LED light in tailgate handle

[E.Hands]

I got this done tonight! I tied it into the cargo/bed lights. Works wonderfully on my 2020 longhorn.
Originally, I had just tapped the white/purple #8 into my reverse lights wire and when I would put the truck into reverse the tail gate would open up!
Once I severed the lead coming from the truck (like FM45 said to do in his PDF) it began working as intended!
This was due to the fact that the #8 is a secondary latch release lead, just as Jimmy07 stated back post #16 on the first page.
A big thank you to you guys for your contributions!

 

[knightro84]

Just ordered the parts for this... was just telling my dad over the weekend I wish I had the lighted tailgate handle like his 2023 3500 and here we are! Lots of great info in this thread!

 

[knightro84]

Just want to make sure from @FM45 or @Jimmy07 that I'm looking at this correctly before I cut up the truck side of the harness. FM45's instructions say to cut the wire in Pin 8, which on my truck's harness appears to be blank? I'm only want to have the tailgate light come on when the cargo/bed lights come on, not concerned with having it come on with reverse lights because I have the Putco Blade that provides plenty of extra lighting.

 

[FM45]

If I remember correctly it's the grn/wht... before you do anything, trace that wire into the tailgate/plug... it should go nowhere.. the new harness for the LED will use that wire as the feed... I cut that wire on the plug side under/behind the bumper and used it as the feed to the new Handle LED.... Again double check before you cut anything...

-=FM45=-

 

[knightro84]

Got this done today!

 

[E.Hands]

Got this done today!

View attachment 178323

You will be happy that you wired it to come on with the cargo/bed lights. As a reverse light it washes out the camera compared to your additional reverse lighting.
Test this one night and you will see what I mean.

 

[1.21gigawatts]

i actually dont mind it with the rev lights... its below the camera and the les is a bit shielded by where they both sit... ones on top of the camera DO tend to wash the image out a bit but i dont feel this style does.

 

[E.Hands]

i actually dont mind it with the rev lights... its below the camera and the les is a bit shielded by where they both sit... ones on top of the camera DO tend to wash the image out a bit but i dont feel this style does.

It's not bad but if you have something like the VLEDS license plate mounted back-up light you would be able to tell the difference.
I will try taking pictures of both for comparison.
I really would like to tie the tailgate handle LED and my white running board lights directly into the factory white puddle lights under the outside review mirrors. So that they would all be synchronized and all fade to black together.

 

[1.21gigawatts]

It's not bad but if you have something like the VLEDS license plate mounted back-up light you would be able to tell the difference.
I will try taking pictures of both for comparison.
I really would like to tie the tailgate handle LED and my white running board lights directly into the factory white puddle lights under the outside review mirrors. So that they would all be synchronized and all fade to black together.

do they not? i'm gonna have to go watch next time it fades out haha.

 

[E.Hands]

It's not bad but if you have something like the VLEDS license plate mounted back-up light you would be able to tell the difference.
I will try taking pictures of both for comparison.
I really would like to tie the tailgate handle LED and my white running board lights directly into the factory white puddle lights under the outside review mirrors. So that they would all be synchronized and all fade to black together.

I wasn't able to capture good picture of the 12" screen whist in reverse, (flickering refresh rate) I probably would need to alter the settings on my Android phone and I'm no photographer.
But on further examination it appears to be reflections from either the Ivory White tri-coat, the chrome Ram head or both. The point is, it's not bad, it just seems to add a little wash out-over exposure right in the bumper hitch area. YMMV