Is there a Way to Wire Trailer Rear Loading Lights to Work with Reverse Light Circuit on 7-Way

Published 01/20/2017

Question:

I want to run reverse lights on my 40 ft toy hauler using the loading lights on the back of the trailer! The light is switched to run off of the trailer batteries! Can I run the reverse wire to the top side of the switch and put a diode to prevent backfeed to the truck?? Will that work!!

asked by: Craig H

Expert Reply:

If you want the loading lights on the trailer to function with both the switch and batteries as well as off of the reverse light circuit from a 7-Way trailer connector you can certainly make that happen. But instead of the reverse light circuit wired to the switch you would tee it in after the switch. If not then the switch would have to be on all the time and you would have to disconnect the loading lights from the batteries. If the lights weren't disconnected from the batteries the loading lights would be on all the time.

So basically you would run a wire from the reverse light circuit from the 7-Way to the power wire going to the lights AFTER the switch and there would be a diode installed in line, # RM-690, to prevent power from the batteries running backward to the reverse light circuit. I made a basic diagram showing this.

expert reply by: Michael H