Raptor Upfitter Wiring…designed by a sadist?

[JohnGalt]

Just got done wiring pod light and light bar.

I thought this would be easy using the wiring points and tying my pods in under the hood and at passenger headliner.

On a positive note the switches work great and the wiring blunts are located at pretty logical spots for tie-ins to be located, but….

For all locations, could ford not given us three more inches of wire to work with? In each instance there is space to hide a plenty of excess wire.

This wouldn’t be so bad, but the short length combined with the locations turned out to be quite a challenge. I’m 6’2” and trying to reach over the drivers fender to splice the wiring was awful. Even with a ladder getting across the flare, over the fender well and down to where those shy little stubs of wire were was ridiculous.

After tearing apart the headliner trim, I located the blunt located there. Unfortunately the wire was pinned in the assembly and it took a little more swearing and further disassembly to pull it free. This only had about 2” sticking out, but because I had lots of slack in my light harness and it was at eye level, this wasn’t bad to connect.

Then after pulling out the glove box I got to the crown jewel. This was designed by a left handed sadistic engineer. The wires are up and under the dash, ridiculously short to tie together and since you’re coming in from the passenger door it’s impossible to get your right hand involved. Well not impossible, if you lay down the seat, slide it back, climb in upside down and work with your head and shoulders on the floor. So much fun.

All that said, I survived, the install is clean and the wires and switches function as intended.

Now that I own a Raptor I’ve also learned that if I want to work in the engine bay next time I’m going to erect scaffolding. The height and width come into play.

Sorry for whining, but I had to vent!

 

[TurboS]

Not surprised on the short wires as the auto manufactures are designing to use the least amount of wiring to save costs and reduce weight. However, I totally agree there should have been a minumum 6 inch extra lead requirement for hookup, glad I wasn't there as I would have just added to your vocabulary.

I have a TopSide Creeper that I bought to use on my SuperDuty, I now use it on all my vehicles, makes life under the hood much easier.

Your results look Great!

 

[JohnGalt]

Not surprised on the short wires as the auto manufactures are designing to use the least amount of wiring to save costs and reduce weight. However, I totally agree there should have been a minumum 6 inch extra lead requirement for hookup, glad I wasn't there as I would have just added to your vocabulary.

I have a TopSide Creeper that I bought to use on my SuperDuty, I now use it on all my vehicles, makes life under the hood much easier.

Your results look Great!

That Creeper would do the trick. id buy one today if it could do second duty as a hard top lifter. It almost looks like it would work!

 

[FellowM3]

Actually about to install a roof light bar.

Any install instructions you followed? @JohnGalt

 

[JohnGalt]

Actually about to install a roof light bar.

Any install instructions you followed? @JohnGalt

I followed a lot of instructions haha. Seriously, they all seemed to come up short in different ways. And every company seems to have their own theory on wIring.

As I had a Rigid/FP light bar I started with this:



For the wiring using upfitter wiring behind glove box glove box, I used this…



There were lot more videos, but usually short on details.

lastly, there are very detailed instructions in a pdf on Ford Performance‘s Bronco 40” light bar page.

a couple tips in retrospect, but you may want to go a different route if you have a back lit bar.

I got a very clean wiring install, by poking a small hole in the roof gasket and running the two wires in the tunnel of the gasket out to the passenger window. Threaded them out, loosened up a bracket at top front of the doorframe, then threaded the wires into the roll bar. I then threaded the power wire to the upfitter location and threaded the ground inside the “roll cage” and into the interior by the curtain airbag. I grounded it on the rear airbag bolt.

when grounding there, file off the paint on the roll cage behind the rear air bag bolt location, using a ring connector slip that in under the airbag, then bolt it down.

I was tired when I did it the first time and got a loose ground. Just fixed that today, fortunately it’s pretty easy to get the panel off to get to that spot. Works perfect now.

good luck and if you have any questions I’m happy to try to help

 

[Fukinstoned]

Just got done wiring pod light and light bar.

I thought this would be easy using the wiring points and tying my pods in under the hood and at passenger headliner.

On a positive note the switches work great and the wiring blunts are located at pretty logical spots for tie-ins to be located, but….

For all locations, could ford not given us three more inches of wire to work with? In each instance there is space to hide a plenty of excess wire.

This wouldn’t be so bad, but the short length combined with the locations turned out to be quite a challenge. I’m 6’2” and trying to reach over the drivers fender to splice the wiring was awful. Even with a ladder getting across the flare, over the fender well and down to where those shy little stubs of wire were was ridiculous.

After tearing apart the headliner trim, I located the blunt located there. Unfortunately the wire was pinned in the assembly and it took a little more swearing and further disassembly to pull it free. This only had about 2” sticking out, but because I had lots of slack in my light harness and it was at eye level, this wasn’t bad to connect.

Then after pulling out the glove box I got to the crown jewel. This was designed by a left handed sadistic engineer. The wires are up and under the dash, ridiculously short to tie together and since you’re coming in from the passenger door it’s impossible to get your right hand involved. Well not impossible, if you lay down the seat, slide it back, climb in upside down and work with your head and shoulders on the floor. So much fun.

All that said, I survived, the install is clean and the wires and switches function as intended.

Now that I own a Raptor I’ve also learned that if I want to work in the engine bay next time I’m going to erect scaffolding. The height and width come into play.

Sorry for whining, but I had to vent! View attachment 5300

I guess that’s why hubs didn’t have too much trouble adding a couple light bars to my rig he’s a lefty and a fabricator win win

 

[Dragoon]

Just got done wiring pod light and light bar.

I thought this would be easy using the wiring points and tying my pods in under the hood and at passenger headliner.

On a positive note the switches work great and the wiring blunts are located at pretty logical spots for tie-ins to be located, but….

For all locations, could ford not given us three more inches of wire to work with? In each instance there is space to hide a plenty of excess wire.

This wouldn’t be so bad, but the short length combined with the locations turned out to be quite a challenge. I’m 6’2” and trying to reach over the drivers fender to splice the wiring was awful. Even with a ladder getting across the flare, over the fender well and down to where those shy little stubs of wire were was ridiculous.

After tearing apart the headliner trim, I located the blunt located there. Unfortunately the wire was pinned in the assembly and it took a little more swearing and further disassembly to pull it free. This only had about 2” sticking out, but because I had lots of slack in my light harness and it was at eye level, this wasn’t bad to connect.

Then after pulling out the glove box I got to the crown jewel. This was designed by a left handed sadistic engineer. The wires are up and under the dash, ridiculously short to tie together and since you’re coming in from the passenger door it’s impossible to get your right hand involved. Well not impossible, if you lay down the seat, slide it back, climb in upside down and work with your head and shoulders on the floor. So much fun.

All that said, I survived, the install is clean and the wires and switches function as intended.

Now that I own a Raptor I’ve also learned that if I want to work in the engine bay next time I’m going to erect scaffolding. The height and width come into play.

Sorry for whining, but I had to vent! View attachment 5300

The end result looks great! Thanks for the heads-up on the installation. Now I know to mentally prepare myself for a battle before tackling this wiring.

 

[FellowM3]

I followed a lot of instructions haha. Seriously, they all seemed to come up short in different ways. And every company seems to have their own theory on wIring.

As I had a Rigid/FP light bar I started with this:



For the wiring using upfitter wiring behind glove box glove box, I used this…



There were lot more videos, but usually short on details.

lastly, there are very detailed instructions in a pdf on Ford Performance‘s Bronco 40” light bar page.

a couple tips in retrospect, but you may want to go a different route if you have a back lit bar.

I got a very clean wiring install, by poking a small hole in the roof gasket and running the two wires in the tunnel of the gasket out to the passenger window. Threaded them out, loosened up a bracket at top front of the doorframe, then threaded the wires into the roll bar. I then threaded the power wire to the upfitter location and threaded the ground inside the “roll cage” and into the interior by the curtain airbag. I grounded it on the rear airbag bolt.

when grounding there, file off the paint on the roll cage behind the rear air bag bolt location, using a ring connector slip that in under the airbag, then bolt it down.

I was tired when I did it the first time and got a loose ground. Just fixed that today, fortunately it’s pretty easy to get the panel off to get to that spot. Works perfect now.

good luck and if you have any questions I’m happy to try to help

Thanks for this!

I will be doing this at the same time of installing my trailrax roof rack.

I found the install for the ford rigid lights. Definitely helpful. I do have a backlit light bar, and I am still unsure how to get that second wire lit up.

The bar I have (Baja Designs S8) is under 30A, so for power I am looking to use the factory uplifter. But I need to firue out how to get a wire thru the car into the engine bay to T-tap into my Aux-6 uplifter wire, as I have my backlights for the pod lights on that switch.

 

[BRVOL]

When I posted the thread here of my install on the Ford Performance Rigid ditch lights I mentioned the short wiring as well. Ford did all this work to prewire everything, which I am grateful, but came up short, lol, on the wiring. I added about 12-14 inches of wiring to my install so the wires would not be stretched too tightly and it would be a much cleaner install. Ford should have done this for us. They do not leave much wiring to work with on their factory harness.

 

[JohnGalt]

Thanks for this!

I will be doing this at the same time of installing my trailrax roof rack.

I found the install for the ford rigid lights. Definitely helpful. I do have a backlit light bar, and I am still unsure how to get that second wire lit up.

The bar I have (Baja Designs S8) is under 30A, so for power I am looking to use the factory uplifter. But I need to firue out how to get a wire thru the car into the engine bay to T-tap into my Aux-6 uplifter wire, as I have my backlights for the pod lights on that switch.

I think diode dynamics had a video showing backlighting routing. i remember one video routing the wiring at the top like mine, then running wiring down the A pillar weather stripping then into the engine bay. I didn’t pay much atension to that as I didn’t want to run more wire than necessary for my application.

I bought a SPV headlight pigtail for wiring my 4 Rigid 360 pod backlighting into parking lights/DRL. I left the backlighting unwired until I pull the grill and bumper this weekend so I can’t expound on the wisdom of that choice yet. I’m not even sure that I’ll wire the backlights (covers will be on 99% of the time), but I’m putting the pigtail in for ease of future optionality.

 

[JohnGalt]

The end result looks great! Thanks for the heads-up on the installation. Now I know to mentally prepare myself for a battle before tackling this wiring.

In retrospect it wasn’t too bad except for working with short wires. And breaking my passenger visor hinge cover in step one of running the wiring didnt help. That was surprisingly difficult to get off, and easy to break at a thin point between edges. It still works and no one will know but me, but breaking things at the start is never the sign of a fun installl ahead!

 

[FellowM3]

In retrospect it wasn’t too bad except for working with short wires. And breaking my passenger visor hinge cover in step one of running the wiring didnt help. That was surprisingly difficult to get off, and easy to break at a thin point between edges. It still works and no one will know but me, but breaking things at the start is never the sign of a fun installl ahead!

Let us know if you do wire the backlights!

I am thinking of running an extra 14ga wire from the light bar to a DRL that I would just T-tap.

I just need to figure out how to bring that third wire into the engine bay (since I havent brought or seen it in person yet).

Is there an opening thru the firewall on the passenger side behind the glovebox?

 

[JohnGalt]

Let us know if you do wire the backlights!

I am thinking of running an extra 14ga wire from the light bar to a DRL that I would just T-tap.

I just need to figure out how to bring that third wire into the engine bay (since I havent brought or seen it in person yet).

Is there an opening thru the firewall on the passenger side behind the glovebox?

So, if it were me and I was wiring a backlit light bar with backlight to DRLs, I’d do the same thing that I described above for the ground and the upfitter wiring to main lights at visor. Then I’d route the backlight power wire down the a pillar and route like the Lethal guy does around 11 minute mark in video below. They show this portion of their work pretty well.

You could also route all three wires in your harness like they do in the video, the connect to Aux 3 upfitter wiring in drivers side engine bay, where there is also good accessible ground points. Then tap into the Aux 6 upfitter wire with the remaining backlight wire. Advantage to this method is avoiding connecting short upfitter wires under dash and visor, disadvantage is stuffing a wrapped three wire harness into some spots may be a pain.

I Notice they don’t show the actual threading of the harness from the engine bay to the A-pillar. Im guessing it was a pain, but I can see daylight there on my truck. Which makes me think fishing one wire vs. three may be a lot easier. Hard to say though, three may go through just fine.



Hope that helps some…