Softopper third brake write-up

After almost being rear-ended the other week, I decided to do the third brake light on my softopper. After reading a lot and doing some research I chose the partsam 15" red LED light. ( It's made for a trailer )
I also bought some other goodies:i ended up not using a lot of the things I bought and actually soldered every together.
Before I started I did research on which wires I was going to tap into.
I chose the driver taillight for 2 reasons.
1) closest wiring
2) if I ever got rid of it, was easier to replace taillight wiring harness than any other

I was able to figure out which wires to tap into
I then soldered a quick connect to those wiresThe quick connect was red,black, blue
I chose red to be brake light, black for running light and blue for ground
I used liquid electrical tape for these solders

I then started on the quick connect harness I planned to have a connection between the bed and softopper for 2 reasons
1) ease of installing
2) I was able to replace sections if went bad
I also did another quick connect on the inside of the bed. I did this quick connect so when I want to fold it down I just disconnect I went to Lowe's and purchased these bolts, washers and locking nuts in stainless steel
The washers were a perfect fit for the slots in the light i then centered it between the two snap buckles on the softopper the width between them was 25 inches so I drilled my hole at 12.5 inches
I drilled the two holes for the bolts and tighten everything down. I then fed the wires behind the snaps at the top
I also left a section of wires without shrink wrap so if I ever needed to.replace light I would not have to replace all the wires.
I then covered all the wires and zip tied them to the frame of the softopper and covered wires at behind tail gate as well I then reinstalled taillight and checked my work ( I checked all my connections prior to sealing everything up)
This is running lights

This is braking hard to tell during the day.
Hope this helps anyone on the the fence of a third brake light

 

Good job. That's pretty close to how I wired mine as well. I did a peel and stick led step instead of a plastic tail light, I also chose not to wire the running light to the third, so it's only on during brake. I thought about it, but worried that it would confuse drivers at night. Downside is that I doubt mine is quite as bright as yours.

Cool write up.

 

Looks good!!

 

Nice work, looks awesome.

 

Thank you

 

I installed and glued a red led strip to mine. Tapped wiring for brake lights.

 

Sun a dub. Excellent work mate!

 

Looks awesome!!

Got any pics of the light off? Went back and forth on the smoke or red light.

Did you cut a big enough hole in the topper to fit that nipple thing where wire come out of the light?

I sawed that piece off and put epoxy on the wires so they wouldn't get water damage.

 

I did drill the holes ... I thought about cutting that off but I silicone it instead

 

I did mine up almost the same way back in April.

 

That looks like the same led I use. I was initially debating on placement and ended up glueing mine to the topper vs window for the times I run it safari style with the windows rolled up. It's still visible that way.

 

That's what I did, too. It worked perfectly even in safari mode

 

Nice work guys. Putting this on the to-do list.

 

@Jeffvt0508 what's the brand/part number? What instructions/diagram came with it?

 

No diagram with mine but this was on Amazon

 

Sorry for the weird question, but does anyone know if the wire colors/functions are the same on 3rd gen? I am about to do this too. Thanks for the awesome write-up!

 

Looks clean. Good job op

 

From another poster that has a 3rd gen. If I remember I can pull my tailight and see which wires i tapped.

1) Remove tail light. I did driver's side but it doesn't really matter. Identify wires for brake light ground, brake light power, running light power. The three are on one harness in the middle, I believe there's white/black (ground), green(running) and blue(brake). I may be mistaken on which is which, it's always good to verify with a multimeter.

Shit quoted the person. @VirusCage

 

This thread was perfect, following almost exactly. I need to shorten the length when it is warmer.

 

Crap, I need to go back and silicone, did you add from the outside? I would think that I need to loosen it up, pull it away from the fabric, add a liberal amount of silicone and tight back???