Back-up Lights on the trailer

[AlexJet]

As I'm about to finish all mechanical work on building an expedition trailer and start wiring portion of it, I come up with an idea of using flood light as my back-up light on the trailer. Those lights are rigid enough to withstand the abuse trailer will have and give an option of lighting up the terrain behicnd the trailer when I back it up.
Regarding all this I have a question Toyota can't answer me. I do drive 2005 4Runner, but this may be answered by other members driving other vehicles as well. My OEM 7-way connector has back-up light wire as well as 12v power wire. Would back-up wire in my original trailer harness hold up for 2 55W bulbs in back-up lights? How much would that wire hold? How much is 12v power wire designed to hold? I think I saw only 1 fuse for trailer harnes in my fuse block if I'm not mistaken as it was a long time ago when I was checking this out.
ANy thoughts, ideas and opinions will be very much appreciated as I'm about to start wire it up within a day or two.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

I wouldn't. The amount of power a 12V wire can take is dependent on the gauge. That reverse wire is probably 14ga, which could handle 110W, but I doubt the circuit is really intended for that.

Simply use that wire to fire a relay to run those lights from the on-board battery.

 

[gaberelli]

what about going with LED's and saving on the wattage?

 

[highlandercj-7]

That's what I would do too, just as Rob said use the reverse light wire to power a relay and run the back up light s off the on board battery. Then use the 12v power wire to charge the battery. If you do not have a on board battery then I'd use the heavy 12v wire to power the reverse lights and the lighter wire to power the relay. The heavy 12v wire in the factory harness is usualy a 10 guage wire and that's plenty to run the twin 55w lights.

Gaberelli, that's the ticket! LED's would work better.

 

[4x4mike]

Depends on the gague of the wire and the length of the wire. If I were you I'd use leds anyway. They are low draw and you can leave them on with the vehicle off while loading the trailer, etc and not sorry about draining the battery.

 

[ExpoMike]

Simply use that wire to fire a relay to run those lights from the on-board battery.

Side benefit is that you could put a switch on the trailer and be able to control the lights completely independant of if the truck was hooked up or not. Could be helpful at times. This is in addition of the truck reverse controlling the lights too.

 

[Martyn]

Alex, this is what you need http://www.adventuretrailers.com/12volt_solar.html the LED work light and Off-Road reverse light. 1.2 amp draw, run 14 or 16 gauge wire.

As Mike said you can run it as a reverse light or work light by adding a switch.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Side benefit is that you could put a switch on the trailer and be able to control the lights completely independant of if the truck was hooked up or not. Could be helpful at times. This is in addition of the truck reverse controlling the lights too.

That's sort of what I do. Well, not really I guess. I have reverse lights, and work lights.

My work lights have a switch right on them, and are wired to the battery. My reverse lights are just little signal lights, built into my tail light housings. Those run off the reverse signal. If I'm going to back up, the signal lights come on. If it's dark and I have to back up, my trailer is so big, I need to get out and survey the situation anyway, so they I switch on the work light. Simple as that.

My work lights are mounted at the far back left corner, and the far front right corner. As such, I can use them to illuminate the rear, front, or either side as required. In fact, the front light can be swivelled out so that it can actually illuminate backwards and to the right, while the rear light can go back and to the left. I can't see straight back anyway.

 

[AlexJet]

Alex, this is what you need http://www.adventuretrailers.com/12volt_solar.html the LED work light and Off-Road reverse light. 1.2 amp draw, run 14 or 16 gauge wire.

As Mike said you can run it as a reverse light or work light by adding a switch.

Wow, those are quiet expensive...

 

[AlexJet]

That's what I would do too, just as Rob said use the reverse light wire to power a relay and run the back up light s off the on board battery. Then use the 12v power wire to charge the battery. If you do not have a on board battery then I'd use the heavy 12v wire to power the reverse lights and the lighter wire to power the relay. The heavy 12v wire in the factory harness is usualy a 10 guage wire and that's plenty to run the twin 55w lights.

Gaberelli, that's the ticket! LED's would work better.

I thought that Back-Up wire may not hold it, but from another point what it for? If you tow a camper which has back-up lights, would they be powered by this wire or through some sort of an additional circuit.
I had 2 back-up ideas for wiring if streight forward wouldn't work.
- First, run a relay and power the light from 12v power wire (as you mentioned, thank you for confirming my idea)
- Get installed LED bulb into the flood light housing and run it streight from the Back-up wire. Autolumination has H3 LED bulbs (36SMT LEDs - $19.99).

Mainly I was inteded of using it when backing-up, so they will be engaged when truck in Reverse. Good point having them on the switch. This means then in this case they would need to be run with 12v power wire and have 2 circuits (back-up and switch) operated. Will need to think elctric diagram which will work without blowing the back-up circuit (my friend did it, don't know why as he only told me about it, never saw the truck).

So generally speaking 110w is too much for 14ga...?? I was under impression that 10ga wire handle 30-35Amps, 14ga -25Amps, 16ga - 15-20Amps, 18ga - 10Amps. Am I missing something?

 

[Martyn]

Wow, those are quiet expensive...

Alex

As you well know we only deal in high quality products which we pains takingly test to make sure that they will perform in the harsh environments we subject them to.

Most of the time high quality durable products have a corresponding price tag.

As a consumer you need to balance many factors. In this case you have to balance the cost of LED lights against installing two 55 watt incandescing lights with all the relays, increased gauge wire, and power consumption.

AT as a company made a decision to go with LED light about 5 years ago, the decision was based on the power draw, their durability off road, the quality of the light, and the ease of installation. We then selected exceptional product made by exception companies. This was all balanced against the cost.

As you can see "Wow, those are quiet expensive..." is a huge over simplification.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

14 gauge will handle that power. That's not really the issue. I'm more concerned with the wiring on the truck side. If you put the relay on the truck, switched from the reverse lights, and powered from a fat battery wire, less of an issue.

Also, don't even think about putting that much power through the prong of a standard 4 or 5 pin trailer connector. A 7 lug RV connector, probably fine.

 

[AlexJet]

Alex

As you well know we only deal in high quality products which we pains takingly test to make sure that they will perform in the harsh environments we subject them to.

Most of the time high quality durable products have a corresponding price tag.

As a consumer you need to balance many factors. In this case you have to balance the cost of LED lights against installing two 55 watt incandescing lights with all the relays, increased gauge wire, and power consumption.

AT as a company made a decision to go with LED light about 5 years ago, the decision was based on the power draw, their durability off road, the quality of the light, and the ease of installation. We then selected exceptional product made by exception companies. This was all balanced against the cost.

As you can see "Wow, those are quiet expensive..." is a huge over simplification.

I understand, I was more referring to solar panels....
I think LEDs are better and I agree with you.

 

[AlexJet]

14 gauge will handle that power. That's not really the issue. I'm more concerned with the wiring on the truck side. If you put the relay on the truck, switched from the reverse lights, and powered from a fat battery wire, less of an issue.

Also, don't even think about putting that much power through the prong of a standard 4 or 5 pin trailer connector. A 7 lug RV connector, probably fine.

I have 7-way truck end and bought and will do 7-way trailer connector as well as 16 ga wire (6 boxes of different colors 100ft each), so 4 pin is not for me anyway.
BTW, all the lights I put on it are LED.

 

[Titanpat57]

I made my own using LED pods and incorporated them with the same housing as the turn/stop light. They turn on from inside the trailer and work pretty good.

As far as Martyn's goodies....your never dissappointed in quality.

Here's a few pics. These don't get off road usage so I couldn't tell what type of pounding their capable of sustaining. I did convert two of my flashlights to them and I beat those to hell...so far so good.

Product link http://www.oznium.com/high-intensity-led-floodlight