I have just departed with my 1977 F 250 for a 2011 F150 super cab. I needed extra lights on the rear of my truck so I added two lights and wired them into the existing backup lights. Everything worked fine. When I tried to do the same with the 2011 F150, as I put the truck in reverse, all backup lights came on for about 1/2 second and then went out. At the same time as the lights flickered, I could hear what sounded like a relay dropping out. When I disconnected the 2 new lights, everything works OK.

I would appreciate any thoughts on this problem.

 

Fuse

 

Sorry, I hit the reply button too soon. The fuse is the first palce I would look if your lights don't work.

Did you wire the backup light directly to the reverse lights or did you wire them to a relay and use the reverse lights as a "trigger" for the relay? If you wired directly to the reverse lights without a relay then you may be asking too much of the light and thereby overloading it. I recommend using a relay so you get full use of your lights.

 

I can move the shift lever to either park or drive and then back to Reverse and the backup lights will come back on for the 1/2 second and then drop out. It appears the a current relay is in the circuit buy without a diagram, I cant be sure.

 

I wired the new lights directly to the wire feeding the existing backup lights.
I can see using a remote 12volt relay could solve the problem.

 

Thanks, You have lead me in the right direction. A 12voly relay is on the way.

Sam

 

Ahh, now I see. By running them directly off the reverse lights that is causing too much draw on the existing circuits. What i recommend is use a relay, not the relay that came already installed on the truck but a seperate relay. By using a separate relay you can get power directly from the battery and use the reverse lights as a trigger for the backup lights. The setup will pretty much be the same as wiring offroad lights to a vehicle.

 

Your welcome! Welcome to the forum, if you have anymore questions feel free to ask. Hope things go well for you!

 

you could also take the quick and easy route like i did. Run a wire from your positive side of battery to switch on dash send wire to lights split it to both then ground the lights to the mounting bolt. Thats exactly what i did and now i can turn mine on whenever i decide i need light. Its nice this way cause you can have the truck shut off and still have light behind you to see if your doing anything behind truck.

 

Here's what I did on my 02. Since all F150 came pre wired for the tow package 7 way, I cheated a bit. Poped the relay in for what would have been the 7th wire on a 7 way for backups. Then I went and pulled a junkyard 7 way harness (to where it meets the connectors on the frame) and replaced my OE 4 way and wired in a 6 way. I then spliced a wire from before the connector into the lights on the headache rack. On the rear bumper I have lights hanging so the unused 7th wire got ran to those. When ever I put the transmission in reverse, the factory lights come one, as well as the two on the headache rack and the two on the rear bumper. I then took it one step further and wired a spare relay I had in to the trailer backup wire, controlling the relay from a switch in the cab. So I can also turn on the lights on the 7th wire on whenever I want with the switch. Comes in handy for saying thanks when someone pulls over to let you by.