accessory’s in to, but instead of buying the expensive module I decided I was going to make my own bank of relays & fuses.
First thing I had to do was find terminals to add to my OEM plug as there were no wires in place where the pins for the auxiliary buttons on the panel are. I didn’t have a lot of luck online and I found some from a chev at work that I just slightly modified to make work, so I don’t have a good answer for anyone as to where you can get the proper terminals, but I would still like to know myself.
4. Next I had to make a fuse/relay box.
My box consists of 3 harnesses.
First harness is a 6 wire and consists of 5 power wires running from a stud on the fuse box to each of the 5 relays, and the sixth wire is split between all the signal sources on each relay (I did the split in the box).
Second harness is the ground inputs from the OEM switch panel in my truck. This one is a 5 wire harness which wires into the ground side of the signal on their respective relays, these will act as the switch for the relays.
Third harness is the output power for the accessory’s. This is another 5 wire harness which is bundled together, but I’ve split them at the end into 5 different plugs for each accessory option. I used 2 wire plugs and bundled the grounds of each together and tied them into a grounding point on the chassis, so for every accessory I just run 2 wires right to the front for easy plug & play and switch-ability between switches in the truck. If I ever decided I wanted an accessory on a different number switch in the truck it would just be a matter of swapping which plug it is plugged into.
I’ll add some pictures of my mounting point once I get it mounted properly.
It was a pretty simple task to get an OEM switch panel in my 1500, anyone with heated seats or anything in that lower section is kind of out of luck I guess.
All in all, works great and I love the look!
Just added bed lighting to my switches!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
