Supurcar Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 This may not be a tech issue, but I have a question about reverse lights. Mine do work, but it is very hard to see, I would like to add a flood light or something of the sort. My goal would be to have a splash of light behind me when I throw her into reverse. I am not sure if I should go to the trouble of putting in a toggle switch on the dash, or if I could simply tap into the light cluster and maybe reroute the reverse light wires? I have heard mention of wiring problems for some, so part of me says "leave it alone" as it all works. Any thoughts here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoprat Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 Howdy Robert... I have dealt with the lack of illumination from the backup lights on a couple of vehicles. Thanks for the thought provoking post.On a pickup of mine a half decade back or so, I tied into the backup lights with a farm tractor fender light to let me see more in the dusky dark. I mounted it on the drivers side rear upper part of the rear bumper. It helped some, but couldn't help with the loss of night vision that comes with age, unfortunately. Now, on a motorhome, what I would do , is to mount two headlights on each upper rear corner of the back bumper. I would then connect the power to them to a relay. This relay would be triggered from the hot wire to the backup lights with the relay power output going to the feed wire to the headlamps. The relay would go to ground through the frame, or a wire to the battery ground, which ever was easier. The relay load input would come from the battery. this would prevent the extra amps being directed through the backup light switch and possibly burning it out. I hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supurcar Posted November 21, 2007 Author Share Posted November 21, 2007 Well I may have spoke to soon on the wiring. I just put a new fuel gauge in yesterday, went with a NAPA sending unit and gauge, as the factory unit was hard to get. But I noticed last night when I went to have my wife pull it out of the driveway that my tailights are acting funny. So here it goes....with the headlights off everything appears to be working normally, brake lights, blinkers reverse. BUT when she put on the headlights I still have running lights on both sides, when she put on the brakes the right brakelight is fine, but the left tailight goes out alltogether, both blinkers are fine (they are amber lense anyway and different socket). I thought no problem change the bulb maybe a filliment is out, but it appeared to be fine. They are dual filliment bulbs. I have no clue where to start to look. Once it warms up outside maybe I will go play with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SanDiegoPaul Posted November 22, 2007 Share Posted November 22, 2007 Well I may have spoke to soon on the wiring. I just put a new fuel gauge in yesterday, went with a NAPA sending unit and gauge, as the factory unit was hard to get. But I noticed last night when I went to have my wife pull it out of the driveway that my tailights are acting funny. So here it goes....with the headlights off everything appears to be working normally, brake lights, blinkers reverse. BUT when she put on the headlights I still have running lights on both sides, when she put on the brakes the right brakelight is fine, but the left tailight goes out alltogether, both blinkers are fine (they are amber lense anyway and different socket). I thought no problem change the bulb maybe a filliment is out, but it appeared to be fine. They are dual filliment bulbs. I have no clue where to start to look. Once it warms up outside maybe I will go play with it. Robert the first thing to check is the ground circuit on the bulb(s) that isn't right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gulfstream Greg Posted November 22, 2007 Share Posted November 22, 2007 I agree that you have a ground problem. Most likely right at one or both of the rear light assemblies. You will probably need to remove them from the coach and check all the wiring behind them. Our sunrader had the same problem and it was the way the wires were spliced together. I have some great backup lights on our rig. Got them at Jc whitney. http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Product...t=utility+light I have them mounted on the top of the rig on the rear corners. Lights up everything behind the rig. A rear back up camera would be a plus! They are connected into a rocker toggle switch so that I can have them on with out being in reverse. You will find that you will want to be able to walk to the rear with them on and survey the area your backing into and having the lights on is the way to go with out being in reverse. Use some sort of switch with a on light in it so that you can see that its on. Wiring them into the reverse circuit along with the switch is a good idea as then when you do hit reverse they come on and then you also have the option to activate them when not in reverse. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharpest Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 Greg, Do you have a picture of the back up light on your Sunrader? Thanks, Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
futar Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 I installed cheap halogen running lights hooked to the backup light wiring on the rear of one of my motor homes. That worked good. What I'm thinking of doing on the Toyota is replacing the backup bulbs with 3 watt LED bulbs. I have two 3 watt LED flashlights and they are very very bright. It would not need a relay as the LEDs are very efficient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supurcar Posted November 23, 2007 Author Share Posted November 23, 2007 (edited) Thanks for the good advice, I just thought it was funny that the lights went out the day I had the fuel gauge put in. When I turned on the headlights yesterday I found the condition worsened as the brake lights and running lights are out on outermost clusters of the tailight array. So I still have blinkers, emergency lights, and brakes lights with the healdlights in the off position only. The guy said the reason to use the NAPA fuel gauge was because the NAPA sending unit was not the same ohms as the Toyota gauge. I wonder if this difference is causing problems elsewhere. I will check it this weekend. Thanks again! Edited November 23, 2007 by Supurcar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powdrhound Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 ... I have some great backup lights on our rig. Got them at Jc whitney. http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Product...t=utility+light I have them mounted on the top of the rig on the rear corners. Lights up everything behind the rig. A rear back up camera would be a plus! They are connected into a rocker toggle switch so that I can have them on with out being in reverse. You will find that you will want to be able to walk to the rear with them on and survey the area your backing into and having the lights on is the way to go with out being in reverse. Use some sort of switch with a on light in it so that you can see that its on. Wiring them into the reverse circuit along with the switch is a good idea as then when you do hit reverse they come on and then you also have the option to activate them when not in reverse. Greg My learning for the additional backup lights was using too small of a fuse holder in the wiring to the Rear Window Heater rocker switch. (It lights up when turned on. Couldn't find a Toyota switch that day at Pic-n-Pull, but a Volvo was a willing donor. I have nice heavy wire all the way, except for the section around the fuse - used a holder I had in the wiring drawer... While backing up a snowy winding road that went nowhere after all, I had them on for a couple minutes. Then they stopped working. Later found that the fuse holder has melted enough to nearly cover one of the contacts and held the fuse away from the contact. Took a while to find. Did not take long to replace the whole section with a good fat fuse holder and real wire. Fixed. They are really handy. Hope you have a Fresnel Lens in your rear window too. Onward to Spokane this week, with stops on the way home at Mount Hood's Timberline Lodge and the Palmer Glacier, then a few days at Mount Bachelor. Ski season is NOT over yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gulfstream Greg Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 I still say its a grounding problem with the tail lights. What happens is the one that tries to light can't find a path to ground so it seeks ground through the other filament or other lights in the circuit. The ground at the lights themselves might be good but has failed at the frame connection. On our new Coachman I am putting in some extra backup lights (ordered but still in transit) powered by a relay. The circuit for the existing backup circuit will power the relay when in reverse. I will run power directly to the relay from the battery. A fuse will be in-line at the battery. Eventually I will also have a switch on the dash with a flashing led to power them with out being in reverse. A note about where to put them. My Sunrader had them mounted on top. Its actually a good place as they illuminate any trees that you might be backing into. But I will probably mount the new ones on the bumper instead of the roof. Here is a image of the ones on the Sunrader, they are tractor flood lamps with rubber housings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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