Reverse or Back-up lights

[Wimperdink]

It should always pass through a relay activated solely from the TV ignition,
Good Luck

I know I'm being nitpicky but since you mentioned it.... Lets use an accessory wire at the ignition instead of an ignition wire so that when your cranking the engine its not trying to send a pile of energy to a depleted TD battery and trying to start your car at the same time.

[bobhenry]

Well that was fun wasn't it boys !

I guess I just march to a different drummer. I wired my mini driving lights into my tail lights. The switch is right behind the tire on the drivers side underneth in a weatherproof switch box. The right light points to the back side of the left tire and the left light points to the back of the right tire. My thoughts were if an on the road breakdown occured The wheels would be back lit well enough to allow on the road repairs. If I arrive to camp after dark I generally walk back and look over the site before backing in to inspect the lay of the land. Low branches broken bottles or an errant tent stake in a tire are a bummer and the soft undercarriage glow illuminates the camping site well enough to inspect and to navigate into my site without blasting the entire campground with an explosion of light.

[dh]

Hmm, I picked up some white lights off the side of an ambulance at a heavy truck salvage yard a while back. I planned on using them in the galley, but they draw a lot of amps (and put out a lot of light). I just might have to consider using them for back up lights.

[86bigred]

the on and off toggle switch does this for me. and I did wire it to a assory that the key kills.

SLow.

i did the same thing on my truck, and it's wired the same on my motorhome from the factory the same way.

also gm trucks trailer battery charge line is off the battery post at the fuse box under the hood, and is constantly hot, key on or off.

[Mukilteo]

Installed a pair of halogen driving lights for backup lights this last weekend. Wired them to the center pin of my 7 pin connector. They light up whenever I put it in reverse.

[8ball_99]

I added back up lights to the back of my cargo trailer camper.. Seems strange most trailers don't come with them
I also connected the back up lights to a wall switch in the trailer so I can turn them on anytime I want.. I used relays between both the truck and the wall switch so my inside lights dont' come on with the back up lights. Also to keep the truck back lights from coming one when I flip the switch..

As far as the charging thing goes.. My truck was wired from the factory with both a 4way and 7way plug.. The charging wire on the 7way disconnects when the key is off in the truck. This is pretty standard. My family owned an RV business for 25 years that closed in 1996.. When we wired a 7 way plug we installed a relay so the TV battery was disconnected from the trailers battery. Some people with larger trucks running two batteries would get us to run the charge wire from their second battery which had an isolator between it and the main.. This allowed the trailer to pull off their reserve battery with out effecting the starting battery.

Why would you no just install a relay if you were wiring the TV from scratch? Its just a switch you don't have to flip....

[aggie79]

I haven't installed them, but I plan to add backup lights. Rather than powering them from the TV (through the trailer connection) I plan to power them from the battery in the TD. The switch for the backup lights will be inside my tongue box. Of course, this means that I'll have to exit the TV to switch on the backup lights, but I don't see this as a great hassle.

[Corwin C]

I haven't installed them, but I plan to add backup lights. Rather than powering them from the TV (through the trailer connection) I plan to power them from the battery in the TD. The switch for the backup lights will be inside my tongue box. Of course, this means that I'll have to exit the TV to switch on the backup lights, but I don't see this as a great hassle.

I had a similar idea. Backup lights will illuminate all around the trailer and will have a switch that changes from the TV to the on board battery so they can be used for campsite area lighting as well.

[8ball_99]

I haven't installed them, but I plan to add backup lights. Rather than powering them from the TV (through the trailer connection) I plan to power them from the battery in the TD. The switch for the backup lights will be inside my tongue box. Of course, this means that I'll have to exit the TV to switch on the backup lights, but I don't see this as a great hassle.

I had a similar idea. Backup lights will illuminate all around the trailer and will have a switch that changes from the TV to the on board battery so they can be used for campsite area lighting as well.

You guys did see my post right? You can have the lights run on both the plug from your TV and your trailers on board battery. You just use a relay between the lights and the trailers plug. You also use a relay between the light switch in the trailer and the lights.. This lets you use your back up lights as porch lights or they will come on anytime you back up.. The Relays keeps the TV and trailer separate. As in you flip the switch in the trailer your TV lights won't come on. Or if you back up your other lights in the trailer won't come on..

[Yota Bill]

Slow, I think you missed the point of 8ball_99's post. A person could mount a couple of lights under thier trailer, to the rear and/or to the side, then mount a relay on the trailer, fed off of the trailers battery, and triggered by both a toggle switch on the trailer, and thier TV's reverse lights, so the lights will perform both of the functions of reverse lights, and general lighting for thier campsite, without needing to run a completely seperate system. Does not look as if he was sayng anyone had to do it this way.
Its a simple circuit to add, can easily be retrofitted onto existing trailers, and serves more then one purpose. It is a good way to set this up, if someone did not want to run multiple systems to do these jobs.

[rowerwet]

I got some LED driving lights on clearance at wallyworld $10, I plan on a switch wired to the tail lights also. nice to know from here it will work

[Wobbly Wheels]

Just a thought, but you may want to check your local regs regarding backup lights - they aren't legal on trailers here (BC, though it may be federal) and rear-facing white lights in general may be illuminated ONLY when in reverse gear.
A porch light on the back wall ought to be fine so long as it can't be activated from the TV.

At the risk of inflaming the discussion...if one wanted to charge the toad's battery from the TV, one could use an isolator made specifically for that job. They are cheap (~$50) and provide diode protection to prevent the batteries from backfeeding each other or the charging system...all without requiring any input from the driver or active switching of any kind.
They are standard equipment on boats with multiple banks and some allow the batteries to be tied together (paralleled) for emergency starts, though in this application I wouldn't try to run charge current from the toad's battery to the starter through a 10 or 12ga wire...

[bdosborn]

At the risk of inflaming the discussion...if one wanted to charge the toad's battery from the TV, one could use an isolator made specifically for that job. They are cheap (~$50) and provide diode protection to prevent the batteries from backfeeding each other or the charging system...all without requiring any input from the driver or active switching of any kind.

The trouble with diode based isolators is there is a 0.7V or so voltage drop through the diode. That added with the voltage drop through the wire all the way back to the trailer battery makes it hard to get a high enough voltage to charge the battery fully. I use a relay based system that has no added voltage drop. It automatically combines when the voltage at either battery is over 13.3V.



Yandina Isolator

Bruce

[glenpinpat]

we just turn on the exterior lights(ones beside the door) no extra wiring involved. we just made sure we installed a light in the back by the galley. all are turned on by toggle switches in the sleeping area. we almost never have to back in when its dark.

[8ball_99]

Just a thought, but you may want to check your local regs regarding backup lights - they aren't legal on trailers here (BC, though it may be federal) and rear-facing white lights in general may be illuminated ONLY when in reverse gear.
A porch light on the back wall ought to be fine so long as it can't be activated from the TV.

I've never heard of white back up lights not being legal on a trailer I know its not legal to have them on while driving down the road, But I can't see why you wouldn't be able to have them activated by the TV when backing the trailer up.. I know the lights I bought are white led trailer back up lights that a local trailer place sells.. They have them installed on a lot of their trailers from the factory. Only reason I have them wired to work as both porch lights and reverse lights is they are low voltage and plenty bright enough to work as rear porch lights so I figured why have two sets of lights to do the same thing..(Light the rear of the trailer). None of my other porch lights come on when backing up just the rear. I have to open the door and flip the switches to turn the others on.