Adding LED reverse lighting, and 7 pole trailer plug.

Anyone that has ever backed up in the dark, rainy, unlit night with factory reverse lights know the white knuckle braille experience it can be, now put yourself out on the deer lease, or in the mountains somewhere in those same conditions, you are going to want light and a lot of it...

Now my project here is twofold,

Fisrt off, I am wanting to add the final piece of the OEM "Towing Package" that my truck did not ship from Ford with and that is the 7 pin wiring pig tail under the rear bumper. It's a good thing this is a common part, and lots of the aftermarket produce OEM quality or better replacement pieces, and an even better thing that Ford designed the wiring harness to be modular. Simply snap on / snap off and you are good to go!

Second issue I need to tackle is the extreme need for radically improved back up lighting. Simply put, backing up this beast in the dark is a dangerous, white knuckle affair. I have wanted upgraded lighting on the tail end of this truck for years. And with the new LED lighting fixtures coming down radically in price, it looks like it is time to tackle this project! Tons of light, great durability, and greatly reduced power draw. What's not to like?

So first things first, design the setup and start hunting and gathering what I will need to make these changes, and get the knowledge I need to do the job...

Thankfully TowReady has part number 118247 trailer wiring and relay kit available at a variety of retailers. www.etrailer.com provides a pretty decent video instruction on how to install it. I WILL be varying my install from etrailers install. Their install is using a band clamp on a round tube trailer hitch, my hitch is square tube and I honestly think Etrailers use of a band clamp is beyond pitiful. It is barely better than bailing wire and bubble gum. I want this done RIGHT... So please ignore that part on their video. I will attampt to shoot and edit my own video on this project, so hopefully you will have something a bit better quality to work with...

Mind you, etrailer has been kind of nasty about this as they have disallowed embedding of the Youtube video, but I CAN give you the link... The video overall is decent, but like I said, they cut a HUGE corner quality wise in the install by relying on a band clamp. That just will not do!

Anyway the video link is HERE.

Like I promised on my forum posts, I will post the links to the products and the best prices I could find to get the job done, so if you go to my Amazon Store at http://astore.amazon.com/davework-20?_encoding=UTF8&node=14

There are 2 items that while I can find at Amazon that there are MUCH better buys at Harbor Freight tools if you have one of them close by...

127 piece Heat Shrink Tubing.

10 rolls 60ft 3/4" electrical tape.

I assume "normal" mechanical ability, and equipment. Feel free to add crimp connectors in place of solder connections. I personally prefer solder joints over crimp connectors, particularly in 4 wheel drive / off road applications.

So now that all the bits and pieces are on order, I ought to share with you the design for the circuit.

I am giving serious consideration to adding a 3amp diode inline on the feed line from the backup lights.

FWIW, this circuit design should work with any 12V DC vehicle with a factory back up lighting circuit where the desired end result is the accessory reverse lights turned on with both the vehicle being put in reverse, AND the lights being manually turned on with an interior mounted toggle switch with illumination that will allow you to tell if you accidentally left the lights on...

If I opt for the diode and I suspect I will so that I don't induce back feed into an unenergized reverse light circuit, the best price I have found so far is at Radio Shack...

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062578

So now that the design is shored up, and the parts are ordered (somehow Amazon Prime 2 day sometimes means 9 days...).

Before moving forward, there is some equipment you will need to round up. This is...

1. Factory jack, and handle for operating the spare tire winch.
2. Wheel chocks, chunks of 4x4, whatever...
3. Floor jack capable of safely lifting the truck. I opted for the Pittsburgh Automotive 4 ton item #68056. Purchased on sale, with a 25% off coupon so it wasn't that bad...
4. Jack stands with sufficient height and weight handling capacity to give you ample room and safe load rating to work on the truck safely. I opted for the Pittsburgh Automotive 6 ton Steel Jack Stands item #61197. Same deal as the floor jack...
5. I am not going to bother with linking one as you really ought to have it by now if you are wanting to take on this project, but you need a socket / ratchet set, deep well, in metric. The Etrailer video shows using an electric impact, no real need, and if I was going to I would go pnuematic not electric...
6. Crimp tool.
7. A basic soldering iron. 
8. Lighter.
9. Drill and bits.
10. Screwdriver set.

I'm sure I will come up with something I forgot about while I am actually working the project. I will make note of it in the video, AND come back and update the list here.

So for now I bid you a good night, and promise that I will post updates here in text, photo, and video here shortly!.