Reverse light mod ideas (no bulb replacement)

[SierraStorm21]

3 hours ago, GETGONE said:

Why have a truck if you don't tow?

 

I made my own "boost auto" mod for a few cents. I have it set so the reverse lights come on when I press the cargo light button so it makes it super bright along with the LED cubes I added to the bottom of the hitch. Works great for hooking up a trailer or loading stuff in the bed in the dark.

Because I can....why do you care?

 

Yes I'm aware of the diode option to do the same thing and I did that for the fog lights/all lights on mod. I was simply giving the OP another option for relatively cheap

[kodiakdenali]

Sorry to just drop a you tube but here was my solution to improve the poor lighting. Maybe it will inspire you!

 

https://youtu.be/gd5eeMpHi84?si=-Mt-irqpC5U-ClTQ

[Garett Rainey]

I did This exact same thing and still not working on my truck. They flash and go off then come back on then flash again off. Only happened 75 percent of the time sometimes they work. Any ideas what to do? Relay and harness to battery? Tap into trailer mount ?

[GETGONE]

2 hours ago, Garett Rainey said:

I did This exact same thing and still not working on my truck. They flash and go off then come back on then flash again off. Only happened 75 percent of the time sometimes they work. Any ideas what to do? Relay and harness to battery? Tap into trailer mount ?

You did what? You're overloading the factory circuit and it's causing it to flash and shut off. You need to add a relay to pull power for whatever lights you added. You can use the 12v+ from the trailer harness as a power source and the reverse light wire for the relay trigger.

[Rich Rein]

1 minute ago, GETGONE said:

You did what? You're overloading the factory circuit and it's causing it to flash and shut off. You need to add a relay to pull power for whatever lights you added. You can use the 12v+ from the trailer harness as a power source and the reverse light wire for the relay trigger.

Admittedly, I never tried that...because everything that I read said that the trailer harness was not a reliable power source (given how the electronics in the newer trucks need a completed circuit - i.e., a trailer plugged into either the 4 pin or 7 pin connector on the truck (which then also runs diagnostics on those connections to warn you about one or more lighting issues on your trailer). Instead, tapping into the turn signal harness on one side ensured a power source that was always live when you needed it to be in order to power extra reverse lighting (with the bonus of extra LEDs adding minimal extra draw, at least relative to additional traditional light bulbs).

[GETGONE]

You need to pull the 12+ from the 7 pin harness. The 12V + and - are the only things that are always active on that harness. It works on my 2021 Trail Boss Custom because I'm using it to power my additional backup lights as well as using them as cargo lights when I turn those on.

[Rich Rein]

3 minutes ago, GETGONE said:

You need to pull the 12+ from the 7 pin harness. The 12V + and - are the only things that are always active on that harness. It works on my 2021 Trail Boss Custom because I'm using it to power my additional backup lights as well as using them as cargo lights when I turn those on.

At the risk of sounding snobby (because I am definitely not trying to be) - a 21 Trail Boss is not a 23 ZR2 Bison (in terms of features/wiring harness complexity). I did a lot of research before going down the path that I did with my truck to add additional reverse lighting, and @Garett Rainey had posted above to this thread and messaged me privately because he believed that he had gone down the same path that I did, and was running into problems. Admittedly, I need to go out to the garage at some point and verify the constant power at the 7 pin connector for my model/year (because I distinctly remember reading at the time that that truck worked for older trucks...but not for mine - hence the tapping into the turn signal harness). My problems are nowhere near as consistent as what Garrett is running into on the same truck - my extra reverse lights always work whenever the truck is stationary (such as when unlocking the truck/opening doors), but occasionally I will notice the reverse lights not always coming on if I try to go from drive to reverse too quickly - like when driving up to my driveway, and then reversing into it (being methodical/intention about going from one to the other is never a bad thing for other parts of the truck anyway). Further admission: the ability to easily reverse the wiring changes was desirable (all of my soldering/connections were between the new lights themselves and the new T harness going between the existing turn signal sub harness and the main body harness that it used to connect directly to). Given my much more intermittent issues, I am not completely convinced that I don't need to revisit my work - though I can never replicate the issues when parked in my driveway (even when pulling on/shaking the involved wires and connectors to try to simulate what I had initially believed to possible be a loose connector or connection).

[PureZ71]

I used podholes bracket and mounted some Baja Design S1 lights. They also came with a harness that turns them on when your cargo lights are turned on.

 

https://podholes.com/products/pod-hole

 

 

 

[GETGONE]

On 9/16/2024 at 11:54 PM, PureZ71 said:

I used podholes bracket and mounted some Baja Design S1 lights. They also came with a harness that turns them on when your cargo lights are turned on.

 

https://podholes.com/products/pod-hole

 

 

 

Your truck was pictured on the GM Authority website for the promo article on these.

[GETGONE]

On 9/16/2024 at 9:56 PM, Rich Rein said:

At the risk of sounding snobby (because I am definitely not trying to be) - a 21 Trail Boss is not a 23 ZR2 Bison (in terms of features/wiring harness complexity). I did a lot of research before going down the path that I did with my truck to add additional reverse lighting, and @Garett Rainey had posted above to this thread and messaged me privately because he believed that he had gone down the same path that I did, and was running into problems. Admittedly, I need to go out to the garage at some point and verify the constant power at the 7 pin connector for my model/year (because I distinctly remember reading at the time that that truck worked for older trucks...but not for mine - hence the tapping into the turn signal harness). My problems are nowhere near as consistent as what Garrett is running into on the same truck - my extra reverse lights always work whenever the truck is stationary (such as when unlocking the truck/opening doors), but occasionally I will notice the reverse lights not always coming on if I try to go from drive to reverse too quickly - like when driving up to my driveway, and then reversing into it (being methodical/intention about going from one to the other is never a bad thing for other parts of the truck anyway). Further admission: the ability to easily reverse the wiring changes was desirable (all of my soldering/connections were between the new lights themselves and the new T harness going between the existing turn signal sub harness and the main body harness that it used to connect directly to). Given my much more intermittent issues, I am not completely convinced that I don't need to revisit my work - though I can never replicate the issues when parked in my driveway (even when pulling on/shaking the involved wires and connectors to try to simulate what I had initially believed to possible be a loose connector or connection).

 

I know the 22.5's went to a Global B wiring architecture, but the 7 pin harness should still have constant 12+ and ground in it. I'm using a Putco plug in harness to run a tailgate light bar. I also tapped into the replaceable harness from the tail light to the chassis plug so I could replace it with a stock piece if I needed to take it for service and got any hassles from the light mods. I thought my lights were working properly at first too and when showing some friends, it came on, flashed 3 times and went off. That's when I did some searching and found I was overloading the circuit. Have someone watch the lights when you hit the button. It had worked fine when I was testing them after installing them in my barn just tapping the factory lights without the relay. It was a week or two later that it started doing the flash and go off deal.

[PureZ71]

16 hours ago, GETGONE said:

Your truck was pictured on the GM Authority website for the promo article on these.

Thanks for letting me know! I didn't even see that article until now.

 

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2024/09/check-out-these-neat-chevy-silverado-gmc-sierra-cornerstep-lights/#comment-1635525

 

[Jackson Lanich]

I installed a OPT7 tailgate light bar. It is pretty bright and looks amazing. If I am backing down a boat ramp or up to something it makes it easier to see but none of the light hits the ground. I have seen tons of ads for lights that attach on the sides of the hitch. I haven't got to try them yet but want to soon. If you don't want to make new holes like me I think those would be a good option.

[Rich Rein]

On 9/17/2024 at 11:24 PM, GETGONE said:

 

I know the 22.5's went to a Global B wiring architecture, but the 7 pin harness should still have constant 12+ and ground in it. I'm using a Putco plug in harness to run a tailgate light bar. I also tapped into the replaceable harness from the tail light to the chassis plug so I could replace it with a stock piece if I needed to take it for service and got any hassles from the light mods. I thought my lights were working properly at first too and when showing some friends, it came on, flashed 3 times and went off. That's when I did some searching and found I was overloading the circuit. Have someone watch the lights when you hit the button. It had worked fine when I was testing them after installing them in my barn just tapping the factory lights without the relay. It was a week or two later that it started doing the flash and go off deal.

Hopefully you are onto something. I thought that I had done plenty of research going into this process, and had gone with the putco blade harness as my starting point (tapping into both reverse signal and power/ground from the driver's side taillight harness - using the T harness left my work entirely reversible, should it come to that). It worked most of the time (always in the garage when attempting to troubleshoot)...but still wasn't 100%.

 

Fast forward to tonight, and I now still have what's left of the putco blade harness to pull the reverse signal from the driver's side taillight harness, sending a signal to the relay of the freshly arrived Pod Holes harness to T into the 7 pin trailering connector behind the bumper (which also has the correct 2 pin connectors to go to the auxiliary Baja lights in my ZR2 Bison rear bumper). Pod Holes was awesome to work with, selling me just the portions of their harness that I needed (without paying for anything that I didn't, and still leaving me with my goal of no damage/changes to factory harnesses, everything is entirely reversible should it come to that).

 

Fingers crossed that this is the 100% fix that I have been looking for - I will try to report back after a few days of various scenarios (since my previous setup was only occasionally problematic).

 

Note: going this route (AEV rear bumper brackets, Baja pod lights, Putco blade harness that I am really only using about 20% of, and Pod Holes harness that I am using 90% of - since I am triggering every time the factory reverse lights are on, versus Pod Holes' intention to manually trigger rear bumper step lights with the cargo light switch) is maybe not as efficient as I could have been...but in retrospect this leaves me checking the two biggest boxes for me: extra reverse lighting whenever the factory reverse lamps are lit, and the ability to reverse everything to factory by removing a few zip ties and unclipping a few connectors.

Edited September 25, 2024 by Rich Rein

[GETGONE]

22 hours ago, Jackson Lanich said:

I installed a OPT7 tailgate light bar. It is pretty bright and looks amazing. If I am backing down a boat ramp or up to something it makes it easier to see but none of the light hits the ground. I have seen tons of ads for lights that attach on the sides of the hitch. I haven't got to try them yet but want to soon. If you don't want to make new holes like me I think those would be a good option.

The lights I have are 2" cube lights and I just used a single larger self tapping screw to screw into existing holes on the bottom of the trailer hitch.

[d_1]

On 2/13/2024 at 10:32 PM, Transient said:

https://accessories.chevrolet.com/product/60-inch-blade-led-tailgate-light-bar-by-putco®-associated-accessories-19418352?bac=112629&body=Crew Cab Pickup&bodyId=22&bodyNumDoors=5&bodyNumDoorsId=5&categoryId=197502&make=Chevrolet&makeId=47&model=Silverado 1500&modelId=491&year=2023

 

and this

 

https://www.bajadesigns.com/products/s1-hitch-light-kit-universal/?sku=448153

Did the Baja light work okay for you with the 7 pin harness? I've been interested in that, but the site says it's not compatible with 19+ models.