Turn signals independent of DRL

This is for those who have factory DRL, and who want to add turn signals without having them on all the time (like will happen if you tee into the front turn signals).

Put my ARB bumper on yesterday, did the wiring for the turn signals today. Didn't want to have them on all the time with the DRLs, but I did want them wired up. I figured the way to do it was to hook into the rear turn signals. After some hunting around, I got it wired up perfectly, without duplicating my DRLs.

I'll get some pics of the actual lights illuminated, so you can see what it looks like. In the meantime, here's how to do it.

Access the fuse panel (driver's knee coin drawer). Looking to the left of the fuses, you'll note that there are two horizontally-mounted connectors at the top, then a white recessed horizontal connector, then a black recessed horizontal connector, and to the right of both of those is a white recessed vertical connector. The one you want is the first white horizontal recessed connector.

You'll want to tee off the blue & white wire at the #2 position on the top (for right turn), and the solid yellow wire at the #3 position on the bottom (for left turn). Negative is grounded to your choice of grounding locations.

It's really pretty simple.

You'll note in my pics that my preferred way of teeing into wires when there is a connector nearby is to insert long, skinny spades (some GM terminals I came across) into the connector itself. I'm not a fan of Quick Taps, or breaking the insulation if I don't have to.

In the pics, the connector in question is the one that has my black shrink-wrapped wires piggy-backed onto the white connector, routed upward.

 

Hi there, I'm not really inclined to electrical works, but if you can please explain the #2 position and #3 position that you are referring, and also do I need to tap the wires coming from the door panel into this fuse box? (the wires that you have the shrink wrap) also about the negative wire that you mentioned , where do I get it? thanks a million, hope you understand my situation

 

Yes.
And your rear turn signals are in synch with your front turn signals. But the reason we tap into the rears (rather than the fronts) is because with DRL, the fronts are wired differently, and will reverse the two filaments inside the bulb when in signal operation -- the rears are exclusively turn signals, with no other funkiness included.

 

I'm counting from left to right, top to bottom, looking at it in its stock (plugged in) position. There are two rows of connectors, so I suppose I could have clarified by saying "Upper row #2 and #3." If you unplug it and look at it from the other end, then you would need to "read" it from right to left.
Afaik, no need to tap into any wiring other than the ones I've mentioned. If you prefer Quick Taps, then simply trace the wires I've identified a little further back and splice into them there. If your question is more about adding side-mirror turn signals, and you're wanting to know if you need to tap the wires coming from those side-mirror turn signals, then yes, that would be the wires you need to connect to the wires I identified.
The entire truck body and frame are negative ground. That is to say, the negative side of the battery is connected to the body and frame of the truck. Any circuit you add will really only need one wire running to some kind of positive source, with the other wire going to some point on the body or frame. In this write-up, you have two different circuits you are wiring up: a left turn signal circuit, and a right turn signal circuit. Each circuit is as simple and basic as they come: hook one wire to negative, and one wire to positive, and the circuit operates. The positive side of each circuit connects at the wires I have identified. That leaves the need to connect the negative side of each circuit to a negative power source -- in modern vehicles, this is as simple as finding a bolt, or screwing a self-tapping screw into the nearest piece of sheet metal. It is pretty safe to assume that all non-insulated metal in your vehicle is going to be part of the negative terminal on your battery, which means that if you need to connect to the negative terminal on your battery, all you need to do is figure out a way to fasten your wire to a piece of bare metal.