Hitch Tail Light by tapping into rear brake light?

[GPSMan]

I want it to act as a brake though.... so clipping wires wont work.

So tap the third high mounted light.

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[greenlight]

Will have to look into the third tail light. Wonder how hard it is to get to the hitch.

 

[Hcopter]

I tapped into the brake/turn wire on each taillight to a Pacer-Performance brake logic module which feeds my tailgate, brake light strip.

Logic module: https://www.amazon.com/Pacer-Performance-20-702-Black-Circuit/dp/B001S16Z7W

 

[greenlight]

I tapped into the brake/turn wire on each taillight to a Pacer-Performance brake logic module which feeds my tailgate, brake light strip.

Logic module: https://www.amazon.com/Pacer-Performance-20-702-Black-Circuit/dp/B001S16Z7W

Thanks for video. Do you need both lights in order for it to work? Is that how it knows not to turn on when only getting signal from one light?

 

[Hcopter]

Thanks for video. Do you need both lights in order for it to work? Is that how it knows not to turn on when only getting signal from one light?

Correct, if it sees power on both wires it puts power to the LED, and keeps it on as long as there is power on one of the two inputs. However, the LED will flash with the hazards on since both inputs get and lose power together. Also, this logic unit may not work if you have LED brake/turn bulbs as it needs a path to ground through the filament bulbs that non resistored LEDs may not provide.

 

[GPSMan]

Thanks for video. Do you need both lights in order for it to work? Is that how it knows not to turn on when only getting signal from one light?

From the video I see it gets confused with your right blinker but not the left. Odd. But maybe really sensitive to ohms of resistance or something.

Of course you are using this for "off road use only" since it's not street legal.

 

[Hcopter]

From the video I see it gets confused with your right blinker but not the left. Odd. But maybe really sensitive to ohms of resistance or something.

Of course you are using this for "off road use only" since it's not street legal.

You're seeing the first video I made, before I added the logic module, when it was just connected to the right brake/signal.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

Or, y'know, they're separate circuits controlled via microcontroller.

You could tap both taillights and use a brake light logic module to combine the signals.

Or perhaps if you just want to kill the blinking just combine the turn signal wires which also carry the brake current on the accessory side to provide the power source to the brake bulb in essence turning off the blink. I do not expect this to work as it may cause a misconception fault for trailer. I have not found the modification thread yet!!!

 

[MakinDoForNow]

You may want to consider a “solution” last year…

https://www.mavericktruckclub.com/f...cap-that-is-lighted-problem.14922/post-348310

neither blinking nor brake lights work with this solution, but leaving either L or R wire connected MIGHT provide brake and one blinking …

Get rid of blink by combining L & R wires to the brake bulb? The steady side current would cancel the blink and the bulb limits the current?

 

[AutobahnSHO]

I skipped the first page- why not install trailer wiring and use that for whatever?

 

[greenlight]

Trailer wiring will make some features of truck not work. Like cross traffic alerts because truck will think it is hooked to a trailer .

 

[MetalsGeek]

I share your ambitions for a hitch receiver LED. The turn and brake lamps are the same filament in the Maverick, and are controlled by a transistor in the BCM. The simplest solution to get your hitch LED to work the way it should might need you to tap into the high-mount lamp circuit. The docs describe this as a Yellow AWG22 (small!) wire with Gray stripe on pin 3 of the lamp connector (pin 1 Blk/Yel is Gnd, pin 2 Wht/Grn is box lamp, both AWG20). This harness snakes around from the right/rear corner of the headliner down that corner of the cab to the floor, where it joins the main harness. You might be able to tap into it cleanly down here. Other items in this harness are the RR corner speaker, RR side corner air bag, and sun roof motor, so it's not too thick. The other end is pretty crowded at the BCM so I would avoid that. You can get solderless crimp-on T-tap connectors to make this easy but they have to be sized to fit the wire correctly.

 

[Rivers90]

why not install trailer wiring and use that for whatever?

Trailer wiring will make some features of truck not work. Like cross traffic alerts because truck will think it is hooked to a trailer .

The truck only thinks a trailer is attached if all for wires are use on the 4 pin.
Here is a link to the post showing how it can be done.
https://www.mavericktruckclub.com/f...ap-that-is-lighted-problem.14922/#post-348310
If you want it hidden I guess you could splice in to the 4 pin wires and not use the plug.
For what you want to do I think you would need something like was linked to if you did the splices in the tail lights. The tail lights are so expensive I would stay away from them myself.
I think Ford sells a plug and play system to add an LED brake strip light. That would be the easiest way to get a place to brake lite wire from.

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