Bought new 2015 F-150 and love it. Adding a tailgate LED brake/Turn/Back Up/Ruinning light bar. If I plug in the 4 prong recepticle I loose my distance alert sound. Is it possible to tap the wires directly behind the tail light housings and maintain the distance alert?? I appreciate any/all help.

 

Do a search and you will find you can not plug it in since the truck will think a trailer is connected. You must wire it in.

 

OK so as long as I wire the LED Light bar directly to the wires behind the right and left tail light housings and NOT to the 4 or 7 pin connectors, it should not think a trailer is connected.

 

I have the same question as Mr Al but about my 2016 F250. Did wiring directly to the tail lights solve Mr Al's problem. I can't figure out how the truck "knows" there is a trailer connected when only using the 4 pin connector. All the information I find on the truck wiring indicates that it "knows" the trailer is connected by sending a pulse down the brake pin (#3) every 4 seconds. Well, the 4-pin connector has NO break connector, so that cannot be the true or complete answer. I want to wire it directly into the lights, but I don't want the truck thinking there is a trailer attached just because the impedance of the wiring changed. Please let me know if wiring to the lights instead of the trailer connector makes a difference. And if anybody understands the real "TRAILER CONNECTED" circuit, please add the description to this thread. We'd all like to be educated.

 

Im sure alot has changed since I had my 2010 but I spliced into the harness directly behind the plug below the bumper. The truck never acted like anything was connected and the LED light bar worked as advertised. I hope this is how it is again because I plan to put one on when I get back to the states and my truck arrives.

 

I have a 2016 F-250 and just installed an Opt7 triple LED lighting bar.... so far... not so good.
Issues:

1. I can't get it to light up brighter when I hit the brakes. Ever.
2. It only works with the progression when the truck is not running. When I start the truck then the progression does not work for the turn signals... just the first block blinks Amber on each side.
3. The truck keeps saying "Trailer Disconnected"... which I can "reset" via the steering wheel... but it comes back up after a few minutes.

I have just sent an email to Opt-7.... hopefully tomorrow they will have some ideas for me. But this post caught my attention regarding the wiring, it's directly wired in, we did not use the 4-pin connector.

After reading this we are going to re-wire behind the tail lights to see if it resolves all or some of these issues. Currently we spliced in a few feet before the trailer wires. I hope moving the wiring will fix it. We'll see.

 

Updating this thread now.... I spoke with my dealership today and a tech told me to wire it in via the tail lights, not the tow lights... in his own words he said the towing package on these trucks is "real sensitive".

Probably wont be until this weekend I have time to redo the wiring.. but will keep this board updated so as to help others.

 

Sometimes that sensitivity is a blessing in disguise. On the 2017's with the stop / start "feature" one of the ways to semi-permanently defeat the system is to plug one of those trailer connecter testers with the little LED's into the connector. The truck thinks you have a trailer connected and disables the stop / start. The tech is right - it don't take much.

 

Sorry about complaining here, but my original post was for somebody to answer who REALLY knows what is going on. I don't like forum answers like, "well I think", or "this worked for me". So, here is the real answer. I went to Helm and downloaded many wiring diagrams from them. Yes, the diagrams indicate that the braking circuit determines trailer connectivity. BUT, when I plugged my light bar into the 4-pin (no brake circuit) I received the message about trailer connected. I searched many more diagrams and found that the TRAILER TOW MODULE 151-34 has the left and right turn signals pass through it. Therefore, that module must also be used to determine trailer connectivity. That is why the light bars have to be connected at the tail lights rather than the trailer connector. The current to the taillights do NOT pass through 151-34. Only current to the trailer's lights.


With that information, I wired my 49" Anzo LED tailgate bar directly into the wires behind the tail lights. They provided wires long enough for the brake, tail, and backup lights to the left tail light and one wire to the right tail light.


EVERYTHING WORKED FINE! NO TRAILER CONNECTED WARNINGS!

 

Thanks for the info. Can you advise the wire you connected to?

 

Best not to assume wire colors are the same. I removed the left taillight and noticed that the backup lamp and the run/turn lamp both had black/magenta wires to them. I assumed it was the ground. I cut some insulation off the wire and checked with an ohm meter for continuity to ground. I was correct. I skinned a little more insulation off and used the BEST connecting method I've ever seen. I learned it from a Bull Dog Security remote start installation. I then skinned insulation off the other wires and checked with a volt meter while trying left turn and run lights. I patched into them. The white wire on the backup light was then obvious. I had pealed away the right turn wire from the cable. Fortunately on the 4-connector cable and plug, the right turn is farthest from the ground, so it peeled away all by itself.


Watch this YouTube video from 2:00 minute to 3:00 minute mark.
I believe this is the BEST, non-solder method of connecting wires. Since the connections are being made in the taillight area that is out of the weather, there is no concern of future corrosion. I've used this method of splicing wires since 1998 and have never had a failure. This method does no compromise strands of wire and reduce the current flow capability of the existing wire.

 

Im happy to report that my Opt-7 tailgate bar is working correctly now.
It warmed up enough for us to crawl around on the ground a bit and we got it going.

https://youtu.be/EEmrZoP_fdk

It also turns solid white for reverse.... I didn't get that on the video though.

How do I embed YouTube video into a post? That's nice!

 

Nice. Does the white light in reverse help?

 

Yourguide, Pre-2017 Superduties like yours are NOT a problem. I wired all my Recon lights to headlights and tail lights on my Superduty without issue. They don't have LED's. The problem is with the F150 with LED's and BLISS.

Z22, is yours a 2016 F-150?

 

Yes! I love that I can see much more back there now.

I can take some pics if you like?