No rear parking lights

[AMatsonIII]

Well this morning started off with backing down my driveway and getting stuck. Gut unstuck with about an hr of shoveling and the help of the wifes Little trailblazer pullin with all its might. (should've got a picture. ) Well on way home tonight lost parking lights on the Flat bed. Front Park lights work fine but rears don't work. All directional reverse and brake lights work.

To dark and cold right now to dig around. Is there a fuse somewhere or am I gonna be on the hunt for a broken wire or connection somewhere in the back. Just looking for some direction to head when i get a chance to look.

 

[HBarlow]

I haven't had any reason to look into the fuse protection on mine but I think the lamps are fused on the cab and chassis not run through some computer that is easily damaged by a short. I may be wrong.

If you packed a lot of snow up under the rear of your flatbed, depending on who wired it and what kind of a job was done, you might have pulled a wire loose or simply blown a fuse if you got snow melting in a wiring harness or conector.

Try looking under the cover of the fuse panel on the driver's side inner fender or check your owner's manual for a list of fused circuits if its too cold or snow too deep outside.

 

[RVTRKN]

Well this morning started off with backing down my driveway and getting stuck. Gut unstuck with about an hr of shoveling and the help of the wifes Little trailblazer pullin with all its might. (should've got a picture. ) Well on way home tonight lost parking lights on the Flat bed. Front Park lights work fine but rears don't work. All directional reverse and brake lights work.

To dark and cold right now to dig around. Is there a fuse somewhere or am I gonna be on the hunt for a broken wire or connection somewhere in the back. Just looking for some direction to head when i get a chance to look.

Been into mine for a weird no left turn lite with the EVIC indicating problem. Turned out to be the way the bed was wired, company used the frame as ground rather than the ground from the plugs. It was an intermittent problem and was figured out when the wiring harness failed and I had to replace the whole harness due to not being able to locate the open wire location. The company was good about it and paid for all of my material. When I rewired it was when I found the reason. I reported it to them because my truck was not the only Dodge with the problem. You will probably find a wire open in the rear of the bed. Good luck with your lites.

 

[AMatsonIII]

Thanks for the info. Just looked under the bed and all the wires lead back to the rear of the frame. It is pouring and everything is covered with snow so I will have to get it into my buddys garage to thaw. Doesn't look like much fun though. Looks like the harness is put together above the gas tank and there aint much room to reach in there

 

[RVTRKN]

Hopefully the wiring harness side of the plug is still there. They cut out both sides (entire plug) to wire up my bed. I don't understand why they did that, it would of made my trouble shooting job a lot easier. I wired in a connector block that seals the terminals from the weather, so if trouble shooting is needed in the future, I have all the terminal's in front of me. And you are right about the tank, but they should be running in the cross member channel just behind it, and the plugs they removed would of sit just next to the frame on the outside of your frame for each side. I would start with that and locate these plugs and check for voltage at the pins first to iliminate the wiring harness of being your problem. Also you should have the 7 pin connector harness, if you have the Tow Package option.

 

[HBarlow]

My C&C was delivered with the lighting harness run out to the end of the driver's side frame rail and teminated with no connectors, simply wire stubs coated with rubber or plastic tips to prevent shorts to the frame and the bundle tied back and secured to the frame rail. C&Cs normally have no connectors because aftermarket bodiees would not be equipped with matching connectors.

You should be able to search the Ram Body Builder Guide on the Ram website for color code of the wires.

My bed installer tied the bed lights directly into the factory wiring harness at the end of the frame rail. You are correct, there is not a lot of space to work in that area but I think when you can get your truck into a heated shop and the packed snow and ice has drained out you should be able to reach what you need from the left rear corner of the bed or from underneath if it is a full skirt bed.

 

[Wiredawg]

Could be a fuse... I wired extra lights and shorted one out. Had fuse out under hood. Check there first. Hopfully no shorts on the bed.



Let us know what you find.



Wiredawg

 

[AMatsonIII]

Well fixed the problem. Ended up being a corroded connection on the Harness to body connection. Didn't get into really figuring how they wired it, thats for a warmer day when I/m not sitting in 6" of snow. Made a Temporary connection until I can get the right connector but at least all my lights work now. Thanks for all the info.



Alex

 

[RVTRKN]

Was it a ground wire connection, or where the harness goes through the frame?

 

[AMatsonIII]

My problem was actually where they Connected a plug to the factory wiring harness. The plug connects all the light on the bed. The connection between the factory harness and the Bed harness plug for the Lights was the problem. It was actually pretty simple. Thankfully the Kept all the extra wiring from the factory harness, insteaad of cutting it off. an just had it tied up nice and neat. I was able to reach up and cut the ties and pull the harness out and Check it. If it was shortened by about six inches I would have had to Pull the bed off the truck or drop the fuel tank. Where was never a factory "connector" on the harness it was dead ended at the factory with Sealed wire ends. I am definitely thinking of pulling the bed off in the spring and just cleaning the wiring up a little. Not bad but would prefer it to be a little better.

 

[RVTRKN]

Thankfully the Kept all the extra wiring from the factory harness, insteaad of cutting it off. .

Thats what happened to mine, and instead of using the ground from the harness they went strait to the frame with the ground. On my trip back to Socal after the install, I kept getting an error message on the EVIC, due mostly to weather, and when I called them, they told me mine was not the first Dodge to have the problem. It was weird, because the left turn signal worked, but I was getting the message anyway. So when their cheap wire harness failed, and Dodge confirmed it was not the truck wiring, it forced me to look for the open wire, and I found the cheap setup, and wire. So I just gutted it and did it right with quality wire, and thats when I found the plugs were cut out, and what I did, was to solder the connections back together then doubled the shrink tube to keep them from the weather. Thats when I decided to add the Connecting Box thats sealed, where they are now accessible. When I get a chance I'll post a picture of the Box.

 

[AMatsonIII]

the connections on my truck were aftermarket. Reading the Dodge body builder website the factory harness is just deadended on the rear cross member with Wire ends that are rubber coated and heat shrunk. Believe there was never a factory connection there. It would be nice if they had a factory connection and then gave you the other end to attach to body of your choice.

 

[RVTRKN]

There were two, four wire connectors (male and female) used to connect the temporary running/brakes lites when purchased, that were attached to the vehicle from the Factory. The 7 pin connector was like you described and I had them install two connectors, one on the bed, and one on the bumper. They cut the four pin plugs out, on each side. I have the lite side of the plugs, they left those in the Vehicle when they were done. Maybe you purchased yours with the bed already installed?



My point is, they should of used the lite side of the plugs as pigtails, that way all you had to do was to unplug them when trouble shooting.



here are some pics, the first has the cover off and the other sealed

 

[AMatsonIII]

That is a great set up where did you pick that up cause would be interested in putting one on my truck definitely cleans things up.

 

[RVTRKN]

Welcome to Phillips Industries





Click on "catalog"

Look up Pg 24, its on the top right of the page.



Phillips 800-423-4512

Clear Vu

#15-961



I called the 800 number, and part number still good, Hope this helps.

 

[AMatsonIII]

Thanks. Another place to spend my money

Alex