Help Light Up My Life

[Pavelow Leaks]

So, I'm on a lighting spree for the night time poker run in the desert tomorrow night and I need some help...so what better place to ask.

 

I'm hooking fog lights to my reverse lights so if (when) I need to back out of something I can see out there in the boonies. My question is, if I tap into the trailer wiring harness, is the tailight wire the one to tap into, since in all the diagrams I've looked at I see no specific wire for reverse lights. Maybe I'm over looking something. Question two, is this the best way to do it or should I splice right off the reverse light itself and run the wires from the actual truck wiring. Seems easier to do it from the trailer harness, if possible. Lemme know people. BTW, I'm goin for quick easy and functional, not pretty.

 

Thanks,

 

Matt

[jj big shoe]

The best thing to do would be to run a separate 12v line for your lights and use the reverse light wiring to trigger a relay. If you just hook them up to your existing reverse wiring, you could easily be pulling too many amps through the stock wiring and burn it up or pop fuses. It's ok to run two extra reverse bulbs when hooking up to a trailer, but I wouldn't want to risk putting an extra 55w x 2 on that circuit.

[Pavelow Leaks]

yea...your right, I didnt consider the strain on the stock crappy wiring. thanks.

[tx_flatlander]

dont hook it right up to the stock wiring, do it right and use a relay. also, i wouldnt have it turn on only when the reverse lights are on. my buddy has a dodge that he wired up like that. the only prob is he cant use the aux lights on their own if he has to....say....hook up a trailer in the dark. or if he needs the lighting while he's outside the truck. what i did was put it in a rocker switch to where i could turn the aux backup lights on at any time.

 

youll thank me later