Possible 3rd Brake Light Option?

[rblock50]

I've been trying to come up with a different approach for the 3rd brake light vs. the light-up red-rings that have been discussed in other threads (like from Oracle). A buddy of mine has his light attached to his back-up camera on his Jeep and I was wondering if perhaps it could be modified to fit our Broncos somehow. I think it looks way better than having the light up top and is not as overdone like the oracle "red rings". I called Teraflex and the part is about $30 (vs buying the whole tire carrier for $360), but they said I'd need the backup camera part too where the part slips over, which I am sure wouldn't even work on the Bronco. But maybe there could be a way to rig the attachment or fab something to make it work? Check out the attached image that has the blue highlight. If the diameter of our back-up cameras is less than the ring for their attachment, then I would imagine we could just put some thin rubber sheeting to make up the gap. Any ideas?

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[Classic28]

Does your buddy have the terra flex setup? You could measure the diameters of the two camera posts before ordering. But like you said if the broncos diameter is smaller a thin piece of rubber could make up the difference and even if the terra flex is slightly smaller the bolt of the clamp may be able to be replaced with a smaller one. Interested to know what you find out.

 

[rblock50]

Hmmm, good point. Let me have him measure. I am wondering though if the camera sticks out enough from the tire to fit the ring and the light housing. I know the one on his JL comes out a bit more and that is probably for that very reason. I'll find out in the next week and report back.

 

[604Bronco]

There’s this option too, from Rigid Industries. It’s a third brake light, reverse light, chase light all in one.

https://www.rigidindustries.com/2021-bronco-rear-chase-pod-light-kit-46727.html

 

[rblock50]

Oh wow that looks sweet, that’s a great option! Thanks!

 

[Classic28]

Any updates on this?

 

[rblock50]

Actually, yes…

I bought the part I circled earlier, as well as a Jeep brake light to go on it. So far I’m in for $54. It fits like a champ, I just need to wire it up and remove the OEM light. I’ll be doing that this week and I’ll post my steps and final result.

But in the meantime, here’s a picture of the dry fit.

 

[Classic28]

That looks real good. Do you have the part number from when you called Teraflex? I’d like to order the mount and it might make it easier talking over the phone.

 

[rblock50]

Yeah I’ll send everything I bought with part numbers and such. I want to make sure it legit works before I give anyone crap info. The only bummer I can see now, is the wire in my friend’s jeep is fed through a cavity on the backup camera. We don’t have that option, so it’ll have to go back through one of the slots in the rim. It’s not a deal breaker, but something to be aware of. I highlighted it in red here.

Plus I’ll need to add a snap fitting on the wires so that I can disconnect the light should I need to change a flat.

While I’m at it, I am adding a little relay thing to make the light flicker a few times before turning solid red to help it draw more attention that I’m stopping.

 

[james1414d]

Nice to see some ideas. I'm either going to mount something behind the tire, or just not run any third brake light at all. Primarily due to limited visibility out of the rear.

 

[rblock50]

I am just now getting around to posting how I got my 3rd brake light to work, sorry for the delay. Here is what I purchased and the steps I took. For about $70 and a few hours, I think it came out pretty good!

Items Purchased:

1. Teraflex - Subassembly, Kit, Jeep JL Wrangler, 3rd Brake light, Tire Carrier (part #99-99-14-200-001) - $26
- You don't need the entire assembly (URL below), you just need the piece that holds the 3rd brake light
- https://teraflex.com/jl-alpha-hd-ad...ount-kit-w-brake-light-camera-mounts-5x5.html

2. Teraflex - Hardware Pack JL 3rd Brake Each Light / Camera Mount Kit (part #5099) - $6

3. 2 pcs Flash Strobe Controller Car Flasher Module for Brake Light Tail Stop Light - $11
- This made it so that my 3rd brake light would flash 4 times before going solid, you can skip this if you don't want it.
- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074WYMZ4S?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

4. 2-Pin Way Electrical Wire Connector $11
- This is so that you can unclip the brake light when you need to take off the spare tire.
- If you know what type of connector is already on the pig-tail, then you can just get those vs. something totally different.
- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FJPMML6?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

5. Jeep 3rd Brake Light - $19
- You need to get one that has the piggy tail so that you can tap into that.
- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RRNXPXX?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Steps

1. Remove the spare tire

2. Remove the existing 3rd brake light housing, and disconnect the 3rd brake light, but keep all of the wiring intact.
- You can follow these steps to do it (), it was pretty easy

3. Cut off the existing connector of the pig tail on the new 3rd brake light and attach the female end of the new connector that was purchased. This is so that I can disconnect it when changing the tire and rotating them. But again, if you know what the connector that is currently on the pig tail, then you can keep it and just put the male-end on the next step and can skip this part.

4. Attached the male end of the connector to the "out" end of the strobe controller. I messed up the first time and connected it to the "in" and I think I broke it, so good thing I bought two.

5. Spliced the two wires from the existing wiring and attached the "in" end of the strobe controller to it. The existing yellow wire was my positive, and the green was the negative wire as you can see in the image.

6. I used the included 3M tape to stick the strobe inside of the spare tire holder and fed the rest of the wires (with the connector) outside of the spare tire holder.

7. Put back on the spare tire, and fed the wire through the spoke of the rim.

8. Screwed the 3rd brake light onto the Teraflex housing and then inserted the housing over the rear-camera. I had the light a little crooked in this last pic, but it has since been adjusted

9. Tested and it worked great!

 

[Classic28]

Awesome, thanks for the write up! Definitely plan on doing this.

 

[rblock50]

A quick update on this. I had a set of take-off Raptor fog lights that I repurposed and attached to the bottom of my bumper - you can see it in bottom-left of my bumper in the pix below. But that light was horid (not sure what Rigid was thinking). So I went back to the drawing board....

I wanted to add a rear light, but didn't know where to put it. Since I already had the 3rd brake light that I installed, I thought it would be something I could attach a light to.

I bought a set of these (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZJHL2ZJ?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) and attached the bracket to the bolt that was going through the bottom of the brake light housing (from Teraflex). It came out pretty good, and I can adjust the light up and down based on my needs. Now I have a dual-purpose set of lights, the top is the brake and the bottom is the flood light. I originally wanted it to turn on (when I was hooking up the Rigid lights) when I put the car in reverse, but since these are way brighter I just connected it to an Aux and will turn it on when I want.

I am going to look into making an amber cover for it to use as a chase light.

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