Ford LED Tailgate Lightbar Installed

[dennish]

The instructions should have been more explicit that the only harnesses they were referencing were the taillight harnesses and the light bar harnesses. There is nothing there that has anything to do with the factory tow harness.

The light bar has a trailer-side 4-pin connector that mates with a truck-side 4-pin connector on the taillight adapter harness (NOT the factory one). we actually cut off both 4-pin connectors and spliced them together to avoid corrosion at the connectors.

Has the dealer put the factory 4-pin back in place and confirmed that it is working properly? It sounds like the light bar is still not working, though.

No they gave up and put it all back to factory.

So what you are saying is they should have just hook ed up the two taillight harnesses - then the for plug pictured below either gets plugged into one another or spliced?

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[CTYankee]

No they gave up and put it all back to factory.

So what you are saying is they should have just hook ed up the two taillight harnesses - then the for plug pictured below either gets plugged into one another or spliced?

That is correct.

On mine, there was also a wire that ran to the battery to power the light bar controller. I don't see that referenced in the Ford instructions but I seem to recall the OP eventually noting that it was necessary on his install.

 

[AugMec]

I tried Putcos recommendation of running a 12v power wire to the red wire coming out of the box and still could not get the drivers side lights to work properly. I reached back out to Putco and they will send me a new harness. Once received i will try again and update if that did the trick.

If that still doesn't work, i'll see if they will take it back and get the curt adapter and a regular light bar. I like the split light bar i saw others post so maybe i'll get that one.

 

[sundancer370]

I tried Putcos recommendation of running a 12v power wire to the red wire coming out of the box and still could not get the drivers side lights to work properly. I reached back out to Putco and they will send me a new harness. Once received i will try again and update if that did the trick.

If that still doesn't work, i'll see if they will take it back and get the curt adapter and a regular light bar. I like the split light bar i saw others post so maybe i'll get that one.

I may have a solution for the drivers side taillight not working. It involves making two changes to the wiring harness, one necessary and one optional

1) Mandatory. I cut the brown wire and connected a 47ohm 2w resister between the two ends. This I believe limits the inrush current for the Putco module which seemed to cause the Maverick control module for the taillights to think there was a fault because it drew to much current. FYI, I also tried a 100ohm and a 33 ohm resister and they both seemed to work.

2) Optional. I wired the Putco module to take power from the 12v power point in the bed. On the Putco module there is a red wire that loops back to the module. One side of this has a small piece of heatshink on it. Cut this fairly close to the module (4" or so) and use the heatshrink or electrical tape to insulate the end of it. Then take the other side of the red wire and spice/connect in into the 12v power point in the bed. Doing the black ground wire is optional to splice/connect into the bed power point but I did it in the course of trying to make everything work. This provides power to the Putco module once the vehicle is ON.

You could also take the Red wire mentioned in 2) and connect to to an always on circuit or preferably a circuit that is comes on when the vehicle unlocks. I'm not sure what the current draw is for the Putco module is for battery drain though.

 

[Rolmav]

I may have a solution for the drivers side taillight not working. It involves making two changes to the wiring harness, one necessary and one optional

1) Mandatory. I cut the brown wire and connected a 47ohm 2w resister between the two ends. This I believe limits the inrush current for the Putco module which seemed to cause the Maverick control module for the taillights to think there was a fault because it drew to much current. FYI, I also tried a 100ohm and a 33 ohm resister and they both seemed to work.

2) Optional. I wired the Putco module to take power from the 12v power point in the bed. On the Putco module there is a red wire that loops back to the module. One side of this has a small piece of heatshink on it. Cut this fairly close to the module (4" or so) and use the heatshrink or electrical tape to insulate the end of it. Then take the other side of the red wire and spice/connect in into the 12v power point in the bed. Doing the black ground wire is optional to splice/connect into the bed power point but I did it in the course of trying to make everything work. This provides power to the Putco module once the vehicle is ON.

You could also take the Red wire mentioned in 2) and connect to to an always on circuit or preferably a circuit that is comes on when the vehicle unlocks. I'm not sure what the current draw is for the Putco module is for battery drain though.

Can you provide photos of what you did?

 

[sundancer370]

Can you provide photos of what you did?

unfortunately not. Everything is currently taped up and zip tied. Plus it’s a little too cold in Michigan right now to crawl under the truck.
Also I’d recommend using at least a 100 ohm resistor instead of the 47 mentioned in the original post.

 

[Rolmav]

unfortunately not. Everything is currently taped up and zip tied. Plus it’s a little too cold in Michigan right now to crawl under the truck.
Also I’d recommend using at least a 100 ohm resistor instead of the 47 mentioned in the original post.

Thank you. What's the reason behind going wth the 100ohm instead?

 

[sundancer370]

Thank you. What's the reason behind going wth the 100ohm instead?

sometimes when using remote start I noticed the driver tail light still wasn’t working. Using the 100ohm I’ve only had it happen once. You could probably go higher say 150 or even 200ohm to be safe

 

[Rolmav]

sometimes when using remote start I noticed the driver tail light still wasn’t working. Using the 100ohm I’ve only had it happen once. You could probably go higher say 150 or even 200ohm to be safe

Awesome, thank you for the information. And to clarify it's still a 2-watt resistor similar to these Resistor?
Really new to resitors.

 

[BearyArizona]

I love the look of these, but I found that they're no longer listed on the Ford website through normal search functions. I had to google the part number to get a link there, and it shows as sold out. I wonder if the number of issues outweighed any amount of money they were making?

It's still listed for the Ranger and F150 though, interestingly enough.

 

[sundancer370]

Awesome, thank you for the information. And to clarify it's still a 2-watt resistor similar to these Resistor?
Really new to resitors.

Yes On the resister.
I used 2 heat shrink butt connectors (blue 14-16awg) on either side of the resistor, cut the brown wire in the supplied harness near the control unit supplied with the lights and splice the resistor inline. I doubled over the leads from the resistor to allow for a more secure connection in the butt connectors. I like to use heat shrink connectors to help keep out the elements but not required.

 

[Rolmav]

Yes On the resister.
I used 2 heat shrink butt connectors (blue 14-16awg) on either side of the resistor, cut the brown wire in the supplied harness near the control unit supplied with the lights and splice the resistor inline. I doubled over the leads from the resistor to allow for a more secure connection in the butt connectors. I like to use heat shrink connectors to help keep out the elements but not required.

Thank you!! Now to get some resistors lol.

 

[sundancer370]

Thank you!! Now to get some resistors lol.

Quick hint, taking out the Rear Lamp Assemblies is easy and will save a lot of time and scratches on your hand

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