I will be looking for a wire under the hood of my '96 F150 tomorrow to tie my LED running lights into. I had planned to use a voltage tester and hit and miss until I found a wire activated by the ignition, BUT perhaps someone can save me some time and point me in the right direction?

It is 6 total LED's, so it's not a huge amp draw, hardly any draw at all actually. I am also placing a 5a inline fuse in the circuit. So any help here is a time saver to me, thanks for any response's in advance!

 

Running lights all the time, or with parking lights?

 

Splice into the wire for your running lights in either the bottom or corner marker. Make sure to get the one that's for the running light, not the blinker. Should be 3 wires going to the connector to the light bulb. On my '91, the brown wire is the running light wire, striped is blinker, black is ground.

EDIT: I think what I just described ^^ are the "parking lights" which will come on when your headlight switch is pulled halfway

As far as them being on all the time while the truck is running, I wouldn't bother. Running lights in the daylight are stupid to me

 

Agreed just as stupid as headlights during the day. Pointless to have

 

I'll only turn mine on when it starts to get darkish haha. Then they're barely noticeable with the HID headlights when those are on

 

I can't even notice them with my headlights on

 

Yeah I get what you guys are saying about not having lights that come on when you start the truck, however... since whoever decided all the newer vehicles should have this feature (daylight running lights) Maryland in it's infinite wisdom has decided that on most state roads (primary and some secondary) it is required to have at least daylight runners on or pay a $25.00 fine... yeah, it's BS I know, welcome to Maryland...

Anyways, I need a wire that becomes hot when I start the truck, I know there is a fuse box under the hood, so I may start there to see if any wires are hot on start up, but might take a little time not know which wires are or arent, you know?

 

Wire them to your parking lights, then it may have to get technical under the dash, to just make the parking lights your runner lights. It would have to include a relay to turn them on when the truck is running, but also not allow them to be double fed when your headlights are turned on. Or rig it so your switch just stays halfway out, but the lights only light when the truck is on. Kinda like a toyota

Also, just check the fuse diagram. You'll definitely know which ones are constant 12 versus switched. For instance power windows (although that fuse is in the cab)

And another edit: where are you mounting them? I'd like to add some as well, just want them to be invisible when off, or nearly, and then noticable and definite at night. I suppose I could night shade them, on the basis that they're normally really bright

 

Wow maryland sucks. You could just search the fuse box for a switched 12v source. That's what I did for my oil pressure gauge. I ended up taking out the tank selector switch (my back tank doesn't work anyway) and running the gauge light off of that. So I know that one is switched, not constant.

There's a couple of empty spots in the fuse box, you should be able to find something!