Bed light, reverse light T harness.

Hello. I was wondering if I could get a custom harness made and what it would cost. I've put in bright led reverse lights. I've used them on occasion leaving truck in reverse and ebrake. It wears out the torque converter. I've looked into making it myself and it would cost $122, per truck. I was curious if Dave from Fbc could make one. Ideally, it would be a T harness from reverse light, and bed light, with a diode. That way, when I turn on bed lights, reverse light light up the area when im loading up. But the diode would prevent the bed lights coming on when in reverse. I'd rather not install bar lights or things of that nature (for stock look), hence the request. Thank you for your time.

 

@Puppypunter any chance you (or anyone else) knows the spec on the reverse light halogen bulb current draw?

OP, I just am not sure the 1 amp diodes are sufficient for this. A relay might be a little safer, but that means stealing aux power from somewhere. If you were willing to do the aux power bit this would be no problem at all, fused power to a relay, diodes from reverse and bed light circuit feeding the relay coil, output to the bulb.

I suppose I could hunt for 3 amp diodes?

 

Being a 921, I think they’re usually about 1.3A (16W). Little less A with running voltage. I’d definitely want a larger diode than 1A.

 

Yeah, I think @BLtheP got it. 16-18W for a 921. I have some 3A diodes I could send you.

 

Thank you all for the information. Sorry I didn't include this info earlier. I checked, each reverse led is rated 500ma at 12v. 1 amp total for both bulbs. I was going to make 2 seprate harnesses with 2 seprate diodes, for each side. Because the bed lights are so close to the taillight, i didn't think it would be better to run the wire across the bed. Giving the 10% room, I think it would be just under max amp draw for the stock harness for the bedlights. I was going to use a fuze style diode from gm. If this is not a good idea then I guess I'll have to run a relay. Again, thank you all very much for the advice.

 

I would definitely not do 1 amp diodes given the information here.

Johnny might be able to help you out. I cannot, due to overload as I’m behind yet again on orders placed and I already have a queue of custom work I’m unable to ever get started on.

For sure one harness per side though. That much is clear.

I would personally just do brighter bed lights from the rail and / or pods on bed stiffeners pointed aft as I don’t think the reverse buckets illuminate anything useful for loading but you seem to know precisely what you are asking for.

 

Hey @Tacomabuilderno.7 Dave asked me if I could look into helping with this one, So if you don't mind, let me just make sure I know what you want. You want the reverse lights to come on when the bed lights are on? So they light up the back end while you're loading stuff and what not. Diodes are so the bed lights don't come on when you are in reverse. Seems easy enough if I am understanding it right? I actually kicked around the idea of doing this at one point, so I probably already have it scribbled on a napkin somewhere

 

Exactly what I wanted but didn't wanna burn down anything, or cut into factory harness. This is one thing that will help me a lot. I found the conectors. I wanted to see and make sure I can go through with it, or if someone already has. Hopeing there's already a harness, but I couldn't find it. I did something similar with the headlights, but blew the fuse twice, so I scraped the idea. But so far, I found the bed light T harness for 1 amp from FBC, a reverse breakout from VLEDS, and a diode from Amazon. Each side will have have its own harness, with 1 amp diodes. The bulbs are .5 amp led. Do you know if it will work? I already lost a several hundred to failed ideas, I don't wanna lose the money if it won't work. Thank you for your help!

 

I did some soldering last night. Went with a 3A diode, and put one on the reverse side, and one on the bed lamp side. This will prevent the bed lights from backfeeding the reverse circuit as well, just in case there are any unintended side effects. The one piece of info that would be nice to get from you would be how long of a wire do you think is needed from the bed light tap to the reverse light? And I forgot to make sure, but what year is your truck?

 

I expect 12" to be a nice clean distance between bed T (fixed to cavity) and reverse T.

Or the distance from where the taillight loom is secured to the cavity until it reaches the reverse connector (I think that's roughly 12")

 

Would 12" leave enough room to pull the taillight?

 

For people who don't pull taillights every week like you and I tend to do, I think it'd be fine. The reverse bulb is at the bottom so 12" seems like it'd be enough to pull out the taillight enough to get to it with fingers or even rest it on the tailgate cable. For you and me I think 16" would be nicer but then more bulk inside the cavity which is the downside.

 

You mean everyone doesn't have wingnuts on their taillights for quick access?! I ordered some more heatshrink, so that should be in tonight. I will see where I am at with bed light connectors, and get a set built. I can test the concept on my truck too, but the bed tee would be different since I have the 2019 kit. ....and may have modified the connectors? Crap, now I don't remember.