License plate light Disable while In Reverse (DIR)

Do you want to confirm the location and type of connectors is a match? Like pretend you have something ready to install and walk through it as if you had it in your hands?

https://www.tundras.com/threads/disable-in-reverse-dir-harnesses.93350/#post-2355177

If your 2012 looks good to go we can do a try and then if it's a no-go we can probably find a new buyer at a reduced price you could re-sell to? My Tundra is a first gen 2002 so it's a different story on all the connectors. I'm not sure at all about 2007-2013, not sure if those trucks have cameras, don't have access to one, etc.

As far as demand goes, it's been strange times on the Tacoma side. There was an initial flurry of interest which had me scrambling to build them. Now it's crickets b/c most people are buying the $7 stick-on-shroud option. Some of the cost of these harnesses is in the 5 connectors and sealed relay. I've actually been waiting for 4 months on a 400 relay order which just hit my credit card this week.

A large chunk of the cost is the labor to build them. All of which could be reduced by various means but then it becomes less hobby and more business. I actively decided that I want low volume as this is my creative outlet and it's total overkill of a not-very-significant problem. In other words, I only want to build for like minded enthusiasts who, like myself, enjoy indulging in a bit of overkill.

I went as far as getting a sample from a factory for the Tacoma DIR harness and I rejected it, it didn't feel like something I wanted to be providing to others, it felt like something cheap and I'm not doing this stuff to make an extra dollar or two.

Honestly, at this point in time, I'm behind on harnesses for people just about every night and I'd really prefer to slow everything down a bit. But at the same time I feel immense satisfaction whenever someone is really stoked on a unique niche product which isn't available on the open market.

Long story short, I don't think I will be selling these in bulk.

 

I was just going to DIY one myself with a 5-pin and some quick splices. But I like the look of yours better.
Just curious, when you hook into the signal wire for the relay, does that have to go to ground, or is it just a through circuit that when powered, will flip the 87a pin off?

 

Yeah, it's a NC setup so when reverse is on, the coil is energized and the relay flips 30 to 87 instead of 87a. The rest of the time the plate lights go through 30 to 87a.

The DIY thread for the Tacoma DIR gets into some of the details and might help, aside from sourcing connectors since those connectors are specific to 3rd gen Tacoma.

While an unsealed relay can be rather cheap, obtaining the 2 and 8 position connectors is a little tricky. https://www.corsa-technic.com/ is where I get them. I can dig up the part numbers for you if you like. But if you don't have a crimper, the DIY route is likely to be more expensive (it's also more fun) due to sourcing all the parts and tools.

 

DIR harness made the trip from Cali to the middle of nowhere Missouri. Looking forward to getting it on the truck, especially since the sun is pretty much gone by 1630 round here. About 45° right now, so I’ll have to get it squared away sometime this weekend. Thanks for the quick turnaround @daveeasa

 

Everyone will have to wait on my ‘21 review. Whole rear end damaged thanks to jerk wafer hitting me at 25mph. Hoping body shop will install during repairs.

 

Sorry to hear about that one

FWIW, the install is cake, but if you really trust your body shop they should be able to handle it. It's just non-OEM and they might get confused by that? I'd probably print out the directions and photos from Johnny's thread to give to them. I'd mostly be worried that they would throw it out as "extra parts".

 

What's the status of this harness being made for the first gen? I would love to get one for my 2003.

 

@shifty` is responsible for user acceptance testing.

My truck is at my best friend (mechanic) @Speed Freek 's.

If/when I steal it back (aka pay for it) I can test out the duplicate I made. But I don't have a functional backup camera yet b/c I haven't finished that harness nor captured the reverse trigger yet. My list of mods > free time.

 

What's the status of this harness being made for the first gen? I would love to get one for my 2003.

Got it. That sounds good. I'll keep an eye out for when this is ready. Thanks for the quick response.

 

If you want to steal UAT rights from him, I’m game. But I’d probably rather have full confirmation of the spec before making a bunch.

 

Sorry Dave, I expected to get this done during holiday break. Family in town made it virtually impossible.

Then the 8yo decided to fall running up the porch steps and took the corner of the top step to the face, which landed us in an ER at the children's hospital waiting 5 hours to get some films and make sure nothing was fractured.

Life is trying to kick my ass here lately.

 

Solid digger!

Install time should be like dominos pizza delivery time really. But with our plan to drill maybe that changes. You could drill small and use a zip tie to secure the relay for simplicity perhaps. And I’m sure you have real weather to contend with. Out here it’s 80 and sunny with a nice cool marine layer half the day.

 

Ouch @shifty` that's a rough day. But hopefully nothing broken.
I can understand the chaos of the holidays. I just took 3 flights to visit my family in Alabama; 2 flights to visit my wife's family in Pennsylvania; and 2 flights to get home. All in 7 days. All that to say, no worries if it takes a couple more days before you get to it.

 

No obvious breaks. Doc said zygomatic fractures are super rare. More common to see orbital fractures, but not with a shot like this.

Dave, I can probably pop this in w/o drilling. I'm taking a 'mental health' day on Friday, I can feel myself getting sicker by the minute *cough, cough*. I'll work to get it done then, just a simple plug n play to test and confirm.

 

The confirm is mostly about lengths and routing. Photos for others to follow your path. You're like the lead climber on Everest, only it's more like Whitney. Just walk up and back down safely and leave some footprints.

Thanks dude. Friday is a good day to play with trucks.

 

My first post on the forum is to order your part.
I am pretty excited to nix the reverse glare at night so thanks for making this part.
Cheers. NW_DR

 

Small write-up, and Dave I'll contact you separately with some thoughts. This was literally a 10 minute easy-peasy install, had I not been taking pics, and not having any directions suggesting how/what/where.

I also tossed this write-up together in like 20 minutes, if anyone doesn't like it, I have a salad you can toss. Ligma.

This is the DIR kit, shown with all accessories, and a custom/optional backup camera power/ground wire. Super-well put together, proper crimps, waterproof OEM-compatible connectors, I'm a stickler and have zero complaints. Backup cam extension has the yellow waterproof seal and comes with a pigtail to snap on, this feeds power to the camera only while in reverse. Not good if you want to have anytime-reverse-cam. I don't want that. I want simplified wiring out back.

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There's only 2 bolts to remove for this install, and 4 screws. Start by dropping the tailgate and popping off the (2) 10mm bolts holding the taillight housing in place. Pull the light housing towards you while rotating slightly clockwise to pop it out.

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Inside the taillight cavity is where you'll store the relay, i.e. the electro-mechanical brains of this operation. Something you should know about me: I have issues with commitment, so I zip-tied this for the sake of a quick install and because I hate drilling holes in my vehicles when it's not 100% required. Those who don't mind drilling should drill the tab where the star is. I'm waiting on a part to arrive, same piece used to hold ambient temperature sensors in the front grill. It's a toothed clip that slides over sheet metal and provides a drillable tab to mount things on.

Anyway, (1) mount the base relay in this cavity somewhere behind that edge the star is on. Then (2) drop all the wires through the bottom pocket hole, and (3) you'll probably want to zip-tie or electrical tape the DIR wires to the factory loom, and some folks may even want to install the DIR wires in some loom.

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Technically you can bolt the tail light back up after this step, assuming you have no other wiring to do.

Go under the rear corner. where you dropped the wires through. Pop off the rear combo connector - you'll see a black arrow-shaped tip on the other side of the sheetmetal from it - squeeze the arrow tip together and the loom/harness clip will pop free. You'll see why we're doing this step in a sec.

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This next step may be the most complicated out of this job, seriously. (1) separate the factory harness, then plug the DIR harness in-line between the two halves. Next you'll (2) separate the black wire loom body clip from the OEM connector and move it to the matching DIR connector. I highlighted the camera power plug here. Ignore for now.

Now, about that little black wire loom body clip. If you do not listen and choose not to move that over, your wires are going to look jankety af. By moving it, the factory connector will move towards the bottom of the tail light pocket, where it can be tucked and zipped out of the way.

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First off, (1) use that black loom harness clip to attach the new DIR connector to the body. This will reduce stress on the factory loom to the left, and again, notice how neatly it tucks the OEM combo connector to the side. Next, and I know the extra wires aren't as visible here, the green arrow is pointing at them... lift those up, and route them inside the factory loom, or zip-tied along the factory harness, over to the tag lights. I'm personally going to apply a dedicated loom on mine when I install my backup cam.

If you have the optional backup cam option, you may want to route that now (3). Zip-tie as you go if you don't plan to loom your wires. I can't recommend using loom enough. You want to keep the elements off things as much as possible - there's a reason the manufacturer uses loom. I also recommend: Go turn on your headlights and confirm the tag lights light up. just a sanity check to make sure you didn't connect anything incorrectly, and all harnesses are firmly seated.

After that, we need to remove the license plate trim, outlined in green here. To do that, we first take off the license plate, then the tag light housings and unplug their connectors, NOT the light bulb, but the actual power connector. To separate the power connector, there's a small plastic tab to lift up to separate the tag light connector from the light bulb holder. Work carefully, they're get cemented together after a few weeks, even in my mild climate, and the plastics can be brittle.

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With the tag and tag lights pulled out, get back under the truck, squeeze the top pieces of your license plate trim and push up to get the plastic cover off the bumper. There are the four shown here, and you'll find two more at the bottom tier of the bumper. You'll see in the pic to follow.

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Literally, once you pop those connectors up, get back up (1) and pop the cover off. Notice the two square notches above the bolt heads on my bumper, that's where those other two clips were holding the bumper license plate trim on. Pull the DIR tag light bypass wires through, it doesn't matter which goes which T-end of the DIR connectors go to which tag light.

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(1) Plug in the T-end of the DIR wire harness intercepts to the factory tag light harness; it's a 1-way deal, you can't mess this up. You'll want to (2) zip tie or tape the DIR bypass wires to their respective tag light OEM looms so they're generally straight and even, trust me, this'll make things easier later when you need to reinstall the bumper trim on!

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Reinstall the bumper trim now, I recommend putting it in roughly the correct position, pull your cables through the holes, then slowly and carefully snap the trim piece back in its holes.

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Now ... turn your headlights on to confirm the tag lights turn on, confirm the tag lights are working. You shouldn't need your keys to do this. Other steps will require it.
If the tag lights don't turn on, assuming you tested the tag lights after adjusting combo connector in the step above, you know it was something you didn't connect firmly at this step, you can always pop the tag light out and confirm the connectors are attached completely.

If the tag lights light up as expected, reinstall the license plate and tag lights - you're all done!

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You need keys now. Get in the cab. Turn the lights on. Set the parking brake. Turn the keys to the ACC position, press the brake down and shift into Reverse. If your truck won't shift without starting, start the truck with brake pedal depressed, shift into reverse, shut the truck off, then return the key to ACC while still in reverse.

Walk to the back of the truck. As you see here, the reverse lights should be ON, tag lights should be OFF. This works because of the relay in the taillight pocket - when that relay is energized by the reverse light feed, it turns off the lights using the intercept feed you wired to the plate lights. If you find your tag lights are still on, contact the manufacturer

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Now you need to represent! Install your sticker and let everyone know your truck is technologically better than theirs.

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Last but not least, put everything away and pour yourself a beer, or whatever the hell you drink. I personally wanted one of Nashville's finest. Bearded Iris makes some killer IPAs.

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Thanks for giving me a chance to check out this product, @daveeasa ! I can't wait to get my camera installed, hopefully I can get to that soon!

 

Impressive detail!

Oh yeah, some notes:

1. I have plastic trees to secure the combo connector. I forgot to send you one. Sorry. That could have saved a tiny bit of time. At least I hope they fit. Not 100% sure.
   
2. More zip ties than what I provided? Maybe 10 total? Or did I forget to include zip ties as well?
3. The stickers aren’t all that sweet and I’m not at all sure how weatherproof they are. Cute of you to add that touch. I worry that it brings down MV on your truck though. I really should get some nicer ones at some point.
   
4. I really dislike my attempts at taping loom so I feel ashamed to sell something I’ve taped. Definitely nice to dress it up and an easy thing for people to add.
   
5. I forget if I sent you a cap for the reverse output till you get the camera. If I forgot I can send one now.
   
6. I have M6 bolts now for those willing to drill. Zip tie is how we do 2007+ though so maybe I’ll start sending one super long zip tie with subsequent FGT DIR’s.

 

Just sharing, in case it makes someone else's install easier. And if not, the beer at the end should help.

 

Just placed order. This has always bugged me but never thought to seek a solution. Glad I stumbled across this thread!

 

I saw one come through. I’m slacking tonight because I got caught up last night. Hope to get to yours tomorrow or Monday night. Cheers.

 

Whenever man, I’m in no hurry. Appreciate it!

 

Beautiful write-up.

 

Question for you @daveeasa Could you configure the wiring to add a plug for a backup camera to have aux power so it can be used even when not in reverse? I have mine spliced into the trailer wiring harness, but would like to clean it up a bit.

 

I don't believe there is any wire to the taillight which supplies +12v or ignition switched +12v.

If you're asking about a T to the intercept feeding the trailer, I'm not really there yet. I have a few connectors and am planning to build my own trailer harness hopefully using the OEM intercept but I believe I lack some of the terminals and I haven't really dug into that with vigor yet.

Short answer, not today.

 

I guess I didn't explain that well, but yes that's what I was wondering about. What's your timing looking like currently? I'm not in a rush, and don't want you to feel pressured if you have other distractions at the moment.

 

It will be a while. Since I have no factory tow harness, I will source power from the front to bring to the rear for compressor, 12v charging, aux for the shell, power for the trailer, and to feed any relays I might employ for aux reverse / brake / turn lighting (picking up my bumper soon).

Given how incredibly long I've taken to still not have H4 headlight harnesses done for the 2 people I plan to build them for (then I have to do my own) I would say you're not looking at any tow intercept T harness from me before 2023?

I think Johnny (@Puppypunter) is a bit ahead of me on this specific connector pair though and might be able to dive into that murky pool (and push aside anything he might be doing for me

Honestly, there are so many good reasons to have power toward the rear bumper I'd seriously consider running at least 8 or 10 gauge in loom from the battery or aux post up front. That plus a solid frame ground and you can do all sorts of good stuff.

 

Oh man! I'm failing at clarity today. My fault, not yours.
Sorry, I meant to ask what your timing is on the normal DIR harness for the 1st gen.
However, I would also be interested in a headlight harness if you have some details on those.

I appreciate the honest and helpful response though. I'm still trying to figure out my grand plan for electrical accessories for my truck.

 

I can do first gen DIR harnesses with 1-2 day turnaround at this point, based on the feedback from @shifty` which boils down to some very minor adjustments to the one I sent him.
Headlight harnesses, it seems I need about a year, but you can buy those easy if you aren't a stickler for sealed relays. If you are sure your truck is ground switched like mine, I can send you the one I bought but haven't installed if I can dig up the price I paid for it, provided you don't think it's something I built I was mostly planning to use it temporarily but then my truck has sat at the mechanic's for most of the time since I bought it so I haven't bothered, and now I have all the parts to do a nice sealed harness so I doubt I'd install the unsealed one.

The thread I linked covers H4 harnesses in great detail, the only gotchya there is that 2nd gen Tacoma is power switched while I believe all FGT are ground switched, very minor point but I think it can affect the high beam indicator at the dash if you get that wrong. Tons of detail in that thread though. And you can get a very nice harness from headlight solutions if you so desire.