Wiring Reverse Lights 2nd GEN How To

Just finished my reverse lights and thought i'd share. Had some old POS fog light housing's sitting around. Decided to buy some 9W LED's to retrofit into the housing. This is designed to either go on manual mode, when the switch is on or when the truck is in revese automaticaly. The best way to do it by far. There isnt a write up on this style yet so I decided to make one.

Supply's

-16 guage wire, enough to get you under the truck, to the engine and into the cab
-SPDT switch (single pole, double throw) I used a center off style.
-12v auto relay
-Fuse tap W/10A fuse(replacing existing) and 5A fuse(for lights)
**Use acording fuse for the wattage of lights installed**
-In line fuse w/5A fuse
-Blue/Red size Crimps
-Electric tape
-Female Crimp connectors (Image below)



Tools
-Good quality crimps
-Volt meter, not required but comes in handy
-exacto knife
-wire cutters
-BEER

Heres my lights, I bought my LED's through a local guy in Vancouver. I'm sure you can find them online.







Heres my switches. The paddel is for the lights. Up is Auto, center is off and bottom is manual.
Other switches are for my bed light and floor lights.




Wiring diagram
This is not my diagram, It came from TTORA - Wrooster, i have modified it to make it easier




1. take the fuse tap, with correct size fuse, and connect it to a filled location in the fuse box. I would use the tail lights fuse location (10A).

For the top 2 rows of the fuse box the tap MUST have the wire pointed up. On the bottom row, the wire points down. The first fuse slot on the tap (closest to the box) is for the origional fuse (ex Tail lights) and you Must use the same fuse you took out of the slot. The second slot, (closest to you/the wire) is for the fuse your connecting to.

In my Second row(picture below) you can see the tap is pointed up and I have a 10A red fuse (for the ignition) and a 5A orange fuse (for the lights). ITS NOT RECOMENDED TO USE MORE THEN A 10A FUSE IN THE FUSE TAP.



Theres a write up on how to use fuse taps here:
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/technical-chat/148509-add-fuse-circuit.html


2. to the fuse tap crimp a wire going to the 85 lead on the relay and a wire with the inline fuse/switch. What this does is gives a signal through the switch to the 87 lead. when the 87 lead has a signal it draws power through the 85 lead (fuse tap).




3. from the relay connect a wire from the 87 pole to the center switch, 86 to ground and 30 to your lights. Your lights must also be grounded at either the bumper area or wired back up to the cab to be grounded. I ran the wire through the fire wall, under the cab along with the wiring for the tail lights.




4. There is a 16guage red/white stripe wire coming from the top left of the connection. You need to cut and tap that wire to get the signal from the reverse lights. A wire splice would be easiest but crimps work.

 

Heres the results,

 

So let me get this straight. Im adding fogs and want to run them with a fuse tap into a slot that already has a fuse.

1. I disconnect said fuse and plug in the fuse tap.
2. The disconnected fuse then goes into the slot on the fuse tap.
3. That it? or should I be adding a second fuse of 10a for each slot?

Thanks! This process has been frustrating and expensive so far...

 

By the way the fuse tap will be going in the dash box, and is only for the switch. Not the main power, the main power is connected to the battery via relay, and inline fuse.

 

The original fuse you pulled goes into the fuse tap. Then a second fuse goes into the extra slot that's inline with the wire on the fuse tap. The second fuse should be only a 3 or 5 amp. Relays don't pull much juice. No need for a 10 amp, and depending on what's behind the fuse block, a 10 amp could actually cause a problem.

 

Nice

 

Looks good, nice writeup!

 

I hope a year after the last post is not too late to ask a question. The OP mentioned above--and the picture shows--that the reverse wire is red with a white stripe. Is it possible that on the 2012 Tacoma this wire is red with NO white stripe?

 

It's possible. Pull out the tail light and see what colour the wire is. you could try cutting it to see if it works, crimp it back if it doesn't or just run a long wire back to the tail light.

Other way would be to track down a wiring fsm, I don't think Toyota sells them tho.

These lights broke off while wheelin so don't use them anymore but will do reverse lights again when a rear bumper goes on.

 

I'm trying to find the correct wire to tag into for the backup lights on my 2015 Tacoma.
It's a solid red wire back at the taillights, but would like to tag into it somewhere in the cab. Any photos/diagrams/location description to identify it?
I'm hooking up some back-up lights on a trailer, along with a camera, and want them powering on with the regular back up lights when the truck goes into reverse. I'm including a switch to allow for manual power on.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2012-reverse-camera-switch.204199/
There is a lot of good info in this thread. Some of it might help you.