My wife got me a l.e.d. tailgate light strip. I am planning on tapping into the trailer harness. I have the factory 7-terminal connector on the trailer hitch. I printed up the wiring information off dodgeram.org to identify which wires I need to tap into. The terminals in the 7-terminal connector are...

#1 Ground
#2 Trailer Tow Electric Brake Output
#3 Trailer Tow Relay Output
#4 Fused B(+)
#5 Left Rear Turn Signal
#6 Right Rear Turn Signal
#7 Back-Up Lamp Switch Output

The tailgate strip is multifunction...runnning lights, brake lights, and turn signals. The strip uses a flat 4-wire male connector and provides a flat 4-wire female adaptor connector. My plan is to wire the female connector into the trailer harness. I know where to wire three of the wires from the connector...right turn, left turn, and ground wire connections are obvious from diagram of the 7-wire connector and I varified them with my multimeter. The running light wire is the one I'm not certain of. I am wondering if I tap into the wire that goes to terminal #3 of the 7-terminal trailer connector. Terminal #3 is identified as the "trailer tow relay output." It states that it provides power to the trailer's tail light park lamp circuit and is energizes when the park lamp switch is turned on. It makes sense to me that I tap into this terminal for the running light function of the l.e.d. strip. Does this sound right, or, am I missing something? Thanks for the help!!!

 

I suspect you are correct. They just made it a bit confusing by labeling "from relay".

You could use the flat 4 to a 7x4 adapter.

 

I picked up one of these at my local auto parts store.

 

# 3 is correct. Trailer lights are not powered directly from the headlight switch, instead the headlight switch powers a relay that powers the trailer lights directly from the battery.

 

Thanks for the help. I thought about one of those 7 to 4 wire adapters, but, I don't want to block use of the trailer terminal connector for a l.e.d. tailgate strip. I'm just going to connect the "running lights" wire from the light strip to the wire from terminal #3 and see if it works. Honestly, I can't imagine it being any other wire in the harness. I just want it to do what it's supposed to...turn signals, brake lights, and running/parking lights. This was a surprise gift from my wife, so, I hadn't done any research into these light strips ahead of time. She mostly bought it because she liked them. Fortunately, I like those light strips under the tailgate too. Hopefully, I'll get to it this week and let you know how it worked out after. Thanks for the help!!!

GAmes, in reguards to my brother-in-laws truck with the missing throttle linkage, we finally found a throttle lever. I can't remember where he got it, but, we were laughing when it came in because it was $15 for the lever and $17 to ship from Ohio(We live in Western PA). It's still better then the $400+ for the whole assembly. So, I'll finally be able to finish that for him this week too. So much to do and so little time. Anyways thanks for the help!!!

 

Good to hear you got the linkage.

 

A word of caution on the install, be sure it is low enough the tailgate doesn't hit once open, this will crack it, then water enters, bye bye to LEDs...I speak from experience

 

i got one of those adapters for now. I am just gonna pick up a 4 flat wiring harness for my truck and hook into that. I just don't feel like tappingi nto all those wires. I could do it but i don't want to. Also on my the running light mode doesn't seem to work. all other functions work but that one. It may just be the wireing for the trailer harness because i did not install it.

I need to check the tail gate clearance. mine is mounted high about 1" above the license plate mount. you can only see it from like 5+ feet behind the truck.

also make sure the ends of your tube are sealed well. just to be safe i put clear caulk on mine cause i heard of problems with the ends.

 

Thanks for the added advice. I noticed the potential clearance issues with the tailgate open right from the start. I am mounting mine low...right across the top of the license plate bezel. On a quick have the wife hold it in place test run, I'll just clear the tailgate when its open. The biggest problem I was concerned with was access to the winch for the spare tire. I have two possible solutions. 1.) Flip the strip over from left to right(or visa versa) and wire the turn signals opposite, and, window the mounting flange around the license plate bezel, or 2.) cut an access hole in the flange that it mounts with. I'm currently favoring #2, but, if I think the installation will look cleaner when I do this, I may just do option #1. I'll make up my mind when I do it. Of course, I may not have a choice because the wires might not be long enough to reach accross the width of the truck if I flip the strip. Thanks again!

 

I mounted mine just above the spare tire winch hole. Mount it right against it and you will have just enough clearance...The tailgate will touch the light bar when it is opened, but it will not put much pressure on it.. I looked at flipping mine also, but the way it mounts, it will not work and cause a worse clearance issue.
I just went to a trailer parts store and got the adapter that plugs into both taillights and provides a 4 flat connector for the trailer, but I used it for the light. This leaves the 7-pin trailer wiring alone, because it is run independent of the tail lights.

 

I was able to screw around with the light bar yesterday and varify that it actually worked before taking the time to mount it. I'm glad I did! I discovered the flat female 4-wire connector that came with the light strip had a bad ground wire as it entered the connector. I'm glad I found that before hard wiring the connector into the trailer wiring. In a way, I'm glad it was broke because it allowed me to find a replacement that used a heavier wire. Everything else worked great during the test. Hopefully tomorrow I'm going to fit the light strip to the truck. I found I can mount it just under the hole to the spare tire winch, but, the mounting surface covers the hole. So, tomorrow I'm going to modify the strip to allow access to the hole. With the strip mounted there, I'm not having any contact with the tailgate when it's open. At least it didn't make contact when I tapped the strip to the truck. It's close, but, no contact. I just got a digital camera, so, if I can figure out how to post pics here, I'll see if I can get one up when it's done. Thanks for all the help!!!