The BEST Way To Wire Trailer Reverse Back-Up Lights

[@shawnhurricanelane8044]

Super cool you put this together! This can ALSO become a safety feature of when you have to Change a tire ( off Highway, please ) at NIGHT. Great Job!

[@novavroomvroom3435]

Make sure you have a flat tire repair kit just in case you puncture the tire while drilling the fender...!!!! LoL... I was yelling at you while watching your video...!!! Close call drilling through the fender... Great information on wiring the lights...

[@triptheroad]

I keep a tire puncture kit in every vehicle! Cheap assurance to keep a car or trailer going without having to get the spare out.

[@allenross2121]

Thank you. Everything I had to figure out in a single video. Very informative and to the point.

[@ernestpaul2484]

Another thing to put on my trailer improvement list for both my 6x12 flat, 7x16 enclosed and my M101a2 3/4 ton military cargo (converted to pseudo single camper). The flat and 3/4 ton have 4 flats on the wiring so the wiring you show is extremely helpful. I am mechanically and electrically inclined, but I have to be shown or "steered" on how to do a particular thing along with sometimes why to do it that way. Thanks.

[@HemiLyfestyle]

Great video, I watched this when I did my utility trailer lights 😂

[@808chevykev]

You nailed the need. Thanks for the share👍✌️

[@wrenchboostboi8994]

The 7 flat pin connection also has a 12volt accessory pin, red wire one i believe. You could just connect to it and wire add a small bus terminal that would then become a handy 12 volt supply for anything further you would like to add. You could switch control the entire terminal, or wire individual switches to different functions, such as rear lights, front lights, cargo lights, winch, battery charger, inverter, etc. Just don’t go too crazy and add too much! It will bog down your trucks power supply. If one wanted to add everything listed you’d have to add a battery, have it charged by the 12V accessory wire, then wire all the trailer accessories off the battery, or possibly have a voltage regulator in there as well.

[@chrissinclair4190]

thanks for posting this was just what I was looking for

[@readplanet23]

Nice back-up lights. 👍🏼

[@SAVING_ICONIC_MACHINES]

Really good information and easy for everyone to understand I’m sure of it.

[@madebyshade1]

Great description. Thanks for your help.

[@madebyshade1]

I'm finally getting around to doing this instal on my camper. Would you use an the in-line fuse on the battery connection, or is that unnecessary?

[@Weird__Is__Natural]

Can I run my hots from the lights to the toggle switch then one hot from the switch to reverse circuit, the second hot from the switch to constant power (12v)? (My grounds ran to a 7 way junction box). I'm adding a 7 way junction and keeping them separate from my four way.

[@grutzmac]

Where did you pull the power from? How did you tap the tow vehicle for power?

[@triptheroad]

The power is coming from the tail light circuit, when you turn your headlights on, the trailer tail light wiring gets constant 12V. Since you wouldn't need the flood lights during the day, there is no need to run a separate power wire! Now if you wanted the ability to turn the lights on no matter what state the headlight switch is in, with a 7 pin trailer connection, you could use the 12V power pin that is usually used to charge trailer breakaway systems or winch batteries.

[@Blurredman]

A definite improvement... And.. scotch locks have their place in the world somewhere... :)

[@kylesonsalla7620]

High voltage interior lighting, where they were actually designed for.

[@bartloon2421]

I have a switch like that on my car. So Every trailer and the extra back up Laps on my truck can come on by reverse or whit the switch

[@vikp8817]

Did you add Positive from Reverse Lights to pin 1 Positive from Auxiliary lights to Pin 2 (Center) Positive from tail lights to pin 3? No Relay required?

[@triptheroad]

correct no relay needed if you are using LED lights or a small amount of halogen lights. This particular switch is rated for about 10 amps which is well over the current draw of these LED pods. I think each of these LEDs draws less than an amp each. You could put a relay after the switch though if you wanted to run a lot of lights or lights that draw a lot more current.

[@grantwes]

Hey, thanks for the video the drone shots from the top where it especially helpful. I think if you had mounted the lights at the Very end of the trailer the light would have been much better. 1/2 of the light is being shown onto the trailer and not the ground

[@triptheroad]

No problem! Glad it was helpful. That light placement is actually intentional as I wanted the black trailer itself to also be illuminated as it is very difficult to see at night while reversing.

[@Michael2289]

You save me couple $'s thank you so much 🤝🏼

[@darrylm3627]

😄👍Good Stuff, Great Tips

[@brianvincent9803]

Did I miss where you tied in to the power circuit?

[@triptheroad]

The circuit gets power from the tail lamp circuit and the reverse lamp circuit. The SPDT switch acts as a selector between the two.

[@crodz71]

Nice crocs.

[@navarrekurtz720]

You can wire a y split in with bare butt connectors and good heat shink.....

[@423alonso]

Awesome video God bless....

[@spcgardner1208]

The best thing I ever did was mount two flush mount pods in the steel plate under the ramp on my enclosed trailer. Grounded to frame. Ran hot up to the brake controller box and into the reverse wire! Wire slid right in the existing loom!

[@kevinburroughs6583]

how did you go about wiring it to the 7 pin connector?

[@triptheroad]

for the 7-pin plug itself, you have a few options: 1. you can buy a plug with a length of pigtail on it, and then butt-splice or solder those connections to your light wiring. On this trailer I soldered and heat shrinked those connections as I had wired the connector up before making this video. If you use butt splice connectors, I recommend the waterproof ones that have built in heat shrink tubing on the ends. In my most recent video I actually review a nice high end (but still relatively affordable) crimp tool that makes very secure connections that I also recommend. 2. You can buy a plug with screw terminals and make your wire runs from the plug screws straight to the lighting, which minimizes points of failure and looks a little better. Use dielectric grease on all metal parts of the plug and at your light connections to prevent corrosion and circuit failure. In the case of these LEDs, you will still need to use splices or solder, but some brake lights and off road lights have screw terminals or plugs inside the fixture. As for which pins and wire colors to use, I intentionally left that out since there are several different wire color schemes that vehicle and trailer manufacturers use, but you would just make the proper lighting connections by pin layout in either scenario above. The pinout IS standardized so if you look up a diagram for the plug and the socket, it is pretty easy to wire up but can be a little disorienting. I recommend verifying and wiring the ground terminal first; as long as this wire is placed correctly, any incorrectly connected wiring will be obvious during light testing. Hopefully this information helps!

[@thenamelessyee]

how bout a video on how to wired the switch

[@triptheroad]

Since this video did so well, I want to do a few more automotive electrical DIY videos including switch wiring dos and don'ts. Unfortunately I didn't put much information in this video on the switch wiring itself

[@anthonybalzarini5453]

I feel like if you want one source to go to two different places, then the one source wire should go in the middle but if you want to wire it like he did here, your two power sources(reverse and parking circuits) should go to the outsides and the middle terminal goes to the one light circuit. But please, correct me if I’m wrong

[@cedaroakfarm8596]

Good idea, IT IS VERY HARD TO SEE THE TRAILER AT NIGHT WHEN BACKING UP.

[@sc00b3y]

Is there a way to have it so the switch is in the truck?

[@triptheroad]

You could add a separate 3 pin connector between the truck and trailer and remotely mount the switch in your truck. You would just have to do this for each truck that is to be used with the trailer. Just note that if you did this, the current will flow from the trailer wiring, to the switch in your truck, and back to these lights on your trailer. It shouldn't be an issue with LED flood lights of this size, but may be a problem with halogen lights or a lot more LEDs.

[@triptheroad]

You can buy these: a.co/d/8NvbANN and cut in half to give you two connectors with a length of wire attached. Since the trailer end of this connection would be live, use the connector with two covered and one exposed pins and wire the two covered pins to your reverse and tail light circuits respectively, the exposed pin would connect to your flood lights as this pin would only be energized by the returning signal from the switch. You would use the same exact style switch as shown in this video, but just wired on the other side of the connector (with wire added) wherever you would like the switch to be mounted!

[@RobertPena-g7c]

How can I get those kind of lights what's are name of those lights

[@triptheroad]

Nilight brand lights on Amazon. They make a bunch of different sizes!

[@troypolice911]

I need help with the switch…can’t figure it out

[@triptheroad]

You'll need a Single Pole Double Throw (SPDT) switch if you want to switch between tail light and reverse circuits, the center pin will go to your lights, and the two outer pins go to each input

[@troypolice911]

@@triptheroad thanks brother that’s all I needed

[@juancarlosarias7674]

Is the (-) black the same as the ground?

[@triptheroad]

For most 12 volt DC and car accessories, yes. For household and high voltage AC wiring this is usually not the case though. In this video, the trailer chassis is connected to the ground wire coming from the tow vehicle, so we can treat the entire trailer as a ground terminal for the black wires.

[@rodneysherwin4489]

AAAHH SHIT JUST DRILLED ME TIRES !!

[@billcuster1341]

No relay switch?

[@triptheroad]

No need to in this application for a few reasons: - the reverse circuit is switched on and off by the vehicle, so it is designed to power the lights directly - the reverse lights use relatively low current, so the added switch is able to safely handle the lights directly - this low current is also why it is ok to flip the switch and directly power the lights from the tail light circuit without overloading that circuit

[@billcuster1341]

@@triptheroad I bought a kit with 4 lights. It came with a relay switch prewired into the harness. Wires directly to my rv batteries. My problem is, I want to run the lights from 2 separate power sources. 1 from the vehicle, 1 from the rv batteries. I have a single pole 2 way switch so I can turn lights on when vehicle is not attached to the trailer. I’ve seen it on KZbin, but no details on how to do the 2 way switch. The harness came with a regular toggle switch prewired but only to the batteries. Is the center yellow reverse wire on the 7 pin plug from my truck already using a relay switch so I can wire it directly to one side of my 2 way switch? Thanks!

[@billcuster1341]

So you run the power source from the vehicle to 1 side of a single pole double throw switch and the run the other side of the switch to the battery? I want to be able to turn lights on when not hooked to the vehicle also. I’m adding reverse lights to a travel trailer.

[@triptheroad]

@@billcuster1341 this particular trailer does not have its own battery (aside from emergency breakaway's own battery), but yes you could set it up this way as long as your trailer's battery is tied to the same ground that your lights are. Just make sure you have a fuse between your battery and the switch. The tow vehicle's lighting should already be fused.

[@cephus0007]

Awesome!

[@pedrolabrada5591]

👍👍👍

[@thrashmetal7588]

You lost me at the wire crimps!

[@triptheroad]

They're primitive and terrible but they're accessible, easy to use, and they work most of the time!

[@Bareass172]

​@@triptheroaduntil they don't!

[@triptheroad]

@@Bareass172 when they fail I'll spend $10 instead of $5 to rewire it with better connectors. So far the wiring and connections have outlasted the $20 lights though.

[@robford41984]

Right same, I was like ok this was a good idea with the second set oooooooh he used the taps nope I’m out….

[@randalltolman2368]

Thy do make liquid electrical tape,works better

[@triptheroad]

That's actually a good idea, I will have to try that next time

[@teejay622]

oof! You lost me at the clamp-on connections...

[@triptheroad]

There's definitely better ways to wire it, I just opted to use common off-the-shelf parts that most will be able to get ahold of quickly!

[@motox947]

Can you really take anyone wearing Crocs seriously? I think not.

[@adambratcher6679]

Or using those connections!!!! Asking for problems!!

[@triptheroad]

I even say in the video that it's not the greatest option, just the quickest and most convenient 😂 Still works just fine almost a year later.

[@StreetSweets]

Crocs have nothing to do with knowledge 😂

[@juanmcsweeney4503]

I stopped watching when I saw the dirty Crocs

[@triptheroad]

Nothing is more American than dirty work Crocs!