Wiring Bed Lights

im wiring my bed lights. I'm using a small 12v battery that's proving my wiring is good (included a pic) but I can't find a ground in the tail light. I've tried going directly to the white with black stripe and it's not grounding the lights. Any other wire right here I can use?

 

There is an existing electrical ground on the driver side frame rail under the bed. Kinda hard to see when your under there, but you can feel the top of the frame rail with your hand and find it.

 

Any idea on why the tail light ground won't ground the light? Thanks.

 

No idea, I usually don't like to tap into OEM harnesses so I avoid that.

 

when I did my DIY kit, I just drilled a self tapping screw into the metal on the rear fender behind the tail light. Then ran power directly from the battery to a switch

 

Is your truck running when your testing using the brake light ground? Maybe it's a switched ground in the tail light, and your testing when the truck is off?

 

The tail light ground is not switched it is a constant ground.

White wire with a black stripe is the ground.

 

I tried with it off and with the ignition on AND tail lights on. Nothing. I really don't understand why it's not working.

 

The tail light ground is tied directly and not switched. I would say either you have another problem or you are not making a good contact with the wire shoved into the socket as in your first post above. If the tail lights work then your lights should work is connected properly.

 

Never mind I see you have them on when connected directly to the battery. What circuit are you using for a power lead connection?

Good Circuit:

Vehicle power source > Switch > LED Lights > Common Vehicle Ground.

Use a meter and verify your source voltage.

 

Sooooo I ran the ground all the way to the truck battery negative and it won't work BUT if I put that same ground on the negative of the little 12V battery, that the positive is hooked to, it works just fine. Does the power source AND the ground source have to be the same battery???

 

You are not trying to use the small battery as a power source and use the Tail Light Ground as the ground are you?

Don't be offended by this question as from the picture it looks like that is what you are doing. It will not work that way.

 

YES! It does have to be the same.

 

Holy shit what a colossal waste of time!!! I've never tried using a different battery like this. You're correct, it must make a circle with the ground AND the hot being tied to the same battery. I feel like such a dumbass!!! Thanks to everybody for their help. It's working now using the truck battery for power and the white with black stripe for ground. Damn I'm a jack wagon!!!!

 

No, you are not. Maybe not an electrician, but not a jack wagon.

One thing for sure, you won't make that mistake again.

 

At least you pushed yourself to learn something new.

I’m not an electrician but I think it would have worked your original way IF you grounded your second battery to the truck. Not that I’m saying that’s safe or the right thing to do. If it had worked, you could have been screwed down the toad.

Check out the Bussman mod in the Technical section of the forum and search for other threads, lotsa good info on electical stuff to be had here in Tacomaworld.

 

Thanks. I've wired all kinds of 12v stuff over the years. I was using that little battery just to confirm each new connection I was making was good and I had no intentions of leaving it, just to check my work as I went. These LED ribbons are a new animal to me so I wanted to make sure the connections were all staying legit. Once I got the ground completed and ready to hook to the trucks ground is when it all went crazy. I got it all lined out now and will know in the future if I use a handheld battery for testing along the way, only use the same device for + and - . Thanks.