LED Aftermarket Reverse Lights / Pods

RyF · March 13, 2019

I also have "high-power" LED reverse bulbs in my actual tail lights, and they were a great modification to the factory option...but let's be real...off-road lighting is definitely the way to go for the most amount of light possible. These are Rough Country 70133BL. I like Rough Country off-road lighting because it's good quality. Rigid Ind will cost you five times as much. You can choose between spot or flood pattern when purchasing these. I went with flood. They present an amazing pattern for backup lighting. It's night/day different.

Wiring: I added a fifth-wheel 7-pin tow harness from Curt. (It's direct plug and play into the factory wiring harness right behind the bumper.) From there, all you have to do is tap into the reverse lighting on that harness and they automatically come on when I put my truck in reverse, just like they would if they were trailer reverse lights. You could do it without the Curt harness, but done this way I haven't actually modified any of my factory wiring.

Install: I fab'd up a few mounting options, but sometimes the easiest solution is the best solution. It happens to be the cheapest as well. The lights come with aluminum mounting brackets. The round steel-tube rear hitch receiver on the truck has a spot on each side that offers the perfect mounting position. I used four total hose clamps (two on each light bracket) to mount the brackets to the tubing. You can barely see the hose clamp if you look closely at that top picture. They are iron-solid. Since it was basically free and totally reversible, I figured I'd mount them up temporarily just to see how I liked the position and make sure they worked. They haven't moved the slightest bit since I mounted them last year. They're tucked up beneath the bumper perfectly so that you can't see the hose clamps, and the lights don't affect my departure angle at all either. I liked the setup so much that I left it alone.

Edited March 27, 2019 by RyF

Rally_18 · March 13, 2019

11 hours ago, RyF said:

I also have "high-power" LED reverse bulbs in my actual tail lights, and they were a great modification to the factory option...but let's be real...off-road lighting is definitely the way to go for the most amount of light possible. These are Rough Country 70133BL. I like Rough Country off-road lighting because it's good quality. Rigid Ind will cost you five times as much. You can choose between spot or flood pattern when purchasing these. I went with flood. They present an amazing pattern for backup lighting. It's night/day different.

Wiring: I added a fifth-wheel 7-pin tow harness from Curt. (It's direct plug and play into the factory wiring harness right behind the bumper.) From there, all you have to do is tap into the reverse lighting on that harness and they automatically come on when I put my truck in reverse, just like they would if they were trailer reverse lights. You could do it without the Curt harness, but done this way I haven't actually modified any of my factory wiring.

Install: I fab'd up a few mounting options, but sometimes the easiest solution is the best solution. It happens to be the cheapest as well. The lights come with aluminum mounting brackets. The round steel-tube rear hitch receiver on the truck has a spot on each side that offers the perfect mounting position. I used four total hose clamps (two on each light bracket) to mount the brackets to the tubing. You can barely see the hose clamp if you look closely at that top picture. They are iron-solid. Since it was basically free and totally reversible, I figured I'd mount them up temporarily just to see how I liked the position and make sure they worked. They haven't moved the slightest bit since I mounted them last year. They're tucked up beneath the bumper perfectly so that you can't see the hose clamps, and the lights don't affect my departure angle at all either. I liked the setup so much that I left it alone.

Looks great i see you have a different spare what size is that? any mod to fit it?

RyF · March 13, 2019

4 hours ago, Rally_18 said:

Looks great i see you have a different spare what size is that? any mod to fit it?

That sucker is a full-size matching wheel/tire. I rotate all five through to get more tire life. It's a 325/60R20, and I bet nothing bigger could fit under there. Here's the write-up.

I dumped my exhaust where it turns down to get better departure angle clearance. I didn't need that junk plastic heat shield as a result. Removing that created the space I needed.

luckyshotbrooks · March 21, 2019

On 3/12/2019 at 8:42 PM, RyF said:

I also have "high-power" LED reverse bulbs in my actual tail lights, and they were a great modification to the factory option...but let's be real...off-road lighting is definitely the way to go for the most amount of light possible. These are Rough Country 70133BL. I like Rough Country off-road lighting because it's good quality. Rigid Ind will cost you five times as much. You can choose between spot or flood pattern when purchasing these. I went with flood. They present an amazing pattern for backup lighting. It's night/day different.

Wiring: I added a fifth-wheel 7-pin tow harness from Curt. (It's direct plug and play into the factory wiring harness right behind the bumper.) From there, all you have to do is tap into the reverse lighting on that harness and they automatically come on when I put my truck in reverse, just like they would if they were trailer reverse lights. You could do it without the Curt harness, but done this way I haven't actually modified any of my factory wiring.

Install: I fab'd up a few mounting options, but sometimes the easiest solution is the best solution. It happens to be the cheapest as well. The lights come with aluminum mounting brackets. The round steel-tube rear hitch receiver on the truck has a spot on each side that offers the perfect mounting position. I used four total hose clamps (two on each light bracket) to mount the brackets to the tubing. You can barely see the hose clamp if you look closely at that top picture. They are iron-solid. Since it was basically free and totally reversible, I figured I'd mount them up temporarily just to see how I liked the position and make sure they worked. They haven't moved the slightest bit since I mounted them last year. They're tucked up beneath the bumper perfectly so that you can't see the hose clamps, and the lights don't affect my departure angle at all either. I liked the setup so much that I left it alone.

This is exactly what I’m wanting to do with the curt harness. Any chance you can take some pics of how you have them wired to that harness and maybe how you have the actual lights attached using the hose clamps. Also maybe a dumb question but using the harness and setup is there any interference with using a trailer at the sametime? Thank you for any help. Not a lot of pictures of using pods with this harness.

RyF · March 22, 2019

On 3/20/2019 at 10:37 PM, luckyshotbrooks said:

This is exactly what I’m wanting to do with the curt harness. Any chance you can take some pics of how you have them wired to that harness and maybe how you have the actual lights attached using the hose clamps. Also maybe a dumb question but using the harness and setup is there any interference with using a trailer at the sametime? Thank you for any help. Not a lot of pictures of using pods with this harness.

The part number for the harness is Curt #56070. You can find it on eBay for ~$50. It looks like this.

It basically acts as an extension cord with an extra plug for guys who want to put a fifth wheel plug in the bed of their trucks. Instead, you'll just be using that extra round 7-pin for reverse lighting. You have to use the round 7-pin. I tried the flat 4-pin model first, because it's cheaper. It doesn't have a dedicated reverse light wire, so it wouldn't work.

To hook it up, all you have to do is lower your spare to give yourself some working room. Unplug the factory harness that's plugged in directly behind the bumper. Plug the Curt adapter in where the factory plug was, then plug the factory harness into that Curt adapter.

If you did nothing else from this point, all of your lights would work correctly, and your trailer harness will still work correctly as well. You'll just have an extra round 7-pin plug available for whatever you need it for. Tap your off-road lighting into this portion of the harness, and they'll automatically come on anytime you put the truck in reverse. I tow frequently, and this setup has worked for me for almost a year now.

RyF · March 22, 2019

On 3/20/2019 at 10:37 PM, luckyshotbrooks said:

This is exactly what I’m wanting to do with the curt harness. Any chance you can take some pics of how you have them wired to that harness and maybe how you have the actual lights attached using the hose clamps. Also maybe a dumb question but using the harness and setup is there any interference with using a trailer at the sametime? Thank you for any help. Not a lot of pictures of using pods with this harness.

As for mounting the lights, here are some detailed pictures of my setup. Again, super easy and reversible. When it comes to wiring, I like to have the option to go back to factory if I need to in the future.

There is a perfectly sized section on each end of the hitch receiver mount tube, and they're exactly where I wanted to put my lights anyway. I just used what was already there. No bolting or welding was required...just four total hose clamps from Lowe's that cost me less than $15. Below are pictures of both the driver and passenger side. My truck is lifted about 8" in the back, and I still have to crawl under to actually see the hose clamps. You can see from my earlier pictures in this post that they're not visible otherwise, which was also important to me when I chose to mount them this way.

luckyshotbrooks · March 26, 2019

On 3/22/2019 at 7:54 AM, RyF said:

The part number for the harness is Curt #56070. You can find it on eBay for ~$50. It looks like this.

It basically acts as an extension cord with an extra plug for guys who want to put a fifth wheel plug in the bed of their trucks. Instead, you'll just be using that extra round 7-pin for reverse lighting. You have to use the round 7-pin. I tried the flat 4-pin model first, because it's cheaper. It doesn't have a dedicated reverse light wire, so it wouldn't work.

To hook it up, all you have to do is lower your spare to give yourself some working room. Unplug the factory harness that's plugged in directly behind the bumper. Plug the Curt adapter in where the factory plug was, then plug the factory harness into that Curt adapter.

If you did nothing else from this point, all of your lights would work correctly, and your trailer harness will still work correctly as well. You'll just have an extra round 7-pin plug available for whatever you need it for. Tap your off-road lighting into this portion of the harness, and they'll automatically come on anytime you put the truck in reverse. I tow frequently, and this setup has worked for me for almost a year now.

Thanks for the reply and pictures. Gonna help me out quite a bit. One last question. Did you use the negative in the harness or somewhere on the frame?

RyF · March 27, 2019

8 hours ago, luckyshotbrooks said:

Thanks for the reply and pictures. Gonna help me out quite a bit. One last question. Did you use the negative in the harness or somewhere on the frame?

Harness