KC Hilites backup lights installation

[shovelhd]

Originally Posted by spun07RTX

....for trailering purposes, not to fire back at the a55hole behind me with his hibeams on

They wouldn't do a very good job of that. They are floodlights, not driving or fog lights so they illuminate in a short and wide pattern. I have them aimed straight back to get the most out of them, and they're very low on the bumper. If I remember I'll take a shot of the screen when I'm backing into the garage at night. You can see the beams clearly.

[PODO]

Originally Posted by spun07RTX

very nice!

looking into this now too, I would also hook them up to a separate switch.......

....for trailering purposes, not to fire back at the a55hole behind me with his hibeams on

Guess you won't be bothered by my "smoked" high beams yeah?

[shovelhd]

Originally Posted by spun07RTX

very nice!

looking into this now too, I would also hook them up to a separate switch.......

....for trailering purposes, not to fire back at the a55hole behind me with his hibeams on

You know, there was this pr*ck in a Pilot last night who thought he owned the passing lane, and when he flipped the highs on me after I passed him cleanly on the right, I thought about flipping my backup lights on...BUT....I didn't. It must have had something to do with the impressionable up and coming teenage driver in my passenger seat.

[r-squared]

I am trying your auxiliary backup light mod. I am not going to put in a manual switch though. I just want them to come on with the reverse lights. So I was either going to tap in to one of the taillights, or into the trailer wiring harness.

When you ran your wiring, did you run both your switch and the reverse trigger from the cab? Just curious, I see from your pics you also have a trailering pkg. I was wondering where the relay was powered from.

I was also going to run a fused line from the battery to the rear of the truck. Given the distance, do you think 16 guage wire is ok? I have spools of it but I dont want to go cheap and burn up the wire. They are just cheapy lights from harbor freight and they came with a 15 amp inline fuse, so I dont think they draw all that many amps.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[shovelhd]

Originally Posted by r-squared

I am trying your auxiliary backup light mod. I am not going to put in a manual switch though. I just want them to come on with the reverse lights. So I was either going to tap in to one of the taillights, or into the trailer wiring harness.

When you ran your wiring, did you run both your switch and the reverse trigger from the cab? Just curious, I see from your pics you also have a trailering pkg. I was wondering where the relay was powered from.

I was also going to run a fused line from the battery to the rear of the truck. Given the distance, do you think 16 guage wire is ok? I have spools of it but I dont want to go cheap and burn up the wire. They are just cheapy lights from harbor freight and they came with a 15 amp inline fuse, so I dont think they draw all that many amps.

Thanks in advance for your help.

I ran the reverse wire from the cab because I already had it identified and tapped for the reverse camera/nav system. There was no need to tap the wire externally where it could be exposed to the elements.

I think I used 14G wire but I'm sure you'll be OK with 16G as long as you use them for reverse only and don't drive for miles in reverse.

[r-squared]

Darn-it, the cheapo lights I got from Harbor Freight are not going to work. For one, if you mount them upside-down they'll potentially fill with water unless I silicone the heck out of them. And second, they are more of a Spot than a flood so the lighting is far too narrowly focused. Thats what I get for trying to go the cheap route.

Thankfully I have a portable 12v power unit and just zip tied them in a rough position before I did any real work. Guess I'll do some more aux light shopping...

[shovelhd]

Total cost of this setup was less than $100.