LED tailgate light bar installed (harness wiring diagram attached)

[fordgt]

Here are some pictures of the things you need to buy from Amazon for this project, with some alternatives for the adhesive promoter.
This DOES NOT give you brake lights. I haven’t investigated Shadow Dragon 24’s post above, that may be above my skill set.

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[jpc2008]

I'm having the exact same experience and issue as fordgt. LT, RT, Reverse work great. Absolutely no luck with the running/park (or attempt to use it as the brake). Same odd middle section flashing or simply nothing at all in running/park. Anyone else have a solution?

Worked on this for a couple hours today, tapped into the backup and left turn signal successfully. The right turn is acting strange. Instead of flashing amber, the center 2 sections are flashing red. No brakes or running lights so far.

 

[jpc2008]

I know a bunch of people have wanted to do this on their rangers but with out a plug and play option out there it’s difficult. If you use the 4 wire plug at the hitch the truck freaks out and thinks a trailer is attached, gives faults for trailer tail lights not working and disables the blind spot/ cross traffic system.

I was able to get my hands on the wiring diagrams from a friend that works at a shop so I could hard wire into the tail lamp harness. If you plan on doing this modification you will find if you pull the tail lamps the harness to them is no help. All the wiring to the lamps is black wires. You need to get under the rear and out each outside of the hitch you will find a harness the you can follow up to the tail lamps I tapped in to this harness

i have attached photos of the harness diagram. Hope this helps you all out.

Can you share where you connected the running wire? Assuming you do not have brake light only red for the running/park lights? thanks so much for your help already!

 

[fordgt]

The brown on the harness from the light bar should go to the violet/green wire on the left hand, side taillight harness
You need the trailer harness

 

[fordgt]

And the brake lights don’t work in this scenario, there is a more complicated resolution discussed earlier in this thread.

 

[jpc2008]

The brown on the harness from the light bar should go to the violet/green wire on the left hand, side taillight harness
You need the trailer harness

Yep have all this, I figured it out...I need to connect to both left and right sides! I was connecting the wires only to the left side (plus the right side turn only). I needed to run a wire to connect the same violet/green from the left and right side together to the hardwire harness then it worked exactly as expected. I'll admit when I bought, I thought the brake would work too but I'm just happy to get the same functionality as you.

 

[fordgt]

Hmm… I only ran one wire over to the passenger side but I am glad it worked for you. I am hoping to catch up with a friend this week who knows auto electronics really well. I am going to ask him about the brake circuit. I’ll come back here and share the answer if I get one.

 

[BigOleOgre]

The brown on the harness from the light bar should go to the violet/green wire on the left hand, side taillight harness
You need the trailer harness

So im thinking alot of vehicles use a single wire for turn/brake and just make that signal intermittent is why the brake light isnt working. Im wondering if I run 2 extra wires (blue) and splice them into the #1 and #2 spots in the harness for brake/turns along with diodes for all 4 wires, and run those to the "stop" locations on the vehicle then the brake light for the tail bar would be functional. But possibly dont have to diode them since both signals exist in the standard trailer 4 plug you would plug into if it didnt throw trailer turn/blis errors....hmmm.

 

[ShadowDragon24]

And the brake lights don’t work in this scenario, there is a more complicated resolution discussed earlier in this thread.

the ford upfitter/body builders guide says you tap the 3rd brake signal wire at the bcm. I did this for my 3rd brake on my cap, and my Diode Dynamics C1R's.

modified the 7pin plug it came with. cut the brake signal off both turn signals. hooked it to that new brake wire, and then sent it up to the cap plug. the 7pin harness still has my ground, marker, and and reverse power.

 

[ShadowDragon24]

So im thinking alot of vehicles use a single wire for turn/brake and just make that signal intermittent is why the brake light isnt working. Im wondering if I run 2 extra wires (blue) and splice them into the #1 and #2 spots in the harness for brake/turns along with diodes for all 4 wires, and run those to the "stop" locations on the vehicle then the brake light for the tail bar would be functional. But possibly dont have to diode them since both signals exist in the standard trailer 4 plug you would plug into if it didnt throw trailer turn/blis errors....hmmm.

See my comment above. dont need to touch the tail lights, or diodes.

 

[ShadowDragon24]

there's also 3 blunt cut wires under the bcm, behind the kick panel. a ignition wire (run/start) marker(pos light) and high beam. my high beam and marker light wires were labeled wrong. the high beam is the marker wire, and the marker is the high beam. lol

 

[BigOleOgre]

there's also 3 blunt cut wires under the bcm, behind the kick panel. a ignition wire (run/start) marker(pos light) and high beam. my high beam and marker light wires were labeled wrong. the high beam is the marker wire, and the marker is the high beam. lol

That is a solution, but i personally do not want to run up into the cab, ideally there would be a wiring kit for us so that we dont have to tap in/modify the original harnesses. Thats my desire at least.

 

[BigOleOgre]

think i may have found a solution, not going with diode splices, ill let yall know.

 

[ShadowDragon24]

think i may have found a solution, not going with diode splices, ill let yall know.

as long as you dont get the signals from the trailer plug you will be good. when I used DD 7pin harness the brake module got its signal from both turn signals at the trailer plug it would kick out a trailer bulb outtage, unless my foot was on the brake. thus why I ran the wire I was doing it anyways, because I didnt want the upfitter cutting into the tail light harness. so I did it the ford approved way. the way ford wants it to be done. But there is nothing stopping tapping the tail lights. the Putoco light blade on ford accessories site. used tail lights. has a custom harness. but only for the ranger light through ford. cant order the kit or harness outside of ford.

 

[BigOleOgre]

think i may have found a solution, not going with diode splices, ill let yall know.

HUZAAH

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