INSTALLED Diode Dynamics Reverse Light Kit (Chase Lights Too)

[los7883]

Nice looking wiring job, looks like you’ve done that a few times.

Thanks! I just can’t stand messy wires

Sponsored

 

[broncodeadhead]

So this was a fun problem to figure out…. I mounted the RTR spare tire carrier with jerry can for a remote adventure through the Mojave preserve, and the lug bolts on the RTR don’t align consistently with the OEM lug bolts, so my Diode Dynamics rear lights bracket sat cockeyed on the spare. I found an old codger of a machinist up in the hills and had him drill 2 new holes in my bracket and voila…. I was able to retain my rear lights! BTW they are very bright

 

[jmb49735]

I wish these worked as brake lights too

 

[swooshdave]

I didn’t want to run the wires outside the vehicle either, so I looked around and found that if I lift up the rubber going between the tail light area and the cab I could push the small end of the harness through and avoid the external routing.

Is there a risk of the wires chaffing on the metal?

 

[Axle Roads]

Is there a risk of the wires chaffing on the metal?

I don’t think so, it’s double walled right there and doesn’t seem sharp plus the harness has a good abrasion resistant sleeve. You could always take a small piece of rubber trim and slip it over that spot. I might do that just to be safe. It didn’t appear to be kinking it at all.

 

[FordOwner]

@Dadsquatch, great thread/write up. I'm adding my install notes and pics here for those who want to go this route and see how to tie into a replacement headlight switch instead of wiring to an AUX switch.

I have a Badlands, high trim with factory front fogs, puddle lights, etc. I ordered the replacement front and rear fog switch M2DZ-11654-CC from hillerpartsdepartment on ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/404105405436 to give me both front and rear fog light control from the headlamp switch assembly. I also ordered EU2Z-14421-BA from https://www.tascaparts.com/oem-parts/ford-terminal-eu2z14421ba and used some black 18 gauge wire and heat shrink connectors.

I opted to add a terminal to the existing harness/connector at C424. Here are some pictures of the C424 blue with white stripe wire connector I tapped into, its location, and a few other details.

The blue/white wire is in the body harness all the way to the rear driver side corner of the vehicle at which point it ends in the connector (C424). Lay under the rear driver side and look up in the bumper behind the rear driver tire for a small connector that is vertically oriented. In this picture, I've disconnected the body and bumper sides and inserted a EU2Z-14421-BA lead/terminal into the body side of the C424 connector. (the lead is the fuzzy black thing coming across the pic)

Here it is slightly closer.

I enabled/allowed three settings in Forscan:

IPC module- Rear Fog Light Indicator - changed from Disabled to Enabled
BdyCM module - Rear Fog Lamps - changed from Disabled to Enabled
BdyCM module - Using Rear Fog with Trailer - changed from Inhibited to Allowed

I had a helper turn the rear fog button on and off while I tested the voltage to the body side connectors using the lead to the positive side of my voltmeter and grounding the voltmeter's negative side to the frame. The third plug from the outside coming from the rear side of the connector is the right one to connect into. I unplugged the C424 connector, peeled back the wire harness tape, and noted that there are two wires running into the sealed end of the connector.

I'm running an 18-gauge wire from the modified bumper side of the connector up under the heat shield and into the rear compartment where it connects up to a Diode Dynamics Stage Series Reverse Light Kit which has a lead wire to connect to.

I used a drill bit to drill a hole in the back of the bumper side of the connector. I stepped up to a 7/64 bit for it to be large enough to get the EU2Z-14421-BA lead to fit through. In the process of figuring out the right size and getting the routing precise, I broke two of the five leads in the kit and managed to break through the sheathing to expose the bare wiring on a 3rd one. It's good that the kit came with 5 leads, as I still have one spare. I eventually remembered that I had some baling wire that I could work through the hole and into the correct pin location.

Now instead of two pins on the bumper side of the C424 connector I have three.

I plugged the two sides of the C424 connector back together and tested the bare end of the EU2Z-14421-BA wire with my voltmeter to ensure power was passing through, indicating a good pin connection.

I add a bit of silicon to help seal the new wire, taped up the connector, and ran the new 18 gauge wire across the frame, under the heat shield behind the 10mm bolt on the driver side above the muffler. (Red line shows routing)

The wire runs into the same grommet as the diode dynamics wiring harness into the cargo space, under the rear plastic trim, and tucks into the same space as the diode dynamics harness on the rear passenger panel area. (This pic was before crimping and heat shrinking the connector)

My diode dynamics rear fog/chase/backup lights now work with the rear fog button while the headlights are on in either the headlamp 'on' or 'auto' position, when I put the Bronco in reverse, or with zone lighting.

Interestingly, my front fogs can turn on with the headlamp switch in park light mode, but the rear fogs will not come on with the headlamp switch in park light mode. If I'm driving down the road with the headlight high beams (auto) on and push the button to turn on the rear fog lights, the headlights auto dim, and turn back on if I turn on/off the rear fog.

I too purchased the amber covers to pop on as needed for dusty, chase light duty.

 

[Chritaka]

Any reason you can't use the wiring kit only included in this reverse light kit for SS3's placed in the LOD Destroyer bumper? I called @4x4TruckLEDs.com and he said they don't have a kit to do that and I would lose the backlight function with the parts they could supply me. The guy was short and kept cutting me off like he had better things to do, but anyway...

Why couldn't I just use this wiring harness:

https://www.4x4truckleds.com/diode-...ight-wiring-harness-kit-for-2021-ford-bronco/

With these DT 4-Pin extensions to reach the lights?

https://www.diodedynamics.com/dt-4-pin-extension-wire.html

If not, looks like @SPVPARTS has a couple harnesses that will do what I need, they're just 2x$.

https://specialtyperformanceparts.c...y-vehicles-see-details?variant=43445413806312

https://specialtyperformanceparts.c...y-vehicles-see-details?variant=43458794946792

I put a call into them and playing phone tag, but call them again tomorrow.

 

[4x4TruckLEDs.com]

Any reason you can't use the wiring kit only included in this reverse light kit for SS3's placed in the LOD Destroyer bumper? I called @4x4TruckLEDs.com and he said they don't have a kit to do that and I would lose the backlight function with the parts they could supply me. The guy was short and kept cutting me off like he had better things to do, but anyway...

Why couldn't I just use this wiring harness:

https://www.4x4truckleds.com/diode-...ight-wiring-harness-kit-for-2021-ford-bronco/

With these DT 4-Pin extensions to reach the lights?

https://www.diodedynamics.com/dt-4-pin-extension-wire.html

If not, looks like @SPVPARTS has a couple harnesses that will do what I need, they're just 2x$.

https://specialtyperformanceparts.c...y-vehicles-see-details?variant=43445413806312

https://specialtyperformanceparts.c...y-vehicles-see-details?variant=43458794946792

I put a call into them and playing phone tag, but call them again tomorrow.

Sorry if you felt we were short, but we kept going around and around. I kept explaining that the Diode Dynamics spare tire kit is not designed for the rear bumper, nor is the harness included in the kit. It uses a Y-Splitter and therefore will not reach properly. I was going to put a parts list together for you but you ended the call quickly so I never got a chance to give you a parts list.

The kit that we already offer for the bumper doesn't activate the back-lighting as our harness doesn't use 3 wires, it only uses 2.

 

[SPVPARTS]

Any reason you can't use the wiring kit only included in this reverse light kit for SS3's placed in the LOD Destroyer bumper? I called @4x4TruckLEDs.com and he said they don't have a kit to do that and I would lose the backlight function with the parts they could supply me. The guy was short and kept cutting me off like he had better things to do, but anyway...

Why couldn't I just use this wiring harness:

https://www.4x4truckleds.com/diode-...ight-wiring-harness-kit-for-2021-ford-bronco/

With these DT 4-Pin extensions to reach the lights?

https://www.diodedynamics.com/dt-4-pin-extension-wire.html

If not, looks like @SPVPARTS has a couple harnesses that will do what I need, they're just 2x$.

https://specialtyperformanceparts.c...y-vehicles-see-details?variant=43445413806312

https://specialtyperformanceparts.c...y-vehicles-see-details?variant=43458794946792

I put a call into them and playing phone tag, but call them again tomorrow.

Chris, it's John @SPVPARTS You can reach me at 317/796/8472. Call or text. I can step you through. I can also get you hooked up with what you need.

Our harnesses are actually built a lot different and use higher end materials that are considered industrial grade. Differences are things like heat and flame retardant up to 200 deg C vs 100 deg C. Teflon flame retardant insulation. Plug N Play interconnecting and universal for any vehicle, light brand or situation. That's why we patented them.

John

 

[Rick Astley]

I called **REDACTED BY RICK ASTLEY** and he said they don't have a kit to do that and I would lose the backlight function with the parts they could supply me. The guy was short and kept cutting me off like he had better things to do, but anyway...

Chris, it's John @SPVPARTS You can reach me at 317/796/8472. Call or text. I can step you through. I can also get you hooked up with what you need.

Our harnesses are actually built a lot different and use higher end materials that are considered industrial grade. Differences are things like heat and flame retardant up to 200 deg C vs 100 deg C. Teflon flame retardant insulation. Plug N Play interconnecting and universal for any vehicle, light brand or situation. That's why we patented them.

John

Hey look, quality parts! You'll probably never need wiring built to those standards. Until you do.

And that's why you patent the things you make!

 

[Strizzo]

I haven't seen very many posts about this kit (especially with finished photos), so creating my own. Purchased this kit from @4x4TruckLEDs.com . See attached photos and my notes below:

- Diode Dynamics Reverse Light Kit with SS2 Sport pods (flood pattern). Sport light output is plenty. Pro would be too much in my opinion.
- You can pair this kit with SS1, SS2, or SS3. Personal preference on look and light output desired. I felt the SS1s were too small, SS3s were too big, and SS2s were just right (quote Goldilocks & The 3 Bears).
- Very clean looking install.
- Red backlight is very nice and I was surprised by how bright for running lights / back light (these are my first DD lights, so no past experience).
- I also bought yellow/amber covers so I can use these as chase lights. Simple to just pop them on when going off-road. Although I would have expected the covers to clip on better. There is no real defined click when you put them on, and fairly easy to remove them. We'll see how they handle with the bumps of off-roading.
- My setup gets me 3 things......1.) Rear Lights (Red) 2.) Reverse Lights (White) 3.) Chase Lights (Yellow when using yellow covers). The white lights also turn on with your rear zone lighting. Note in my photos my taillight reverse lights aren't on when I'm in white/reverse mode, as I was by myself and had to manually turn them on to take the photos instead of actually being in reverse. I have full control to override the lights since I also have them tied to an AUX switch (main use is for chase lights).
- Install took me most of the day, but I was taking my time and had plenty of troubles. Install video is on DD website under this product. Video is very good. The problems I had were:

1. Stripped plastic trim screws at trim piece concealing taillight adapter (had to drill them out......luckily I had extra on hand).
2. Loosening passenger side rear cargo trim panel was a bear. I broke 3 of those white plastic clips as many others have, but already ordered more online. I had to loosen this panel to get to my rear AUX wire so I can manually turn on/off the rear lights when I want to use them as chase lights.
3. Tieing into my rear AUX wire was such a small space because I didn't fully remove the panel......just loosened it. And the factory AUX wire is only like 4" long. So having to strip the wire and crimp it was tight quarters. My forearms were fully scraped up from the plastic trim edges afterwards.
4. Continuing to tie in the AUX wire under the glove compartment was also a challenge. Not as bad as the rear panel tie-in, but again.....tight quarters and factory wires aren't long.
5. This is one of my last AUX switches left, so tying in under the hood was again tight quarters with all my other AUX connections basically in the way.
6. If you're like me and have a tailgate table already installed, you need to remove about half of it to get your wiring concealed in the tailgate.
7. At the rear spare tire, when you fish the splitter through, the splitter isn't very long. You're somewhat limited to where you can have the wire connectors come out your spare wheel. So if you can, I'd suggest shoving as much of the wire harness through the tailgate out to the spare as possible. It's just tough because you have to get through the air vents on the tailgate and the connectors barely fit through the vents. Definiately make sure you have enough wire through before you re-attach the spare and new bracket, or else you're going to have to remove it all again to fish more wire through (again, depends on your rim openings and how well you can fit your hand through the rim).

As clean as this looks, I may actually consider swapping out my SS2s with SS1s and trying to mount the SS1s behind the spare directly to the spare tire bracket. It's just plastic, so could drill through it. That would create a more stealthy look and have the SS1s be just behind the rim and shine through. I was thinking about it with my SS2s, but they are just a bit too big. So it actually may work well with the smaller SS1s, but I'm not sure if I want to do this yet or not. Going to stick with the DD bracket method for now for a few days and think about it.

Let me know of any questions.

cool, this is on my list to go along with the hitchmount. Do the red accents turn on with the running lights or brake lights?

 

[Shifts And Grins Fab]

cooo, this is on my list to go along with the hitchmount. Do the red accents turn on with the running lights or brake lights?

For the hitchMount they can turn on with both or just the running/tail lights. For the reverse kit is just the tail lights and reverse lights. We offer all of these kits on our webpage as well.

 

[Strizzo]

For the hitchMount they can turn on with both or just the running/tail lights. For the reverse kit is just the tail lights and reverse lights. We offer all of these kits on our webpage as well.

Thanks, I already have the hitchmount installed, and i got the brake and reverse light version. Thanks for the info on the reverse light kit.

 

[Maverickxj]

Love these lights. I did an install video on them and was impressed with Diode Dynamics every step of the way. I now want the SSC1R pods to replace my factory third brake light since those pods have a brighter red diode when the brakes are applied.

 

[Shifts And Grins Fab]

Thanks, I already have the hitchmount installed, and i got the brake and reverse light version. Thanks for the info on the reverse light kit.

Any time

Sponsored