OT how to hook up back up lights on truck and trailer

It's very simple actually, find the reverse bulb pigtail in your truck. Splice into that a length of wire this wire will be the + for your back up lights. NOT sure what kind of truck you have but you would need to run this wire through the body and out to the bumper area. Attach your lights hook up the ground then connect the + wire that you ran down. NOW your lights will only work while in reverse.

Searcher1

On 4 Nov 2004 09:18:42 -0800, snipped-for-privacy@novocon.net (Craig Suslosky) calmly ranted:

Pick up a set of 5 or 6-wire connectors at the auto parts store. Wire it up with the left/right/park/ground standard and add the backup light to the fifth pin. Piece of cake/duck soup. Here are the pinouts/color code.

-------------------------------------------------------- Murphy was an Optimist ----------------------------

I installed a 12v relay under the hood of my truck. This relay is switched on by the 12v+ from the reverse lights. The battery is hooked through a fuse directly to this relay to supply power to my aux reverse lights. This way, I do not have to worry about overloading the stock wiring from the factory from adding extra electrical loads. Of course, if you choose low power aux lights, this may not be a concern. I purchased a small set from JC Whitney and they are a godsend. Small enough to be out of harm's way, but bright enough to see great.

If you want to place the aux lights on the trailer, I would run a separate connector just for them. If your aux lights ever get smashed, you should only blow a fuse for that circuit if hooked up separately and not messing up your truck's. If mounted high enough, then they should be safe. But I would still have them on a separate fused circuit.

Stephen R.

If you use the 6-pin round trailer connector, the center pin is AUX, and can be used for backup lights, among other things.

I have backup lights on my trailers, plus the trailers are wired with two sets of taillights for separate stop and turn signals, so no converter is ever needed. When towed with an American car, the Stop set of lights are simply not used...

One caveat: put manual switches on both the car side and the trailer side of the connector to turn off that backup light lead - you may loan out your trailer or borrow another, and some people use the AUX lead for battery charge connections (constant 12V) or for trailer brakes. Leaving it connected can have strange consequences...

If you are towing something with electric brakes and/or a defined battery charge line on a regular basis, go to the 7-pin or 9-pin flat-pin travel trailer connector. They have pins assigned to those uses.

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