Does anyone have a tailgate light bar on their truck? If so how did you hook it up or what is the best way to hook it up...

 

I spliced into my 4 pin connector. I've had two different brands of bars. Neither held up for more than a few months. Hope you have better luck.

 

I've thought about doing this same thing. But I've seen so many that have sections of LED's that don't work.

Unk Bob

 

When I had one, I just plugged it into the trailer wiring connector. In the rare event I towed a trailer, I unhooked it and hooked up the trailer because you couldn't see the tailgate bar then anyhow. Much easier that way.

 

That's what I'm thinking too. I'd rather not splice into good wiring.

Unk Bob

 

I just put one on my truck, it wasn't a bar, it was a stick on flexible strip with the LEDs embedded in a coating that was about 1/4" thick. Mounted it to the bed flange that sticks down behind the tailgate. It came with a plug that plugged right into the trailer plug, the reverse LED's I had to tap the included extra wire into the reverse light wire from the tail light. It seems to work fine. Only complaint is that the beds flange that sticks down past the bottom of the tailgate is short so you cant always see the strip if your behind me. It depends on how low the car is that is behind me. Mine was only $18 on amazon.

 

I didn't want a pigtail sticking out of the 4 pin connector, I thought it looked better spliced. If you do it right, get into the harness, skin back insulation, solder the connection, and then a thick coating of liquid electrical tape, there will be no problems. Do NOT EVER rely on those cheap little Scotch Locks, or whatever trade name your familiar with. Makes a nice quick splice, but not very dependable, read that "redneck" engineering.

Back to the light bar. I gave up after the 2nd one, and went ahead and drilled 3, 3/4" holes, equally spaced, and installed 3 separate round LEDs, in the fashion you'd see on a dually pickup, or a big truck. They only work with the running lights though.
I'd post a photo, but don't have any on this 'puter, I'm 200 miles away from mine. If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll do it when I get home.

 

I f you want to do a super clean install. I bought a trailer connection junction box and the 5th wheel adapter wiring harness. The harness plugs into the main harness under the back of the truck. I then ran the loose ends to the junction box that i doubled sided taped to the bed cross member. The harness has all the individual wires for 7 pin, then i tapped into the posts for each wire.

 

That's a good way to do it.

 

Looks nice, good clean work too.
Now, tell me more about that that 79 in the picture

Unk Bob