Originally Posted by Slowjoe6969

Jerry;

There are a couple options and your thoughts of making a new harness and running into the cab an splicing in the camera works in theory.. A few things need to be confirmed to help determine how complicated or far you need to go on your setup (Your answers on your findings would help in this as well) I have not been able to open my truck up to confirm these either (weather and no garage does not help!!).

Need to confirm first;

1. Check your fuse box in the passenger kick panel. See if Fuse 34 is populated (in the owners manual it refers to Heated steering wheel, something else and Image processing unit) - This fuse feeds the camera power for the CHMSL.
2. Open up the C-pillar and connect the new harness and CHMSL. Disconnect the connector on the camera itself. Turn the Key on to the run position. Check the Pink colored wire in position 1 of the camera connector for 12 volts positive. This will let us know if indeed the dash harness is feeds power to the CHMSL (this makes what your after much easier).

If you can answer yes to both these questions for your XL series, I will be opening my XLT up and checking hopefully before I get away from this cold snowy weather and escape to a beach for unlimited tequila!! Also most of my parts should be here to start building my wiring harness.

If you were able to answer yes to both questions. The process gets fairly simple in theory and on paper ( I am an Electronics technician, so schematics and wiring are my niche)

If attempting either option please ensure you have someone perform this work who is intimately familiar with soldering in a vehicle environment, local stereo shop or remote starter shop.

Option one: (Power is at the Camera connector of CHMSL) There is a connector in the drives kick panel C263. You will need some two wire sheilded cable (Important to reduce noise on the video signal) pin location 17 (Shield of the shielded cable), 18 (Video -), and Pin 19 (Video +). Route this cable up behind the APIM (Sync 3) at the APIM. at this point you have two options splice the wires into to the existing feed or cut and splice and eliminate the rear tailgate camera completely for your purpose. (Not sure what you do with the trucks after you mile them out) The wires on the APIM connector are as follows Pin 14 (Video +), pin 15 (Video -), and pin 33 (shield, this wire does not need to be cut as it is an extra ground to prevent interference)

Option two: is to proceed with building an large extension cable to run from the back to inside the cab and splice into the CHMSL harness as you have eluded to. Knowing whether or not the factory harness has power at the CHMSL or not makes determining how your extension cable is built. No power you need all 5 wires, if not again the cable I mentioned before will be just fine. Just be sure to route it safely and securely along the factory wiring harness to keep it protected. Remeber this long cable run will give you a bigger chance of poor image on the camera. I don't have access to the camera connector pin out at the moment but can post if necessary later, also I would have to find the camera pin out at the tailgate as well to ensure to give you the correct information.

Hope this sheds some light onto your question.

Originally Posted by ri.parian

UPDATE: As I've mentioned before, I have a 2017 F350 Lariat pickup truck that came with the factory tailgate camera only which is great for backing up to bumper-pull trailers. However, backup up to gooseneck trailers isn't as easy because the gooseneck ball in the bed of the truck is not visible from the drivers seat, even if I sit up high with my butt off the seat. Unfortunately, my truck didn't come with the factory center high mount stop light (CHMSL) camera (aka cargo camera), and swapping out the factory CHMSL without camera for one with the camera isn't possible since the wiring harness in the cab of the truck is different from the factory depending on whether the CHMSL had a camera or not. After researching on the web, I decided I wanted to add the OEM CHMSL w/ camera and switched with the factory installed upfitter switch to flip between the tailgate camera and the cargo camera when backing up. Use when backing up only is ok with me for hooking up gooseneck trailers. Some folks want to have the cargo camera on when not backing up, but I don't need that and getting that to work requires some different parts.

So I purchased an OEM CHMSL with camera with the pigtail attached (this is important, be sure to get one with the wiring pigtail attached to it, which is about 12" long).

• Part Number: HC3Z-13A613-D
• Ebay Listing: 17-21 F250 F150 LED Third 3rd Brake Light w/Camera OEM Tow Vision High Mount
• Price: $220.00

I then purchased a video switching t-harness that inserts between the back of the 8" screen in the dash and the factory wiring harness.

• T-Harness
• https://tailgatecamera.com/products/...s-2013-current
• Price: $159.99

It is very simple to connect. Simply disconnect the factory harness from the back of the screen and plug the t-harness into the back of the screen and then plug the factory harness into the t-harness. The t-harness taps into the video feed coming from the tailgate camera and routes it through a video switching device that switches to an alternative video feed (the cargo camera) when it receives 12v power. The video switching unit on t-harness came with three wires leads stubbed out of it. One is a ground wire. One is a power lead with a mechanical toggle switch, which I cut off because I'm using the upfitter switch for that purpose. The third wire was a video cable will yellow RCA style terminal on the end, which I also cut off and exposed the two wires inside the video cable. The ground and power lead wires I attached using butt connectors to the ring terminal ends of a 16 AWG SAE Battery Charger Kit which I cut the ring terminals off of and inserted into the butt connectors. By doing this, the power and ground now have a nice snap connector to connect/disconnect easily. I used heat shrink butt connectors. I strip the insulation off the end of the wires using a Wire Stripper Tool. I then insert them into the butt connectors and crimp the connector using a Wire Connector Crimping Tool Kit.

After crimping, I then used a Heat Shrink Gun to shrink the butt connector shroud around the wires.


I forgot several times, but when I remembered, I would slip a section of Heat Shrink Tubing – 3:1 Black over one of the wires before joining the butt connector, and then after heat shrinking the butt connection, I slipped the heat shrink tubing down the wire over the butt connection and shrank it down as tight as it would go. Sometimes it wouldn't get totally tight on the small wires, but I figured it would help reinforce the wire to butt connector connection. The power lead butt connector that connected the battery charger lead to the video switching unit lead I also inserted a second 18 AWG red wire into the video switching unit side of the butt connector. This wire will send power to the new camera via a Molex MX-150 6-Pin Housing Male connector from a Molex MX-150 6-Pin Housing Set (contains both female and male and all necessary 18-22 AWG terminals). I crimped an 18-22 AWG male terminal onto the end of the 18 AWG red wire using a Wire Terminal Crimping Tool. After crimping the terminal, I used a Soldering Iron to solder the end of the wire inside the terminal just to be sure the connection would be good.


Then I inserted that terminal into Pin#1 position of the 6-Pin Male connector. I then took about a 16" piece of 18 AWG wire, added a male terminal to one end and inserted it into Pin#2 position of the 6-Pin Male connector. This wire I don't currently plan to use, but in the future if I wanted the backup guide lines to show on the cargo camera then I would need to connect this wire stub to Pin#37 on the BCM module which is on the right side of the passenger foot area side wall. This wire is referred to as the CTRL MOD CAMERA LIN BUS. Next I added a male terminal to the video cable negative wire (smaller black wire that was previously connected to the outer housing of the yellow RCA jack) and inserted it into Pin#3 position of the 6-Pin Male connector. I added a male terminal to the video cable positive wire (yellow wire previously connected to the center pin of the yellow RCA jack) and inserted it into Pin#4 position of the 6-Pin Male connector. Then I took about a 16" piece of 18 AWG wire, added a male terminal to one end and inserted it into Pin#5 of the 6-Pin Male connector. This wire will serve as the video cable shield wire, so I used a butt connector to splice it into the t-harness wire that connects to Pin 33 of the t-harness. To do that, I located Pin 33 of the t-harness, confirming which one it was by connector shape and by double-confirming by viewing it's relative position to pins 14 and 15 which had been pre-spliced with video cables by the manufacturer of the t-harness. Once located, I cut the wire near the middle and then rejoined it with the butt splice with the additional wire added on one side of the butt splice. I then used Wiring Harness Tape to tape together loose wires into a neat bundle.

This completes the assembly of the modified t-harness that will get installed behind the 8" screen in the dash.


To connect this t-harness to the cargo camera, the 6-Pin Male connector will be connected to a 6-Pin Female connector (for the male/female that were bought as a pair above). The wire connecting the t-harness to the cargo camera will need to be about 25ft long, so I purchased a 26ft Video Cable meant for car cameras. The 25 ft cable will need to have 5 wires total. The first wire will be the power supply for the camera. I used the 18 AWG red wire from a roll of 18 AWG 50ft red and black pair wire and crimped and soldered a female terminal on one end of the wire to insert into Pin#1 of the 6-Pin Female connector. The second wire will be the CTRL MOD CAMERA LIN BUS, which I don't plan to use initially, but figured it would be smart to add it now in case I change my mind later. I crimped and soldered a female terminal on one end of the 18 AWG black wire to insert into Pin#2 of the 6-Pin Female connector.

For the remaining three wires, I took the 25 ft video cable and cut the yellow RCA jacks off both ends and then stripped the insulation back about 2 inches to expose the foil shield, the yellow insulated wire, the red insulated wire, and the uninsulated shield copper strands. I removed the foil shield, and twisted the uninsulated shield wires into a single coil. I inserted the smallest head shrink tubing that I had over each of the three wires and shrank it down with the head shrink gun. I used black Heat Shrink Tubing – 2:1 Colors on the shield wire, yellow tubing on the yellow wire, and blue tubing on the red wire since I didn't have small red tubing. I then added one larger black heat shrink tube over all three wires at the base where they joined back into the video cable to help reinforce that area.

I then added female terminals to each of these three wires and inserted the negative wire in Pin#3 of the 6-Pin Female connector, the positive wire in Pin#4, and the shield wire in Pin#5. I used an electrical multi-tester's "conductivity" mode to test the wires to remind myself which one was positive (center pin of yellow RCA connector) and which was negative (outer housing of yellow RCA connector).

On the other end of the 26 ft which was now closer to 25 ft after cutting off the yellow RCA jacks from each end leaving a 5" pig tail on each in case I decided to use them later (which I didn't), I used the same procedure of cutting off the yellow RCA jack, stripping the insulation back about 2 inches, and installing heat shrink tubing. On this end of the wire, I will install a Molex MX-150 8-Pin Housing Male (comes with 18-22 AWG terminals) that will insert into the OEM 8-Pin Female Housing on the end of the pigtail that came with the OEM CHMSL w/Camera.

So this end of the 26 ft cable will require crimping and soldering male terminals to insert into the 8-Pin Male connector. The pin positions are the same as the other end:

1. 18 AWG red power lead wire
2. 18 AWG black LIN BUS wire
3. Video cable negative wire
4. Video cable positive wire
5. Video cable shield wire

After assembling the 6-Pin Female connector on one end of the 25 ft 5-wire cable and the 8-Pin Male connector on the other end, I used the wiring harness tape and taped the video cable wire (which has three wires inside it), the red power wire, and the black LIN BUS wire together into one combined harness.

Now I have two harness build - the t-harness and the 25 ft harness. It is time to "bench test" them. Before installing them behind the interior panels of the cab, I wanted to test that it worked in case I connected a wire incorrectly or had a bad connection, I didn't want to have to install it twice into the tough to reach spots hidden behind the interior paneling of the truck cab. I used a Auto Trim Removal Tool to pop open the two panels above the 8" screen.

After removing the first panel, it exposes a speaker and there were two screws which then need to be removed near the speaker to allow the second panel to be popped out with the trim removal tool. Once the second panel was loose, I disconnected the speaker wire connector on the back of the speaker to free the panel completely.



I then reached behind the 8" screen and disconnected the 54 pin connector. There is a little lever that must be move about 90 degrees to free the connector. But to free the lever, you need to depress a little tab next to it. It is tricky, so practice first on the one that came with the t-harness. It should be the same design. With the connector disconnected, I then connected the t-harness to the back of the 8" screen and to the loose end of the disconnected 54 pin connector. Now the t-harness is installed.

Standing in the bed of the truck, I unscrewed the four screws hold the OEM CHMSL without camera and gently pulled it away from the truck. It felt stuck on there, but eventually the foam seal released with some pulling.

I disconnected the wire connector from the back of the CHMSL and connected it to the new OEM CHMSL with camera (first disconnecting the small connector connecting three wires to the back of the CHMSL to allow the spot to be used by the connector coming from the truck). Now the CHMSL with camera has two wire whips connected to it, one with three wires coming from the truck, and one with 5 wires in connected to an 8-Pin Female connector. Push this 8-Pin Female connector into the truck cab, forcing it downward. From inside the cab, reach up behind the ceiling panel, grab the 8-Pin connector and pull it an inch or two into the cab so that it is handing freely. Reinstall the four screws into the new CHMSL with camera and snug them up so that the new foam gasket seals. Note that the screws go into plastic, so don't force them too tight and strip the plastic threads!

I then connected the 6-Pin connector of the 25ft harness to the 6-Pin connector of the t-harness and ran the cable straight to the back of the cab over the top of the center console. This is a "bench test" - just a dry run to see if it works, so the routing of the cable wasn't important. The 8-Pin connector on the other end of the 25 ft harness then plugged into the 8-Pin connector on the OEM wire whip. So the camera is now connected to the t-harness. However, there is no power going to the camera yet, nor to the video switching device.

For power, I used the other piece of wire cable that came with the 16 AWG SAE Battery Charger Kit. From behind the 8" screen, I dropped one end of that wire cable downward toward the gas pedal. I don't know if I just got lucky or what but it almost made it all the way to the gas pedal. I reach up from under by the pedal and grabbed the end of it an pulled all but about a foot of the cable through. The foot of cable up by the screen I then connected to the SAE connector on the t-harness. Be sure that you get the red wires on the same side of the connector so that red goes to red and black to black.

Now down by the gas pedal the wire can be routed up under the dash toward the driver side door side panel and then over to a grommet in the firewall. Run the wire through a hole poked through the grommet and then access it from under the hood. Cut the SAE connector off the end of the wire (or buy a second Battery Charger Kit) and use a heat shrink butt connector to splice the red wire to the upfitter switch wire that is under the fuse box right there not too far from the grommet in the firewall. The fuse box is on the driver side of the engine compartment. Attach a heat shrink ring terminal to the black wire and affix the ring terminal to the negative terminal stud on the battery.

Now it is time to test everything. Start the truck. With your foot hold the break, put the truck in reverse and the tailgate camera should display. Then flip the upfitter switch and the cargo camera should display. It worked for me on the first try, thankfully.


Now that I know it works, it is time to re-route the 25 ft cable. Fitting the whole connector on one end of the cable through tight spaces would be difficult so to make it easier I removed the connector. First I removed the 5 terminals from the 6-Pin connector and used wiring harness tape to tape them together tightly so that they were not much larger than the rest of the wiring harness. Then, after removing the rubber weather seal around both the driver side door frames, I starting from the 8-Pin connector at the CHMSL route the cable along the backside of the headliner toward the driver side, then continuing above the driver side rear window, through the top of the center pillar, above the driver's door window, down along the front pillar into the side of the dash area, and then follow the Battery Charger kit cable up into the dash behind the 8" screen. Once there, I re-inserted the 5 terminals into the 6-Pin connector and then connect it to the 6-pin connector on the t-harness. It turned out that there was quite a bit of extra cable (20 ft probably would have been sufficient) so I coiled it up and stuffed it into the space behind the screen. I tested it again to make sure it still works, then reinstalled the speaker wire connector and two dash panels.

Now I can see the gooseneck ball when I'm backing up to connect a gooseneck trailer.