Hey all. I have a 2016 F150 XLT. I am wanting to wire in some LED lights that I will be putting in the rear bumper. My question is, is it possible to tap into the power and ground wires for the bed LED cargo lights?(So I dont have to run a ton of wires) Or would there be voltage issues and not allow the lights to work properly? I want these as extra work lights and not backup lights, so I can turn them on from the cab with the cargo light button or from the button in the bed of the truck.
Sorry if this has been asked before, I tried searching the forum but didnt find anything.

 

If you read any of the bed lighting threads, you'd have noticed that you can't add too much strip LED's before exceeding the capacity of the LED bed lighting wires. You are not going to run high power LED's off that wiring.

 

Flamingtaco is right. I tried it myself, it kills the circuit even with what I consider minimum extra draw.
You will be better off running dedicated fused power from the battery and using a switch along the way wherever it is most convenient.

 

Thank you for the info guys

 

or use the bed wires as the trigger for a relay - tap 12v constant from 7 pin wiring harness

 

That’s a really good idea if he has the 7-pin.

 

I assumed he did - my 12 and my 18 both came with them as part of the tow package.

 

That is a good idea. My only problem is I'm not great when it comes to wiring. I understand that power would come fro.the 7 pin wiring, but how would I wire it in from there to use the bed wires so I could turn it on from the button in the bed?

 

Install like this:
Relay pins:
85- chassis ground
86- +12 volt signal coming from bed light switch when activated
30- incoming + 12 volt power from 7 pin.
87- +12 volt output power to new LED lighting

this way, every time you activate the switch, the relay will receive the signal to send power from your 7 pin to the new lighting.

 

this!!!