Leer XL cap wiring

I bought a used leer cap. It has the third brake light and the led light for inside. They guy I got it from had the led light wired into his bed lights which I do not have. I got the third brake light to work. (I spiced into the Blue wire going to the rear brake light) my question is where do I hook up the led light? (Hopefully somewhere behind the light)

 

If the cap's dome light has a switch, find the battery lead to the 7-connector trailer outlet and use that, making sure that you ground the light to the frame. The disadvantage of this is you may forget to shut it off and drain your battery. If the Taco has a cargo light (don't know about the sport), and you have a switch for it in the dash, wire it to that. My previous '06 Taco's cap was wired to the parking light circuit at the left taillight. Was a bit of a pain since the taillights had to be on to use the cap's dome light.
**EDIT:
My '21 has a Leer 180 cap. Found a PnP harness for the brake light. The cap's dome light was wired to the bed lights so its operation is controlled by the switch in the dash. Options are OFF-DOOR-ON.
**
I'm sure others may have a better suggestion.

 

what i did with mines is i hooked it up to the running lights.

 

Can you tell me which wire?

 

Leer sells a no-tap harness that plugs into the 7-pin trailer connector (as a pass-through, behind the bumper). But even using this harness, it's recommended to run a wire direct to the battery, to supply a constant 12 volts to the dome light. All the other solutions mentioned above mean that the cap dome light is inoperative unless the truck's ignition switch is on.

 

Not true if you wire the cap's dome light into the cargo/bed light circuit. I can use mine when the truck is off - just depends on the position of the switch in the dash.

 

This comes with the hazard of forgetting to turn the cap's dome light off and slowly draining the truck's battery.

 

This is what I did, here is the link: https://www.ezwheeler.com/products/...ug-in-t-harness-300200?variant=32202985766995 Super easy and comes with a wire to run from the battery to provide constant 12 V to the shell (even with the engine off).

 

Yes, but there was also something in the instructions for the harness that perhaps I didn't fully understand. It said that the long wire must be run to the battery for the brake light circuit to work properly (regardless of the dome light). Maybe somebody else can explain this better.

Quote from the instructions:
Troubleshooting Guide
Problem: Brake light stays lit even after the ignition is turned off. Problem has been present since time of installation.
Possible cause: 1) Power wire from the battery is not connected.
Possible solution: 1) Make sure the power wire is correctly connected to the battery.

How can the center brake light be on if no power is being supplied?

 

I think there is power for the brake light in the trailer harness itself. I figured the little box in the new part had some sort of logic to properly control the power. I was under the impression the power cable from the battery ran the logic.

 

That sounds reasonable. So, the long wire to the battery does double duty: (1) powering the logic box, and (2) powering the dome light. If you get the optional Leer triple 12-volt receptacle, that uses a separate long wire to the battery, although it still feeds through the Leer cap fuse box (both long wires also have flag-type fuses near the battery end).

You are correct. I just checked my truck, and the bed lights work (controlled by the dash switch) even if the key is not in the ignition.

However, if you wire the cap's dome light to the bed light circuit, you can only use the dome light if the bed lights are also on. If you want to use the dome light independently, you need to wire it directly to the battery (or find some other circuit that is always on).

 

i tapped it to the bulb above the brake light in the taillight. so in order for the interior light to work the runing lights needs to be on.

 

Hooking up the 3rd brake light only on a leer shell question. I assume I can find a harness for the tail light that would give me the brake light power to send to the 3rd brake light. How would I run the lead from the tail light to the inside of the bed, is there a simple route for the wiring.

 

I drilled a hole in the bedliner, above the driver's side bed light. Use a grommet in the hole, and wire loom for the wires.

This is what my setup looks like. The wire harness loops under the lip of the topper, and back to the corner where the Leer fuse box is located. (It doesn't feed directly into the 12 volt outlet, even though it looks like it does.)