To all of the people out there who camp with a trailer or 5th wheel, and pull into the campsite at night, do you have auxillary back up lights? If you do, what kind do you have or recommend? Are they tied into your back up lights or are they wired up to a separate switch? Do you have them on the bumper of the truck and trailer or just the trailer? The reason is, i would like extra light when we pull into the site so my wife doesn't blind me with the Maglite helping me. Nothing worse than looking in the side mirror trying to see where you are going and get blinded by the light.

Thanks,

 

Mine has outside porch type lights with switches on the light housing on the rear and sides.

I just turn those on. At times it would be handy to turn them on remotely from the cab, but it is also handy to be able to turn them on when not coupled to the truck.

I suppose it forces me to get out when I'm backing into someplace tight in the dark, which I suppose is a good thing.

 

Lots of people have extra back up lights on the truck. If your trailer doesn't an easy way to do it is mount your trailer back up lights and then simply hook to your on board batteries with a switch anywhere you want it. Just step out of the truck and run back to the trailer, flip the switch and back up!

 

Both are good ideas. I usually do get out to see where i will be going, so to flip a switch to turn the lights on and get back in would be easy. Or have the wife turn them on when she gets out. I was also thinking of putting in a couple round lights under the bumpers and just wire them into the regular back up lights.

 

Get some hi output LEDS put them in/on/under your bumper..

Run a separate wire up to the junction box of the trailer. get a single pole double throw sealed On-Off-On Switch, hook the light wire into the middle of the switch, on one side of the switch run the trailer battery wire. on the other run the back up light wire..

This will allow you to leave them off - have them come on with the b/u lights - or stay on all of the time..

This is how I do my GN's I leave it on the come on with b/u mode if I need them on all of the time just jump out and flip the switch..

 

Have a diagram, or link to parts, I would like to do this on my GN, as its a pain to back in to its parking spot in the dark(gets wedge between the trees at my parents place)

 

You don't like things that go bump in the dark either?

If you look at the up-rights on this pic you will see the 1/2 of my 5" round lights.. they could be mounted anywhere.. on the top of the tool box is a junction box with the conduit (that is where I mtd. my switch..)

That junction box has all of the trailer lights going through it..

Get a (SPDT)single pole double throw switch at the parts store it can be a toggle with a boot like these :

http://www.delcity.net/store/Toggle-Switches/p_4814.a_1

Here is the type of switch you need (the bottom two - On/Off/On):

http://www.delcity.net/store/Heavy!d...789089.a_1.t_1

The center wire will go to the lights. one end to the battery / one end to the b/u light circuit.. Ground the lights.

Understand what I'm getting at?

 

This is a slightly long reply, sorry in advance.

It's pretty easy to do no matter how many lights you want.

All my trailers have lights at the rear, and at the lower front corners to light up the ground down the sides.

I just wired everything up to a separate but different shaped trailer plug to run along side the factory trailer plug.

On the truck, using a relay for constant but switchable power. I wired in a separate junction box at the rear of the truck with the applicable female trailer plug outlet.

Of course this junction box is turned on via a switch in the cab but it can easily be configured to be triggered by the reverse light circuit to come on when the truck is put into reverse gear. I like them to be operated manually mostly for when I am stopped I can turn everything on even though the truck and trailer are stationary and running.

Yes it means you have 2 trailer plug connections to make when hooking up your trailer but that wasn't a problem to me. You have to plug your trailer in anyways so what's another connection.

So now at night, I have to floods under the rear bumper of the truck to illuminate the trailer tongue area and outwards from there, 2 at the outside lower front corners to illuminate the ground down the side of the trailer. Depending on which trailer I am pulling, enclosed cargo, horse or flat deck, I have 2 flood lights up above or down below at the rear of the trailer to illuminate the rear areas behind me.

There is no shortage of light for illumination. If your stopped on the side of the road for flat or emergency situations, you will be seen. Backing into any location, it's pretty close to having daylight on your side.

With regards to the lights themselves, all I use for the under truck and lower front corner lights are your typical 4 inch rubber mount tractor sealed beam light. You get a good beam spread and they are strong and robust enough to take a hit if you do happen to tag something with them. The replacement sealed beams are dirt cheap just about anywhere and if you have to change one, it's usually a 2 minute deal to do.

For the rear lights, I use a cheap fog light more for it's wider beam spread but also for the ability to use a higher wattage bulb for more illumination. You can use whatever you want for lights for any location.

It's a simple way of adding and controlling lights no matter where you mount them or how many you have..

Weather proof junction boxes are available at NAPA or any trailer supply. For the wiring itself, head down to Wal-Mart and buy a few cheap 100 foot extension cords, the yellow jacketed exterior ones, and run all your wiring with that. Using the extension cord brings all the grounds to one central place (the junction box) so it doesn't matter where you mount the lights, all the wiring, power, neutral and ground is in one place.

Same as the truck, all your power connections are done under the hood with only a single line, in this case extension cord again, running down to the rear of the truck to the trailer plug. In my case, I have a junction box at the rear so that my rear lights and the plug itself are wired into the box. This gives me the option if needed of mounting more lights on the truck and just being able to connect into the junction box.

I'm sure some of you are thinking using extension cord is a little cheesy. The wiring is either 12 or 14 gage depending on the cord you get. The ground is also included as well as it's all covered in an exterior rubber or vinyl sheathing. I can find the cords at Wal-Mart or similar stores for $10 to $15 bucks for a 100 foot cord when they are on sale. Try and find the same length of wiring from an auto supply or similar for the same price and then wrap it in a protective sheathing on top of that! Won't happen!

The wiring under my truck,Wal-Mart extension cord, has been there since 2002 and there are zero issues with it. The wiring under my various trailers has been there since 2002 for my oldest trailer, again zero problems.

Spend a little time to tie up and hide the wiring underneath the truck and trailer and it will look factory installed every time. I have been doing trailers, mine and friends, like this for years and have never had a light related problem with this way other than the occasional burnt out bulb.

Jeff

 

So far everything sounds good and fairly straight forward. I do agree on using the extension cords. I take them home from work (the ones the safety dept. has cut due to damages), and repair them so i have a surplus of cords. The lights that Homestead mentioned made sense also. So now it time to start getting switches, box's and figure out how many lights i want, the locations and the style. Thanks for some great ideas and if anyone has something different, post it. I will continue to check this out.

 

These are the basic lights that are on the outside of my 5th wheel... for what it is worth.

http://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Ligh...cs/RVPL3C.html

 

Having pulled for a living years ago, I always rig up a docking light under the trailers rear and wired to the trucks backup lights. That way I don't forget to manually flip the switch off or accidently turn it on.

The truck backup lights can be a pain when they reflect off the front of the trailer. Makes it tough to see while backing. I always carry a couple of old dark colored hand towels to hang over the trucks backup lights. Easier on my old eyes.

My wife is good with a hand held light at nite as she knows to keep it on herself and place herself where she can see the truck mirrow at all times. If she shines it at the mirrows its a signal for me to stop.
LOL. We tried the hand held walkie talkie radios but when she out there in the dark and say turn it that'a way while pointing with her finger............. .

 

I put a super bright LED on the back of my car trailer, wired it into the brake lights using the AUX. pin in the 7-pin connector.