I finally took my truck on its first serious fishiing trip over labor day weekend. We were out on the lake pretty late at night most of the day, so it was always dark when we were loading up the boat. The reverse lights worked great for lighting up the launch, but since I would have had to leave the truck in reverse I couldn't have the lights on the entire time that we were loading up the boat. Anyone ever try to wire in a switch for the back-up lights?

 

You could always use a relay. I would think that would work.

You could run the NO (Normally Open) Side so that the lights come on when they are supposed to. Then put the NC (Normally Closed) Side to come on with the switch. I'm not sure exactly how it would work I would have to actually play around with it but that is a start.

OR

You could just buy a cheap set of lights that mount to your hitch and put them on a switch and not mess with factory wiring.

 

Yeah I thought about just buying some lights. Eventhough it would mean hacking into the factory wiring, I would like to use some sort of switch. It's probably the hard way, but sometimes thats what you gotta do to have something different.

 

i've been thinking about putting aux. lights on the back.
I have this crazy idea in my head, that with a 3 pole switch, you can wire it to come on with the reverse lights, or manually on, then off.
sounds like a main power wire, and a wire from the reverse lights to the switch, and 1 going to the aux. lights. Im sure there is need a for relay in there somewhere though.

 

All you need to do is locate the reverse-light wire in the main harness under the dash (or on the driveshaft hump,) tap off a 12V source, preferrably from a switched power supply so you don't forget it and leave them on and kill the battery, run it through a spst switch, and tap it into the reverse light hot wire. Then your reverse lights will get power either from the reverse-sensor switch or your new switch. With the new switch off they'll work as normal. With the new switch on, they'll stay on no matter what gear you're in. I'd be willing to bet that Bob Rwenzing could look up the color code of the right wire, the location, and find a nearby 12V source to tap into. I could probably do it if I had a service manual for your year here with me, but I don't.

 

He would have done that already but that's kind of difficult without even knowing the year. How about if the OP adds a signature that at least gives the year/model/engine/transmission?

 

i know on my 97 4cyl 2wd, the reverse light wire was black with pink stripe. I just did this mod last weekend. I bought some foglights, atached them to the side of the step on the bumper, on the rear side of the taglights, and then wire them up to a relay. I have a single pole double throw switch mounted in my driver side apillar, down turns the power to my transmitter for the remote operated front lights, and up turns on the new rear foglights, in addition to the stock reverse lights when needed. If switch is off, then its just the stock lights.

 

I 'd like to know how to do this aswell.

 

Couldn't you just buy a set of KC reverse lights and wire them up with the switch, and then run another wire from the factory reverse lights to the KC's power wire?

 

If he was going to do that then it would be better to wire them standalone. If he wired them into just the reverse lamps then that is the only time he would be able to switch them on, when in reverse. I would think about just wiring them up to a seperate switch and power source, that way you could use them anytime you wanted not just reverse.

 

He wanted to be able to turn them on seperetly with a switch but also be able to turn the switch to another position and have them come on with the stock reverse lights.

 

Mine come on when i turn on the switch and put it in reverse. I have no yet ran a new power source to the back to be able to have them standalone. All my wiring was done under the bed, behind the bumper. So there is nothing with a constant 12v back there, gotta run a new wire to the back for that.

 

where do you run the light's wire to, the wiring harness or what?

 

relay

4 pin relay, on pin is ground, one pin is for the switch(switched pin) up front, one pin(acc. pin ) went to the lights, and one pin( power pin) was to the factory. reverse lights

 

Sorry...I would be interested in wiring this up in a 2004 Ranger Edge. 4.0 Liter, 4x4, Automatic Transmission

Thanks for the help!

 

The revese lights are switched by the Digital Transmission Range sensor which is on the side of the trans where the shift cable ends. The DTR sensor has other functions for the PCM but the reverse light wiring is on an independent switch. Voltage is available on the violet/orange with the ignition on and, when the gear selector is in "R", continues to the reverse lights on the black/pink. I don't have an 04 to look at but the black/pink probably travels in the wire bundle down the driver's side frame rail.

To wire the lights to come on independently, you need another source of switched voltage teed into the black/pink. The most straightforward way would be to use the same fuse as the factory did. That would mean tapping the violet/orange going to DTR (also available at the gray connector of the Smart Junction Box). Then extending a wire to a new dash switch and then another wire from the switch to be tapped into the black/pink.

Your lights would work only with the ignition switch on, and then only with either the new switch in the on position or the truck in reverse or both. I would choose a switch with a pilot light so you would remember to turn it off while driving. It is no doubt illegal to drive forward with white lights displayed on the rear of your truck.