Belize Off Road Team

As you can see, in my taillights i have room for some reverse lights, so i need to get some wires, bulbs, scrap bulb holders that fit in the reverse lights and what else? since i can get electrical things easily here i figure this will be handy for me.

can i just run new wires from the current reverse lights or do i have to find an alternate source?

Any help would be nice. i am going to chrome out the tail gate reverse lights and front bumper indicator lights so i get more light out of them.

Belize Off Road Team

anybody?

Hilux808

I would think you could tap off the wires from the current reverse lights in the tail gate. You could pull them out and reconnect them to the light bulbs that you would install in the tail light.

Belize Off Road Team

see that's what i would eventually like to do, but with this tailgate i might as well utilize the reverse lights.


What wires should i use to tap the current reverse lights with? do i need a relay?

Hilux808

True, you would have a tail gate that has the lights but your not using it so it might not be worth it, unless you change out the tailgate, which wouldn't be fun. I'm not sure what wires you would use (color) but you could probably see them by taking off the reverse light lamps and then seeing which wires enter the tailgate, from there just choose the right colored wires and start the re-wiring from that point. You just want to relocate the bulbs so you wouldn't need a relay, just mount the bulbs where you want and re-connect the wire, after you cut to an appropriate length. Hope that helps.

Dublin

Once you identify the correct wires in the existing BU lights the main harness is behind the DS cargo compartment. You may need to run additional wiring to the PS tail light as they don't come stock wired for BU in the tail lights.

Belize Off Road Team

True, but i dont want to relocate the bulbs, just tap into the existing wires and ADD additional bulbs to the Hilux Surf taillights. so what kind of wires can i buy from an electrical store? do i need a relay to ADD 2 extra lights?

DS cargo compartment? i don't understand the abreveation. and i dont suppose you know the colour of the wire i need to tap into?

Elton

i would think all you would need is if that part store has 1156 style bulb holders 2 of those some bulbs and a spool of 14ga wire tap into the hot wire from the other back up lights run that to the new ones run a new ground to ur new bulb holders

Dublin

Sorry DS driver side. No relays needed, the fuses should have no problem with a couple more lamps. Just think about when you have a trailer hooked up there's at least 2 double filament lamps plus marker lamps.

Matt16

Use a test light- one with a pointed tip. Ground one side and poke the wires with the sharp tip until you find it. On mine, I think its a red and white wire.

Belize Off Road Team

thank you all so very much, i'm going into town today to get some factory toyota taillight bulb holders from junk yard and some 14Gauge wires. then i;ll look in my FSM and see where i can easily tap my reverse lights. Thanks again, you have all been a great help to me. i'll post pics real soon. i hope to have everything today and be done tomorrow. i have to teach First Aid tonight so i cant work on it till tomorrow.

NYChopshop

no pics... I'm looking to buy a set of UK taillights that are very similar to yours, but are red and white and not all white (pic in my build thread). Did universal bulb holders secure into the housings? how did the wiring go? I'm very curious myself, and its been quite some time since you last posted here.

4Crawler

iTrader: (3)

With incandescent bulbs, I would add a relay to keep from burning out the reverse light switch in the tranny (BTDT). Or add an LED 1156 bulb in the stock housing, only adds a little current and a lot of light. I used a 30 LED narrow beam bulb in my '85 and it puts out a very nice amount of light and since it is internally focused, it does not care about the factory reflector (or lack thereof!).

iamsuperbleeder

why not just relay in some fog lights pointing backwards maybe just under the bumper or something? it would be a white light for a backup light, and give some GOOD light at night when in reverse

just a thought; I plan to add some auxiliary backuplights to my PU like that here soon...

James Dean

I added white LED's in the rear bumper.

iamsuperbleeder

you only contributed to this thread cause he's advertising your sticker...

haha, jk man, jk I rock the YotaTech and your IFS sticker on my pickup


But that right there is a seriously good idea! I like it; it's very clean and looks like it works perftect, plus it keeps you from running the risk of ripping them off or breaking them like might happen if you hang auxiliary lights below the bumper!

NYChopshop

my rear bumper will be tube, so recessing those purdy LED arrays would be a no-go for me. I'd certainly replace all the bulbs with LEDs to save on juice if that means I didnt have to splice in a relay. My stupid reverse switch is currently broken so I dont have any sort of reverse lights to speak of my concern is getting the taillight harness or just the twist-in bulb holder clip that would give me a watertight seal around the bulbs!

iamsuperbleeder

might be a dumb question, but the PU and Runner tail-lights are the same? as in you couldn't bolt in PU tail-lights that have reverse lights installed?

space-junk

iTrader: (1)

no, i think that the runner tail lights have a different shape to them to match the body lines...