Tailgate light bar

[V8Spock]

My triple bar is on order. Thanks for all this info on here!

You're going to love it! I'm always impressed when I see a truck with a light bar. Super cool!

 

[V8Spock]

I can’t fully remember but, I think I just plugged in the Blade Quick Connect Harness for the brake lights. The only deviation from the instructions was to splice in a wire from the Blade turn signal wire to the truck taillight assembly (which puts them on the same voltage signal and removes the delay).

If you haven’t already, give them a call. They put me through to an engineer and he told me exactly how I should wire it.

BTW, I did a quick check of my Tazer DT light show. I use light show #6 with the key fob and it did flash the Blade turn signals.

 

[Marky Mark]

I can’t fully remember but, I think I just plugged in the Blade Quick Connect Harness for the brake lights. The only deviation from the instructions was to splice in a wire from the Blade turn signal wire to the truck taillight assembly (which puts them on the same voltage signal and removes the delay).

If you haven’t already, give them a call. They put me through to an engineer and he told me exactly how I should wire it.

BTW, I did a quick check of my Tazer DT light show. I use light show #6 with the key fob and it did flash the Blade turn signals.

Awesome to know on the Tazer light show.

 

[crangel]

I can’t fully remember but, I think I just plugged in the Blade Quick Connect Harness for the brake lights. The only deviation from the instructions was to splice in a wire from the Blade turn signal wire to the truck taillight assembly (which puts them on the same voltage signal and removes the delay).

If you haven’t already, give them a call. They put me through to an engineer and he told me exactly how I should wire it.

BTW, I did a quick check of my Tazer DT light show. I use light show #6 with the key fob and it did flash the Blade turn signals.

Just what I was looking for, thank you!

 

[Jameshaag99]

Yeah I pulled mine off because of this, not! Do you drive around with your hazards on? I’ve used my hazards maybe once or twice in my 38 years of driving so I could care less if they flash red/amber or pink. To each there own I guess.

Yeah definitely not something that bothers me.

 

[Jameshaag99]

So, I got to thinking about the delay in the turn signal and being an old B-52 electrician, I accepted the challenge to sync the blinkers with the light bar.

I called Putco and spoke with an engineer. As mentioned in previous posts, the delay is caused by the truck turn signals being on a separate circuit than the trailer connector. The engineer had me wire the light bar turn signal wires directly to the truck turn signal bulb wires (instead of the trailer plug). As he put it “this way the light bar is receiving voltage at the same sequence as the tail lamps”.

I used a voltmeter to determine the correct pin on the truck turn signal connector and spliced in a wire. I ran that to the light bar turn signal input wire and the delay was gone. All other connections were made according to the instructions. Pretty simple stuff really.

Verifying turn signal voltage on the tail light. Right truck connector uses yellow/white wire. Left uses green/white wire.
View attachment 23842

Spliced in, heat shrinked, taped and and zip tied.
View attachment 23843

Is that right as in passenger side (yellow/white) and left as in driver side (green/white)? Do you know the color wires coming out the light bar for left and right turn signals? Im looking to tap into the tail lights to sync up my turn signals.

 

[V8Spock]

Is that right as in passenger side (yellow/white) and left as in driver side (green/white)?

I can't recall from memory but, that's what I wrote back in May in this thread. If you have a voltage meter, you should get 12v DC on that pin of the connector. It will cycle on/off when you turn on the blinker.

I'd have to refer to the Blade instructions for which wires you connect to on the light bar. Perhaps someone here kept their instructions and can post them.

 

[Shannonw]

Is that right as in passenger side (yellow/white) and left as in driver side (green/white)? Do you know the color wires coming out the light bar for left and right turn signals? Im looking to tap into the tail lights to sync up my turn signals.

Yes left signal aka drivers side is white w/ green stripe.
For the light bar left is yellow wire right is green wire.

 

[Jameshaag99]

I can't recall from memory but, that's what I wrote back in May in this thread. If you have a voltage meter, you should get 12v DC on that pin of the connector. It will cycle on/off when you turn on the blinker.

I'd have to refer to the Blade instructions for which wires you connect to on the light bar. Perhaps someone here kept their instructions and can post them.

So i got the wires tapped into the driver and passenger sides. The blinkers on the light bars are now in sync with taillight turn signals. The reverse lights work, the running lights work, thr hazards work, but now my problem is the brake lights dont light up on the light bar. Just on the taillights.

 

[Scott_65]

So i got the wires tapped into the driver and passenger sides. The blinkers on the light bars are now in sync with taillight turn signals. The reverse lights work, the running lights work, thr hazards work, but now my problem is the brake lights dont light up on the light bar. Just on the taillights.

When you get it figured out please post the fix so I can do up mine.

 

[Ken2021Etorque]

When you get it figured out please post the fix so I can do up mine.

I tap in the trailer light plug harness

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[Jameshaag99]

When you get it figured out please post the fix so I can do up mine.

Im hoping the technical support people at Putco can help me figure it out. Its crazy that all the functions minus the brake lights work. Im stumped.

 

[Jameshaag99]

Do the turn signals and brakes work off of the same wire? I had my putco 60" fully installed. Got tired of the delay. Took everything apart, then realized I don't have enough wires coming from the light bar to wire everything. No matter how I did it I didn't have brakes if I had turns. And I only had running lights when the ignition was on. I would love to get all the lights working off the taillight harness so my Tazer dt will also include the light bar for the light show option. This is what I was able to figure as far as what wires were for each function.

Did you get yours figured out? I ran the yellow wire from my blade to the driver's side tail light turn signal and tapped it in. Ran the green wire from the blade to the passenger side and tapped it in to the turn signal wire. Doing this all the functions work on the blade except for when i hit the brakes. Hopefully will talk with a tech specialist tom but if you had some insight id appreciate it.

 

[Airbornecmc]

I don’t have the PUTCO blade (I have an OPT7) but is there any reason why you couldn’t used the Curt Adaptor that splits the trailer wiring harness behind the bumper to grab your signals?


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[Jameshaag99]

I don’t have the PUTCO blade (I have an OPT7) but is there any reason why you couldn’t used the Curt Adaptor that splits the trailer wiring harness behind the bumper to grab your signals?


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Putco has their own harness which i have but plugging into that with the 4 pin there is a delay in the turn signals. So they recommend wiring the turn signals directly into the taillights so they are the same.

 

[Airbornecmc]

Ah! ... okay got it. I checked mine to see if there was a delay and I don’t notice it. Do you have LED tail lights or standard? I have standard.


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[Jameshaag99]

Alright so just got off the phone with a tech at Putco. So basically he told me that by running the turn signal wires straight to my tail lamps which are LED I lose the brake feature on my light bar. This is due to the fact that on the 7 pin the brake and turn signals are one wire. Where as the LED tail lamp is 2 separate wires for the turn signal and brake light. Theres no way to tap into both the turn and brake wires on the tail lamp harness. So until there is a fix which putco said they were working on ill either have to go back to how I originally had it connected and deal with the turn signal delay or just deal without having the brake feature on the ligbt bar which isnt so bad because all the other functions work.

 

[Airbornecmc]

Welp .... there’s your answer ... wonder if you can tap into the “third” brake light above the cab?


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[Shannonw]

Alright so just got off the phone with a tech at Putco. So basically he told me that by running the turn signal wires straight to my tail lamps which are LED I lose the brake feature on my light bar. This is due to the fact that on the 7 pin the brake and turn signals are one wire. Where as the LED tail lamp is 2 separate wires for the turn signal and brake light. Theres no way to tap into both the turn and brake wires on the tail lamp harness. So until there is a fix which putco said they were working on ill either have to go back to how I originally had it connected and deal with the turn signal delay or just deal without having the brake feature on the ligbt bar which isnt so bad because all the other functions work.

Thanks for checking this. I was going to call today. I was wondering what would happen if you just put a jumper wire between the tail light signal while it was still wired into the trailer. I would just be worried how send that electric backwards through the wires would effect things.

 

[Shannonw]

Honestly if you were a good electrician and knew exactly which resistors to use to prevent backfeed you could just tap a brake wire and a turn signal merge them into one and wire it to the appropriate side of the blade. But I'm not savvy enough to know what size resistor I would need to prevent feedback.