Azuri

I just received my Recon xtreme tailgate light bar. The box says it's 3rd generation so hopefully that's a good thing.

Now on to the problem. I unpacked it and everything looks fine and their site and other sources say it's "plug and play" with the 4 pin connection on the trailer hitch. Now It does have a white wire that needs to be spliced into a tail light or the 7 pin harness and it also has a red wire +12v "hot wire".

I was on the understanding that the light bar will function on the 4 pin connection (reference to the plug and play) but the scanning light feature of the blinkers and of course the reverse light wouldn't work until I splice them in.

I wanted to test the light bar before doing all the hard wiring so I plugged in the 4-pin connector and nada, zippo nothing. I tried with lights on, hazard lights, indicators break lights etc and absolutely nothing. I also tested with a probe my 4 pin and checked my fuses to see if in fact there was power and ruled out the issue is not at the connection. (I've also got the relays installed in my fuse box that come from the factory in the glove box but that's a different animal anyways.)

Question now does the +12V hot wire have to be hooked up for the light to even function or is my bar buggered straight out of the box? I didn't want to go through this installation and find something wrong with the LED bar since RECON is notorious for flaky stuff.


Here's what they say at their site about the light:

http://www.gorecon.com/product.php?p...e-Bar&p_cat=75

· Plug & play installation – Plugs directly into a standard flat 4-pin trailer light connector

Any input or thoughts is the bar screwed up or do I have to wire up the +12V hot wire to find out for sure? I seen enough people that appear to of just done the 4-pin plug and have it work.

051F

Well if you have power at the plug and the bar is not working, it is probably the bar. Hopefully you will get it to work and it is just something that was overlooked. I am sure toddman will be in here right away to let you know that recon products are junk.

I would try hooking the 12 volt constant up and see what happens. When I had the trailer brake controller installed, they had to turn this function on, I highly doubt that has anything to do with it but you never know. Maybe someone who has installed a light bar can chime in, and good luck.

Pauli18c

Isn't the white wire for ground? That would need to be connected to the chassis or something if so

Azuri

The white wire is labeled as "reverse light" to be spliced into the tail light. The 4 prong plug connector has the ground already but doesn't have a reverse light capability.

Toddman38

iTrader: (5)

Bwah, ha ha!

Toddman38

iTrader: (5)

Try this Azuri... Im sure you can strip those two wires and make contact with the correct one before hardwiring them to ensure it works! one is the Reverse, the other is the Power, as explained in the attached video! So yes, they need to be connected for your hu hmm... Lightbar to function!

Azuri

Yeah I seen that video. I actually used the "contact us" form at Recon and actually got a response in 20 minutes. I was floored I didn't expect a response or that fast anyways here's what they said:

I didn't want to go cutting any plugs off since I'm just a little leery of Recon's track record and if it the LED bar was baffed and I cut the plug off to hard wire it then the place I bought it from might have gave me the "look". If you look at the link from Recon's site it says it will work with 4-way plug only (with limited functionality) So I figured I'd just test it first which I will still do with the "hot wire" before cutting the plug off to complete the full hard wire install.

Even their .pdf amendment for the extreme tailgate light bar leads you to believe it will work with just the 4-way plug so you can see why I scratched my head. Here's the info straight from that .pdf:

"First connect the flat four connector and white reverse light wire
as stated in the included instruction sheet then follow the
supplemental instructions below:

The remaining RED wire needs to be connected to a constant
‘hot’ 12V power source such as the wire coming off either your
Ignition or Accessory Terminal where your ignition key goes
into your vehicles steering column. Most late model vehicles
have ample space under the dashboard on the driver side where
you can access these two ignition/accessory wires. The RED
wire MUST be connected to one of these two wires otherwise
the Xtreme light bar will not function properly."

The part I bolded plus the vast amount of internet searching led to me to believe it should partially work. I won't get a chance to install this until the weekend but I'll post a video of it in action ASAP.

One last funny thing I did come across while researching this was this video. Here is how you DON'T install a tailgate light bar......LOL

Toddman38

iTrader: (5)

Dodge owner, go figure...

bbird

made install really easy and less frustrating if replacement needed. I added a 2nd 4 prong to the factory 4 prong harness under the bumper. This eliminated cutting off plug and easy to remove if issue. The red wire need to be constant, do not use hot on 7 prong, it will eventually screw up the entire bar with on / off power ( been there , done that ) I ended up actually running permenant power from battery, through tube frame on drives side all the way to rear. 2 years now and no problem. Oh ya , did splice back up wire to back up wire in harness rather than into light per instructions.

Azuri

Interesting to say the least. I just tested my light bar direct from the battery to see if it was functioning and it just remained on how did you avoid that?

Anyways since yours is two years old my was labeled on the box "3rd Generation" and it does still require a live +12V live wire but RECON's actual instructions recommends to splice into the ignition triggered live wire which I wasn't prepared to do. Next best thing is the live wire in the trailer hitch which again is live when the ignition is turned on. I don't think it's necessary to have a +12V live 24/7 and I'd imagine some of the earlier development issues in the prior 2 generations (one of which I'm sure you have since yours is 2+ years old) have been resolved.


If mine fails for any reason at any point I'll be sure to post here I don't give any OEM or aftermarket products a "get out of free jail card" if a product fails or sucks I'll make it know. Mine is working as intended I've left out the running light portion I don't want the light bar lit while running lights are on only for any combination of blinkers, brakes, hazards or reverse.


To be continued....