Tailgate Light Bar Possible Solution

[CTYankee]

Short story - it worked! I verified on the way home that BLIS was functioning normally and there was no indication on the dash that a trailer was connected.

The installation:

Step 1 - remove both taillights since the the Curt unit will plug into both. It is necessary to drop the spare tire and remove a plastic guard to plug into the passenger side harness. The green wire end of the Curt harness then gets fed up through the taillight opening.

Step 2 - connect the Curt harness to the taillight plug, leaving the small pigtail to plug into the taillight itself. The green wire will run to the passenger side taillight and plug in there as well. The reverse wire from the light bar will need to be hardwired into the white reverse wire on the Curt harness. An optional step we took was to hardwire the Curt harness and light bar together, eliminating the 4-pin connectors (and the potential for corrosion).

Step 3 - mounting the light bar sections. In my case, I chose a split bar to leave the spare tire access hole clear. The light bar sections are attached with 3M dual action velcro strips (2 per bar), which has two advantages. One is that the bar can be moved, if necessary, and the other is that the velcro strips raise the bar enough to overcome the panel overlay near the end of the bumper.

Step 4 - the black wire seen on the floor at left is the power wire that runs up to the battery. There is another plastic shield amidships that needs to be removed so the wire can be run through that area.

The final step before buttoning everything back up was to test everything again. Prior to running all the wires, we did basic connections and then bench-tested the light bar laying on the tailgate. Once we saw that it worked, the installation proceeded.

Start to finish install time was around 3.5 hours but that was partly due to interruptions at the shop and partly due to figuring out how best to run the wires on a Maverick (this is the first one my old shop has worked on).

Sponsored

 

[Ottocycle]

Excellent work my friend! Will be part of my first lighting mods. Thank you for taking the time to take pictures and write things up.

 

[twolane]

Looks great. One question- why run power from the battery? Why not just grab it from the 12v supply in the bed for optional installations? Is there a reason it wouldn't work?

 

[CTYankee]

Looks great. One question- why run power from the battery? Why not just grab it from the 12v supply in the bed for optional installations? Is there a reason it wouldn't work?

Great question. The honest answer is that I didn't think of it and the techs doing the install weren't aware it was an option because this is the first Maverick they've worked on. So they did it the way they always do for adding non-factory tow setups.

BTW, the corporation I formed for my old shop was TwoLane Enterprises, Inc. Shop was sold and corporation dissolved but your username is a cool reminder.

 

[TRUCKHEF]

Looks great. One question- why run power from the battery? Why not just grab it from the 12v supply in the bed for optional installations? Is there a reason it wouldn't work?

that's how i did mine, only downside is mine aren't on unless the truck is which is weird i thought they stay hot for a while after shutoff so say i turn my car off while flashing hazards the lightbar wont illuminate.

looks like they mounted them too high, i made the same mistake my first go around, the bar isnt directly visible because of the tailgate when closed, unless you get really low which in reality never happens most peoples line of sigh whilst driving is like 4 feet or more above the ground?

i mounted mine to the beveled plastic bumper edge with magnets.

 

[CTYankee]

looks like they mounted them too high, i made the same mistake my first go around, the bar isnt directly visible because of the tailgate when closed, unless you get really low which in reality never happens most peoples line of sigh whilst driving is like 4 feet or more above the ground?

i mounted mine to the beveled plastic bumper edge with magnets.

Last night I had the chance to test how visible they are from about 30 feet away, and they do need to be lowered. I'll get to that at some point, but the main thing was to prove that a towing T-connector would allow a light bar to be installed without affecting driver aids or invoking tow mode. It also allows adding the light bar without having to splice into the factory harness.

Mission accomplished on that score, at least.

 

[SteveW12TCA]

that's how i did mine, only downside is mine aren't on unless the truck is which is weird i thought they stay hot for a while after shutoff so say i turn my car off while flashing hazards the lightbar wont illuminate.



looks like they mounted them too high, i made the same mistake my first go around, the bar isnt directly visible because of the tailgate when closed, unless you get really low which in reality never happens most peoples line of sigh whilst driving is like 4 feet or more above the ground?

i mounted mine to the beveled plastic bumper edge with magnets.

 

[SteveW12TCA]

Can you describe the connections you made using the 12volt bed access point? Instead of running underneath the truck directly to the battery, that connection would be made directly 12volt supply in the bed. What about the second wire (on the Ford connector)? Does the ground attach there or still run to a grounding source on the frame? Hope that makes sense. (As you can tell, I'm electrically challenged.) Thanks!

 

[TRUCKHEF]

Can you describe the connections you made using the 12volt bed access point? Instead of running underneath the truck directly to the battery, that connection would be made directly 12volt supply in the bed. What about the second wire (on the Ford connector)? Does the ground attach there or still run to a grounding source on the frame? Hope that makes sense. (As you can tell, I'm electrically challenged.) Thanks!

I used a grounding source on the frame one of the bolts behind the taillight, reason being because I had already used the light bars extension harness that it came with to tap into the taillight harness. Then the power module connected inline to the extension with a single 12v power wire for supplemental either from the battery or the aux 12v accessory port. If I hadn’t already spliced and grounded I would have definitely gone the Curt T-connector method and grounded with power to aux ports.

 

[SteveW12TCA]

Short story - it worked! I verified on the way home that BLIS was functioning normally and there was no indication on the dash that a trailer was connected.

The installation:

Step 1 - remove both taillights since the the Curt unit will plug into both. It is necessary to drop the spare tire and remove a plastic guard to plug into the passenger side harness. The green wire end of the Curt harness then gets fed up through the taillight opening.

Step 2 - connect the Curt harness to the taillight plug, leaving the small pigtail to plug into the taillight itself. The green wire will run to the passenger side taillight and plug in there as well. The reverse wire from the light bar will need to be hardwired into the white reverse wire on the Curt harness. An optional step we took was to hardwire the Curt harness and light bar together, eliminating the 4-pin connectors (and the potential for corrosion).

Step 3 - mounting the light bar sections. In my case, I chose a split bar to leave the spare tire access hole clear. The light bar sections are attached with 3M dual action velcro strips (2 per bar), which has two advantages. One is that the bar can be moved, if necessary, and the other is that the velcro strips raise the bar enough to overcome the panel overlay near the end of the bumper.

Step 4 - the black wire seen on the floor at left is the power wire that runs up to the battery. There is another plastic shield amidships that needs to be removed so the wire can be run through that area.

The final step before buttoning everything back up was to test everything again. Prior to running all the wires, we did basic connections and then bench-tested the light bar laying on the tailgate. Once we saw that it worked, the installation proceeded.

Start to finish install time was around 3.5 hours but that was partly due to interruptions at the shop and partly due to figuring out how best to run the wires on a Maverick (this is the first one my old shop has worked on).

Is this the WHITE wire on the Curt harness that the white backup wire on the Putco light needs to be spliced into? Thanks!

 

[CTYankee]

The white wire on the Putco light splices directly into the reverse light wire on the tail light harness. I don't believe the Curt harness has a reverse wire.

 

[SteveW12TCA]

The white wire on the Putco light splices directly into the reverse light wire on the tail light harness. I don't believe the Curt harness has a reverse wire.

This is the Curt harness. So one of these white wires? If so, how do you determine which one is for reverse (which one to splice in to)? Is there a wire schematic available? Thanks

 

[MakinDoForNow]

The white wire on the Putco light splices directly into the reverse light wire on the tail light harness. I don't believe the Curt harness has a reverse wire.

Also the Ford 4 pin connector has no reverse light wire as it takes the 5 pin connector, I believe!

 

[CTYankee]

This is the Curt harness. So one of these white wires? If so, how do you determine which one is for reverse (which one to splice in to)? Is there a wire schematic available? Thanks

You're going to have to plug in the Curt harness and then test for the reverse light wire. I had my old shop install mine so I know that they wired into the taillight harness but I don't recall which color wire it was. As noted above, 4-pin connectors don't carry a reverse light wire.

 

[SteveW12TCA]

You're going to have to plug in the Curt harness and then test for the reverse light wire. I had my old shop install mine so I know that they wired into the taillight harness but I don't recall which color wire it was. As noted above, 4-pin connectors don't carry a reverse light wire.

thanks for the insights!

Sponsored