towing light wiring??

alrighty, i'm thinking about hooking up towing lights through the running lights on the cj, but i don't quite feel like crawling underneith it right now to see what all needs diodes in it/ i'm thinkinh every single wire is going to need a diode of some sort, but if anyone knows for sure i'd gladly take the advice.

of course, the only way to know for sure is getting underneith it and starting in on the wiring...

 

I would tie into the harness for the rear tail lights only.
Any feedback thru the t/s switch can be eliminated by unplugging the front lights
simple and easy

 

When I wired my JEEP I used a two position toggle switch which I mounted on the dash, one way its normal and the other way its tow. All you need two do is locate the rear turn signal wires after the come out of the T/S switch. cut them and hook the wires going back to the lights to the middle prongs ot the toggle switch. You then hook the wires from the tow vehicle too either end of the toogle switch and hook the wires from the T/S switch to the other side. For running lights I just hooked into one of the front parking lights. Clear as mud huh. I am avaliable for questions. Side benefit is you can flip the switch and run in stealth mode IE no brake lights. Don't ask me why I would ever use that feature. Mike

 

Mikes idea is a good one
we used to do this set-up for our customers who flat towed
toggle positions were marked "tow" or "drive"

 

I was to cheap to buy that much wire and already had the toggle switchmike

 

As I already have my Jeep wired for the trailer, when I tow just the Jeep, I made a cable that goes from the trailer out connector (a 4 pole round) to the tow vehicle (a 4 pin flat). The only other thing I need to do is unplug the flat wiring harness on the base of the column. Works great for me.

Jay

 

Some PO of my '56 had installed two extra taillights on it, and those were wired separately from the Jeep wiring, directly out to the end of the tow bar to a 4-pin flat connector to plug directly into the tow vehicle. Worked fine, but I'm probably not going to go back that way with it. But, I'm not to that point yet either. Didn't look too bad.

 

the toggle switch sounds liek the way to go... would have never even thoughout of it. just got to find one with two terminals on the back somehow. the other end is going to be housed under the hood in a "project box" and should be long enough to attach to the tow vehicle when stretched out. that's the plan for now, no telling how long it will actually last.

 

The switch I used has only two positions no "off" in the middle. It has six "lugs" on the back to connect wires to. Mike

 

Doc Vern has a cool idea for those of you still 6 volt but flat tow with a 12 volt tow vehicle.

http://www.vernco.com/sparks/id249.htm

 

boyink, thanks for bringing up the double throw, i had to think about it for a little while. at first i thought i'd do it with only a single throw, but there might accidently be a time where something gets fed back into the tow vehicle and it "might" cause something interesting to happen somewhere. i can pretty easily chase wires doen on the cj, but i ain't even going to start trying chasing wires down on anything somewhat new...let alone put something in that might accidently cause a need to find one wire out of 150 or so.

 

Only two diodes required. One in each brake/turnsignal. Splice the diode in these two wires and splice in your tow hraness down stream of it. I've been running this setup for the past couple years and never had a problem with it. Just make sure you get diodes that can handle the load.

 

welp... i did the switch. done in an hour flat. hardest part was opening up google and finding the signal stat wiring diagram from the 3b web-page. soo i'm one more step closer to being able to tow this thing to the woods to have some fun. i might even have enough time to go to tellico in october. the whole out of school/not being able to find a job is giving me tons of free time somehow.

just couldn't find a project box to put everything in at radio shack. might try another one in a little while so i can get everything inside something somewhat water repellent, but for now the wire to the outlet is all zip tied behind the headlight buckets.

thanks again for the switch idea guys. that sure saved alot of frustration (the cj is wired up with cable from power line leftovers... splicing a diode to that stuff woulda been a whole lot of fun.

 

A little late, buttttt.....

Unless your jeep has a self-canceling turn signal switch (ie, turns off after you complete your turn), you don't need any diodes or switches of any kind. Just tie in to the taillight harness like you were wiring a trailer connector. Then when you tow just put the turn signal switch in the left or right position. One of the front turn signals will come on with the corresponding stop/turn light and the park lamps may light (depending on the way the jeep is wired). No feedback will occur. I like to put the turn signal switch in the left position. It gives an indicator that the lights are working that is visible in my side view, especially at night.

 

I hadn't thought about that. I thought you might get some feedback through the flasher, but I guess you wouldn't. The problem I have with this or the DPDT switch is you have to remember to do it. With the diodes, you don't have to remember to do anything, and frankly there's enough to remember when flat towing so I'd just assume keep it simple as possible.