Tail light mod (both lights used as brake and signals)?

I really hate to come into this thread 23 pages in and completely blow it out, but why aren't you guys wiring it into the wiring that supplies the trailer plug? That's what I did on mine, the BCM already combines the brake and turn function for you there...........

 

It's likely a 7440 because our OEM blinker bulb is a 7440. It'll be nice and easy once they make one that is a 921, but who knows if that'll ever happen...so MESO will have to be the answer for those that don't want to bore out the stock tails.

 

Because that requires more testing and wiring to run...I'm lazy like that. lol

It actually wasn't that hard to do it the way we did. The hardest part was figuring out the right resistance to use that covered all all lighting combos/senarios.

 

See below. I also used a dremmel to make 3 notches to accommodate the screws to lock the V6 into place. The screws come with the V6 as well as a collar to adapt it to different factory socket sizes. I must add that I did the dremmel notching as an experiment in my busted passenger side tail light housing. It didn’t quite work the way I had intended but it does hold the light in place. I made sure to check progress on the notches incrementally so that I wouldn’t over size them. The way it turned out is fine as it holds the light in place snugly, but you can’t twist lock the light into place. Since I’m going to replace this broken housing for a new one anyway, I figured it was a good donor part to experiment with—I’ll do a test run to try to modify thesecnotches so I can twist lock the light before I make any changes to mybnew housing. I may just plan on using museum putty to secure the V6 in place once I get the new tail light housing though.

V6 with screws installed:


Bored out reverse socket:


Notches added to bored out socket:

V6 installed with Triton-provided gasket:

 

I believe others have said this is well. I didn’t do it that way because I wanted to add an amber switchback rather than make the tail light a combo tail/turn.

 

Awesome write-up! From what you put in your write-up, I came up with this wiring diagram...does it seem accurate?



If you can, you should post pictures or a video of your lights in action. Both methods use the full "C" tail light as a brake light, but it would be helpful to others see the differences between the Turn-as-Tail mod and the switchback turn-or-reverse mod.

One thing I should note is that you said the thick blue is the brake+turn wire, but that's not accurate. That is not tied to the brake signal in any way. It's only a turn signal that is also a running light when the lights are all turned on (just as the other blue "brake signal" wire is only a brake signal that is also a running light when the lights are on).

 

Yup, that looks correct to me. Thanks for putting that together. And yes, you are right: I made a mistake and the thick blue wire is the tail+turn function, not brake+turn. I’ll make that correction in my post to avoid confusion for others.

I’ll post up video and pictures once I have the new tail/brake leds installed. I was going to order from superbrightleds.com but decided to save some coin abd delivery time and just get the sylvania zevos from my local CarQuest/Advance Auto. They should have arrived by now so I’ll have them installed this evening.

 

I picked up the second pair of sylvania zevo 7443R lights from CarQuest and they are the new improved style, which is brighter and more evenly distributed than the ones I bought his morning. It’s kind of annoying, since the ‘C’ isn’t as fully bright as it could be had I gotten the same generation of zevo 7443Rs. I put the newer generation ones up top at it provided a brighter brake light somehow. The older generation had 6 diodes on it while the newer One has only 2 diodes. Amazing how technology advances so quickly.

See below for the video of how this set-up looks.

 

Excellent! It looks better than I thought it would!

Thanks for the video!

 

This is awesome! Kinda wished I wired mine this way now hahaha, oh well!

 

Anything over the stock configuration already sets you above the majority of the crowd...even in within TW! lol

 

Freaking awesome. Thanks for posting that.

Now, I'm doubting my plan to do just turns in the reverse lights with an aux reverse. It looks like those V6s switch faster than the previous videos? Also, are they a different fitment? I thought they needed more of a mod to the housing?

 

To answer your last question...when @mesojdm did his (at the bottom of page 2 of this thread), he made it so that he could still change out whatever bulb in the reverse section. Basically, I think he cut out the 921 socket and then epoxied in a 7440 socket in its place.

 

Yes, with a 3D printed adapter. Sorry, I haven't kept track of the bases. I assumed that vled might have come out with more options with the newer versions.

 

I don’t think the V6 switches any differently, but I really don’t know. Not a different fitment than previous installs. I had to bore out the mounting socket and I added the three notches to accommodate the screws I added to hold the light snugly in the socket.

 

I like it.

That stock set up worries me sometimes.

 

I am with you there. That is part of the reason I put the tailgate bar on right away.

 

Ha! I'm trying to hack up the wiring only once. If I have to get in there twice, I'd end up having to glue the lights to the back of the cab.

 

I bought the

$34 Tekonsha 118384 T-One T-Connector Harness,4-Way Fla

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001A1M1J6? to use with my

$90 OPT7 48" Redline Triple Row LED Tailgate Light Bar w/Sequential Amber Turn Signal - Weatherproof Rigid Aluminum Light Strip for Colorado Frontier Ranger - Full Function Reverse Brake Running

https://www.amazon.com/OPT7-Redline-TRIPLE-Tailgate-Sequential/dp/B01HUJY0AO The only wire I had to worry about was the reverse light function. It is thin enough I was able to insert it into the driver's side reverse light harness plug. Been that way for over a year and not a single day of trouble nor any wire/harness cut.

EDT: Though I still intend to combine the full "c" into running/brake. I still have not decided if I want to bore our the reverse bucket and use a switchback or just move the blinker and add a pair of thin (single row) led pods to the bumper. I am honestly leaning towards the pods because depending on how t I mount them I can move the mod to a new truck should calamity or good fortune befall my 2017.

 

You don't necessarily need to drill out the reverse for a switchback. There are, although limited, T15 options. I have two, leaning towards the 194 bulb (T10) offered at http://www.autolumination.com/switchback.html more than the other one I got on Ebay.