I have the White Knight system and it works well. Haven't used it while hooked to a trailer yet so not sure how much it would shine along the sides but it's bright enough I would think a lot of light would shine out from underneath.

 

I wired my backup lights on my 03 Ranger on both the hidden hitch and the back bumper of the trailer. That way I could control both with a switch under the dash. I used the solenoid switched battery charging line to power the lights. 30 amps is too big of a fuse....The formula is watts/volts=amps...so 110 watts (2 55 watt lights) / 12 volts = 9.2 amps....I usually round up 10-20% so a 15 amp fuse will do fine.

 

Got the lights in the other day and they came with a 15A fuse along with 16g wire.......I have both 16g & 14g laying around....

Run the 14g...bigger is better

Run the 16g....what the lights came with

(The wire that came with them is not long enough so I will have to make it longer anyway....)

which should I use?


Thanks Again!

Josh

 

I would definitely "power" the lights through 14 gauge wire. The 16 gauge would be fine for a relay, which I seem to remember you were going to use as a controller.

#16 is actually OK for 110 watts (about 9.2 amps), but the internal resistance will degrade the available power a wee bit. I tend to like to "over-engineer" power supply wires anyway, just to be well under the limit.

- Jack

 

Do i do anything with the 87a on the relay or should i just tie it off?

 

I agree with JackandJanet and because there is a little more wear and tear at the back of the truck the heavier gauge wouldn't hurt for durability either....You don't need the 87a, That is the normally closed circuit for the relay as opposed to the normally open 87 that you and the ignition will control.

 

mine are also 55w each, but they are useless mounted on bumper because all they do is light up front of trailer (at least with mine) which reflects right back at me. i tried aiming them under the trailer but then all i saw was the ground on either side between trailer and truck (which is also useless, because i want to see behind the trailer)

 

ahh ok, it just looks like a carry on brand trailer, which is what tractor supply sells. they make pretty damn nice trailers for the price.

 

With a flatbed trailer having the lights on the truck will probably work fine....I tow a camper and like KDracing says, All you can see behind you is a bright reflection of your trailer. I wired them to control both the hitch lights and the trailers backup lights individually....When I back up to the trailer I use the lights on the hitch of my truck, when I'm hitched and backing the trailer then I turn on the trailers backup lights

 

I know some of you said to let you know the out come of the install....here you go.....https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=332065

I am very pleased with them and they do light of the side of the trailer really good...kind of deceiving in the pictures.

 

Nice work, BlackJack! Looks to me like you got exactly what you needed.

I've seen these same lights in PepBoys, if anyone else wants to try them. I bought them, then decided I didn't want to drill the bumper (couldn't find a better place for them), so I returned them. Maybe I'll have to give them another try!

And, my complements on a great writeup! You've put an "expert" level how-to on this forum! Thanks for going to all the trouble!

- Jack

 

Thanks!

I hope that it will be able to help others that are looking to do the same/similar thing.