nagata

So, after years of poor rear visibility, I finally added some auxiliary reverse lights. Got a pair of Pilot 55w halogen lights, ~1-7/8" x 5-3/4" rectangles, I believe the part number is PL-2055C. Anyway, mounted them on the bottom side of the rear bumper, just in front of the rear edge of the bumper so that they're slightly recessed, wired them (via relay of course) to the rear wiring so that they turn on with the stock reverse lights. The improvement is dramatic! See the pics below.

If you're interested in the details of the wiring, here's the rundown (remember, this is for a 08 XL, not sure what other models this would apply to):
-Added a relay to socket #5 in the fuse/relay box.
-Since I don't have the 7-pin trailer wiring harness, I had to tap into the main power wire on the vehicle side of the rear harness. This is the larger gauge, solid orange wire.
-Tapped into the ground from the 4-pin trailer harness, tied all 3 grounds (1 from each light, 1 from the relay) into this ground.
-Tapped into the reverse light circuit to trip the relay. This is the green w/ light green stripe wire, harness side of the rear harness.
-Tied the power wires for each light into the relay.
-Secured all the new wiring to the existing harnesses, secured the new relay up close to the main harness connector.
-Along the way, I took lots of extra time to coat all connections w/ dielectric grease and heat-shrink wrap all connections as much as possible. All splices were made w/ butt connectors. Hopefully this will lead to a resilient set up!

I also have a secondary signal wire set up to the relay, ready to receive a signal from the cab. I used diodes on each of the (2) signal wires, to prevent 1 circuit from back-feeding into the other. I'm going to add a switch inside the cab, so that I can turn on the lights without having the trans in reverse. Hopefully I'll get this done on Friday.

I know I'm not the first to do this, but figured I would share

Benhicks24

Looks like it turned out pretty good.. Just last night I was backing in and thought, boy I wish I had some lights. Maybe this will give me the motivation to do it....? Nah.

05jakev

Was thinking about it too but didnt like the though of the lights just hanging down below the bumper. Though of making the pop down and back up with some kind of electric actuator or pneumatic cylinder ran off vacuum.

nagata

Thanks for the compliments!

jakev - I know what you mean. Even after installing them, I'm not a HUGE fan of having the lights hanging down, but these are tight against the bottom of the bumper and small enough that I think they look alright. The functionality is worth it. It would be BADASS if a retractable system could be rigged up, but man, I think that would be really complicated, difficult, and expensive, and I have no idea how there can be enough space for the apparatus required unless the spare tire is removed.

If this truck were newer and/or not an XL, I probably wouldn't have drilled through & bolted them directly to the bumper; don't get me wrong, I love my truck, but if I end up with a little rusting on the bottom of these steel, gray bumpers, no biggie at this point. If that happens, I'll just sand it off and re-coat the areas with a little rattle can spray, easy fix compared to a chrome or PTM bumper.

I'm looking to upgrade within the next year, so I'll see how I like these lights over the next several months. If having them really is worthwhile, once I get a new truck, I'll come up with a mount that recesses the lights a bit more and doesn't require drilling through the metal bumper.

leopold

I have been thinking of doing this. My question is why did you add a relay to socket #5 in the fuse/ relay box?

whiteF1504x4

If you don't like them just hanging down get some rigid dually flush mounts and flush mount them on your bumper.

nagata

My truck did not come with the 7-pin trailer wiring, so it wasn't set up to have "constant on" power at the rear harness (this is actually only powered when the key is in the 'On' position, even in F-150s that have the 7-pin trailer wiring harness). However, thankfully all F-150s get the same basic harness, so the wiring is in-place, just wasn't live. To energize the "constant on" power at the rear of the truck, I had to install the relay into socket #5. In the owner's manual, this relay is referred to as the "Trailer Battery Charge" relay, or something to that effect.


Nice suggestion, hadn't even thought about something like that! More money and effort than I want to spend on this truck I think, but I'm definitely keeping this in mind for the next truck!