Alright guys. I just finished my flatbed on my '04 F-250 today. Now I am onto the task of wiring it all up for lights. I am in no way an electrician...but I have a general knowledge of wiring. How would I go about wiring up this bed? I have 2 red brake lights, 2 white reverse lights, and 4 red marker lights. 2 on the left and 2 on the right. They are all LED's. Is there a way I can wire them into the factory harness? Or would I have to wire them into my trailer harness? ANY help is appreciated! Need to get my baby back on the road asap.

 

I guess I don't understand the quandary, the original wiring harness was wired for all those functions. So why would you NOT use the original wiring harness?
Unless you changed it or removed it, the original vehicle lighting harness should be run along the left frame rail all the way back to the bumper. LED lights should have much less draw than the OE lights so there should be no problem at all with the original circuits.
I would prefer to keep the trailer light circuits and vehicle light circuits separate as they were originally. It works great, no need to change it.
Also, don't forget the license plate illumination light. It is probable cause for a traffic stop in most places.

 

here's your chance of doing a better than OEM job.

 

I no longer have the harness that went to the tail lights on the factory bed. This is what I have behind the rear bumper. Should I wire them all into this?

 

Yes, you should splice into that.

You could either find the light side of that harness at a salvage yard or cut off those connectors in your picture and solder your own wires from there to your lights.

 

I will be soldering right to this harness I believe. Would this diagram be a basic starting point for me? For the running lights on the sides of my bed, would I wire them into just the tail lights? I assume if I wire them into the "brake light" circuit they would get brighter when I hit the brakes...which I don't want lol.

 

Yes, the marker lights only get wired to the tail light circuit. Do the new lights you have follow the wire colors you have in your diagram? Do the wires on the truck follow that color code? You should verify the function of each wire on the truck with a test light, and jumper 12 volts to each connection on the new tail/brakelights to verify their function.

 

I agree with verifying the function of the existing wires with a test light.
And if you wired the marker lights to the brake circuit, they wouldn't "get brighter", they would only light when you press the brake pedal which would be an undesired operation.
The stock lights do that because there is a bulb with 2 different filaments in it, one brighter than the other and on a different circuit.

 

That is what I mean it just didn't come out that way.

All the wires seem to actually match up to this diagram. Going to tear into it tomorrow as long as the rain holds off. Truck doesn't fit in the garage anymore with the headache rack above the cab now. Better tell the misses we need to build a bigger one.

Thank you for all the help guys. I really appreciate it.

 

Truck looks great....love the wood!!

I would hold off on any cutting and try to find all the plug and play components/harnesses at a junkyard or ordering online.

 

One more question for you guys. On my reverse light, I have these three wires. I know the white is the ground, but which should I wire in for them to come on when put in reverse? Black or Red?

 

Connect the ground, and then jumper 12 volts to each of the other wires to see what lights up.

 

Gotcha. Thank you.

 

Are you sure the white wire is the ground?
Aftermarket lights might be any kind of wiring color, but the USA standard is black ground wires for generic add on accessories.
Try it with black on ground, it may be a white LED and red LED in the same housing, hence the different colors.
Also, look really closely at the wires, sometimes the wire function is printed on the insulation. Many aftermarket stereos are like that.

 

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