I'll answer my own questions and hopefully help out the next guy why tries this.

The best way to tap the reverse wire is as shown in picture three. There are a quite a few green wires - how did I find the correct one?

LUCK! I decided I would tap all the solid green wires using a Posi-tap, one at at time until my Headunit switched display when I put the truck in reverse. As I said, I was lucky - I found it on the first tap! I don't know if it's the same on all RLs - but the green wire I tapped was at the front of the bundle - identical to what is shown in picture three.

In regards to the reverse lights, orange is ground, green with black stripes is 12v DC. If you are worried about hooking a backup camera to this (particularly this one - which is popular on this forum but has mixed reviews over it's failure rate) - add an in line fuse of 2 Amps. Mine works fine :act035:.

 

I tapped into the reverse signal under the driver's seat, where it connects to the nav computer. I built a little switch box that will let me turn the backup camera on while in drive. At the time I did this, it was more for novelty sake, but recently I towed my first trailer (pop up camper), and I sure liked being able to keep an eye on things back there as I drove. First time towing jitters (with a hitch I installed myself) I guess.

Here's my thread on how I did it:

http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23635&highlight=skaught

I also added a video input selection switch to the box, so I could send a video signal other than the backup camera to the Nav screen. My intention for this was so I could send my iPhone output to the screen, but after doing all this, I never bothered with it. Technically, I could send any video signal to the screen and have it on while in drive, but obviously that wouldn't be recommended.

Scott

 

Here is a good tip for next time. Take a sewing needle and push into the wire. Than take a multimeter and probe the needle looking at D/C voltage. You will get zero voltage, shift the truck into reverse and when you get 12 volts that's your wire.

 

Thank you sir! I had read that I needed to use a multimeter (which I have) but I had no idea how one would use it to test the wire. That needle trick is handy - I will definitely use it in the future! :act035:

 

This is really cool stuff. Thank you for sharing guys.

 

Yes thanks for sharing this...

 

Please help a guy out. I am hooking up the rear view camera and I need to tap that green wire. Can somebody please tell me know you get your hands in there and tap into that wire. Or if there is somewhere else I can tap the wire I would like to know. I would love to see some pictures if you have them. My dash is all torn appart right now.

 

You tap it similar to the picture attached. I am not sure what you mean by "get your hands in there". You have to remove the door sill panel (slide the gas cap cover off, and pull the cover up), then remove the fuse box cover, pull the black clip off near the brake pedal, then pull the plastic over off. Remove the electrical tape from the bundle and then tap using my method of luck, or use the multimeter with the pin method described in this thread.

 

Alright. For some reason I thought I had to tap the green wire where it was comming out of the harness. I skipped over the picture with the blue connection. Sorry about that. I will give it a try after I get off work tomorrow. Thanks.

 

Here's a pdf for removal of the tailgate handle for those that PM'd me about it.

 

thank you. this post really helped me with my monitor install. needle trick works like a charm :act035:

 

I had a heck of time finding the wire, only to find it out it was one of two deep green wires. The correct wire had been spliced already (not sure why) and was shorter and near the back of the bundle.
I used the needle trick and it worked well. One thing that helped immensely was finding a ground spot under the door jam plastic siding and being able to stick/shove one end of the voltmeter under a metal bracket so I didn't need to hold both leads of the voltmeter. An alligator clip would've helped...

I used a posi-tap terminal so I didn't have to cut the wire. Seemed to work well.

I had to try 4 wires before I got it right.