Leer camper shell and interior light wiring

I just had a leer camper shell installed on my 2013 Tacoma. I failed to check the interior light before I left. Once I got home I realized the light would only come if the ignition key was turned forward. This does me no good. I need it to be wired hot, so it comes on whenever I push the bottom.

I found where the power wire is connected, but I need help determining a hot wire. It is currently connected to one of the wires going to the brake light. The brake light should be hot since the light will come on anytime the brake is pressed. See the attached pic is there another wire that is hot all the time? I can't find a wiring diagram for my 2013 Tacoma.

Thanks

 

Interior lights are designed that way, so they don't kill your battery when you forget to turn them off. It's very typical to wire them into the brake wires.

I don't believe there are any "always hot" wires going to the brake lights. The only hot ones would be when you press the brake pedal. And the running lights when you manually switch them on.

 

I just ran a wire from the battery to the back of the truck. Works flawlessly.

 

^this, if you want a constant hot wire, run it from the battery (make sure to use an in-line fuse). I wired mine to the parking lights because they can be turned on when the truck is off, keys not in the ignition but if the lights are on when the ignition is turned off, they will turn off.

 

That's what I was afraid of. I hoped I could just find a hot wire in the back. It just seems dumb to have to turn the key to get the light on. Guess I'll be running a wire from battery.

Thanks

 

You won't think it's dumb when you come out one morning and your battery is dead, because you forgot to turn off the light.

 

Yea...but I'm a man and we don't make those kind of mistakes

Realistically…it will never get used in its current state. But at least I know it was supposed to be hooked up like that. It took them several tries to get the automatic lock working

 

If you have the oem hitch and trailer wire harness then you already have a hot wire back there. Ron

 

Carey, my Leer installer wired mine in hot. You might talk to your installer and see if he'll correct that.

 

Yep...I found it earlier. It actually shows it in the diagram that covers the receptacle.

 

I ended up buying the Pop and Lock tail gate lock and when I ran those wires to the dash I added a hot power wire for the canopy.
And if you want you can add some LED light strips to the roof of the canopy and wire that into the switch.

Pop and lock

$122 Pop & Lock – Power Tailgate Lock for Toyota Tacoma, Fits Models 2005 to 2015 (PL8521)

http://www.amazon.com/Pop-Lock-PL8521-Tailgate-Toyota/dp/B00439Q05S

The Light strips.
https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...-flexible-light-strip/1466/510/#a=writeReview

 

What gauge wire did you end up using.? Inline fuse.? How did you connect to light in the shell.? Also, i tried that method today and the wire i used instantly starting getting warm. I would assume a 6 gauge wire will work fine but im not sure how to connect a 6 gauge wire to a much smaller wire coming from the harness connect to the light.