My fiancee has a 2017 Supercrew. We just bought a used ARE camper shell for it. Does anyone know the correct place to hook up the wiring so that the third brake light and interior dome light will work? The shell has a four wire harness that is spliced into a three wire plug that has another plug connected to it that used to go to where ever it was hooked up on the previous owner's truck. He cut the wiring to the plug when he sold the truck and doesn't know where the camper shell place had it hooked up to.

I found some reference to a pink/white wire somewhere behind the driver's side kick panel for the brake light but am not sure where it's at. Where would the power for the dome light come from?

Thanks for any help on this.

 

Here are some pictures of the harness coming off of the camper shell.

 

 

Hello, wtd. I'm assuming your bed cap dome light has an on/off switch and you want to control it there? Mine has this and my dome light has the electrical feed connected directly to the battery with a small inline fuse. The wire was simply run under the truck along the frame up into the engine compartment.

The high brake light feed can be spliced into the brake light wiring at the rear of the truck. If you have a trailer tow plug, one of those wires can be used.

The third wire in your setup is a common ground, which can be attached to the truck frame or any ground wire near the rear of the truck.

I'm sorry I can't tell you which wire is which, but if you have a multi-meter, you can figure that out.

- Jack

 

Thanks Jack for the reply. Yes, the dome light has it's own on and off switch at the light. I have heard that hooking the brake light into the rear brake wiring on the 15+ trucks will mess things up but I don't know if that is true.

 

I don't see why adding the bed cap brake light to the truck's brake light circuit should be a problem at all. If your truck has at least the four-pin trailer electrical connector you could simply plug it in there, using a matching plug of course that is installed on your bed cap wiring. Personally, I'd hardwire it to the truck's brake light circuit. Mine is done that way, but of course I have a 2014 truck.

You of course would NOT connect the dome light to the brake light circuit.

- Jack

 

From what I've found, it seems like the 14 models had dedicated wires for the brake light and for the dome light under the hood on the driver's side but that the 15+ trucks do not have these wires.

 

I don't think there's ANY "dedicated" wiring for a bed cap dome light in any F150. I know my bed cap light is wired to the battery.

You MAY be thinking of the wiring to the high mounted center brake light in the back of the cab when you speak of the wiring "on the driver's side". You COULD splice your bed cap brake light into such a wire, but it would be more convenient to splice it into the wiring at the rear of the bed, near the truck's left or right brake lights.

- Jack

 

When they put the ARE topper on my 05 the wires came down at the front of the bed on the driver's side and they tapped into a junction under the driver's side door which supplied power for the third brake light and interior topper light. I added under bed led lights later and ran a hot wire to the battery with a switch at the back of the bed.

 

Here is the thread that I found that references dedicated wiring that can be used for a camper shell on a previous generation of truck like yours.
https://www.f150forum.com/f38/wiring...e-dome-252045/

 

I added a Putco light bar under the tailgate and wired it myself. I tapped into the wiring that goes to the 7-blade trailer plug and it works just the way it's supposed to. The turn signal function mimics the truck's turn signals, the brake lights are steady on whenever I apply the brakes and don't come on with the turn signals and the backup light function works with the backup lights.

I think you have to be careful which wire you choose at the rear of the truck to connect the brake light. It's pretty clear you want the one that is live only when the brakes are applied. Tapping into a wire at the rear of a tail light would risk having it mimic a turn signal. Since the truck's brake lights don't blink when the brakes are applied, and since both lights illuminate, there is clearly a dedicated brake light wire back there somewhere.

- Jack

 

I have not had time to look into this more closely. I guess it's not a deal breaker if I don't get this stuff hooked up. She hardly drives this truck anyway. It only has 4,200 miles and she bought it in July of 2017.

 

You need to go in to the left kickpanel and pick up the signal for the brake lights. Unfortunately, I do not remember the wire color and I am not about to tear my truck apart to find out. An internet search will help you find the wire color. Then out through the firewall boot and down the left frame rail and up with the taillight wire harness. If you do not pick it up in the left foot well you will have the shell light flashing with the turn signals and get an intermittent light fault warning.

 

Your thread and my reply got me thinking about light in my ARE shell. I decided that 3 LED battery powered puck lights with a remote would be the easiest way to go. I used Velcro to stick one on to the carpet lining on the interior of the shell just inside the hatch on each side and then used double-sided tape to attach the third on top of the dogs kennel. I then velcroed the remote on to the carpet just above the left side puck light. They are also 3 color so I run them red so as not to interfere with my night vision. Cheap and easy because I am sick of crawling around under my truck at 66 years old.