A clean switch install was a key requirement for us as we started adding some LED light pods to our truck. These will be used with the setup shown in F150 Behind-the-Grill Offroad LED Lights. There are plenty of universal things on the market, but most of them were bulky and looked kind of tacky. We really liked the ford raptor OEM switches, but those only came in a set of 4, which we felt would not be quite enough. Then after searching other options, the perfect solution presented itself in a 2017 F250. There is an option that others have done that also uses the upfitter relay box, but that ends up being a bit pricey, and the relays max out at 30A.
If you are interested, check out our budget minded approach below!
$14.81 – HC3Z15A404B – WIRE ASY. (Plugs into switches)
$34.60 – HC3Z-13D730-AA – Switch Assembly
$16.89 – 12V Fuse Relay set (from amazon)
The rest was 12ga wire and misc hardware that we already had
2017 F250 Auxiliary upfitter switch assembly with 6 switches and wiring harness.
The pinout for the switch assembly:
Switch 1 – Pin 4 – Yellow
Switch 2 – Pin 6 – Green/Brown
Switch 3 – Pin 10 – Violet/Green
Switch 4 – Pin 9 – Brown
Switch 5 – Pin 8 – Blue/Orange
Switch 6 – Pin 7 – Yellow/Orange
Dimmer – Pin 12 – Violet/Grey
Power for Switch 1-4 – Pin 11 – Green/Orange
Power for Switch 5-6 – Pin 5 – Green/Red
Ground for Switches – Pin 3 – Black (For switch back-light only)
We extended the wiring harness and wrapped it with OE style harness tape.The relay panel was made from an piece of scrap sheet metal laying around the garage (an unused shelf for a wall cabinet). Note the DIY rivnut install process. Relay panel for the switches fabbed up and rivnuts installed. These will make it much easier than dealing with nuts on the backside of the relays when installing.Relay panel all assembled and wired up. Note the use of the fused relays, this eliminates the need of a separate fuse block and significantly saves on space.The relay panel is then installed in the back driver corner of the hood using an existing fender bolt. This will have every switch pre-wired so that as we add more equipment all we need to do is attach it to the screw terminal. Which will make it easy to reconfigure things also.
Now with the meat of the wiring complete, it is time to get on with the switch install.
Once the roof console is removed, the sunroof switch panel (or in this case just a cover) can be popped out with a few clips. The wiring will be able to fit through that opening there.To remove the sunglass tray, start by popping out these spring loaded gear sets.Aux switch height measurementAux switch width measurementSunglass tray measured and marked up for cutting out the slot for the switchesSince the clips of the switches wouldn’t work in this configuration, the simple solution was to bond them in place with JB Weld. Pro Tip: put the mixture into a syringe for easier and more precise application.Adding some tape to the tip of the wiring bundle helps stiffen it up for feeding through the tight gaps.The wiring was super easy to route through the headliner and down the driver side A-pillarThe 2017 F250 factory upfitter switches work perfectly with the F150 interior and console. The blue and amber backlighting is an exact match, and when wired up correctly work flawlessly with the in-dash dimmer controller.
NICE writeup! I’m going to be doing this soon on my ’13 F150 and this looks very OEM which I like. One question: Where did you find the switches and wire harness for that price? Everywhere I look its nearly double that.
Hi Zack, the harness was a good bit too short, so we did have to extend the wires ourself. And yes, the other plugs did get cut off and wires were run to Bosch relays.
Hi, Neil! Great questions — yes we did wire 11 & 5 to a switched 12v source! We tapped the dimmer into the output from the dimmer knob by the left driver knee. Good luck with your project!
Thank you for this. This is the info I needed to do this retrofit in my 2020 Toyota Tundra. I have been searching for this info for weeks and you provided everything I needed in a single post. THANK YOU!!!
did i miss what pins are the ground and keyed 12v for lighting? i’m trying to retrofit these in a non ford vehicle so i need to know how to make them work without any ford interface.
what exact modifications did you make to the wiring harness? I have a 2020 f250 XLT and I want to add these switches but I am hazy as to what all you did to it. this is exactly what I have been looking for.
I didn’t have to modify any of the truck harness (other than tapping into the dimmer switch and power, but htose are just the blue crimp taps and a fuse tap). The harness that was modified here was the one that I purchased from a 2017 F250 basically just to get a wired plug that plugs into the switch assembly. from there you just cut it, and splice on longer wires to reach the relays under the hood. hope this helps!
so i’ve just completed this, wired directly to schematics, when i flip any switch on, they all go amber. switch 1-6 each go to a different relay’s pin 86. violet/grey to dimmer, switched power for the switch power etc. any help?
Amazing writeup, can’t thank you guys enough! I’m currently in the process of doing this for my ’14 f150. Tackling a first in terms of wiring! If I’m correct, it appears as though out of the 10 wires coming off the switch harness, the dimmer wire is tapped in lights under dash, switch ground is grounded in cab, and switch power is tapped off the inside fuse panel to a keyed 12v? Leaving only the main 6 switch wires to pass through the firewall. As for the power wires off the relays, did you end up crimping them together and connecting to battery or have 6 separate wires connected to battery terminal? Thanks!
John, that is exactly correct. for the relay batteries I just ran the individual wires and crimped them to the large battery terminal, this way there was no need to run a super heavy duty gauge wire to the battery. Hope the build went well!
You can do this exact same thing for the 2015-2020 with the glasses holder… OR, you can just buy the Raptor center roof console that has the switches already in it and it will save you quite a few steps and plug right in.
Hi Valentin, great write up! I’m currently about halfway through this process on my ’12 F150. I have the switches placed, but have been holding off on wiring them since I hit quite a large snag. It seem the wire harness PN: HC3Z15A404B, is on continuous backorder for some sites, and listed as discontinued on others. If I had the pigtail I could at least wire it myself, but I can’t find that number anywhere. Any idea what the part number for the pigtail is?
Hi David, thanks for being patient on a response, it has been a busy end of the month work wise. I ordered mine from Lakeland Ford in Florida, at the time it was $14 with $13 shipping… looks like things have changed… at this point, I would honestly just take the pinout, and buy some single pin pigtailed header plugs and stick those on the proper pins in the switch connector to make my own harness… just be very diligent and make sure to test continuity before you power up to make sure you have the right pins, it can get a bit confusing when you are looking at connectors from the mating or back side etc.
do you happen to have a wiring diagram that you can share? I was wondering where all the wires from the screw terminal go to? I’m new to wiring so any help would be appreciated.
I don’t have a schematic, just the pinout in the article itself. The relay wiring is just your typical Bosch wiring, where you have a trigger 12V source, and a ground to it through the coil, and then you have the switch positive (in) and switch negative (out) that then runs to the actual lights or equipment and then grounded using the ground terminal on that
For pin 11 & 5. How did you wire those in? Did you wire them in using a fuse from the battery? And for the dimming function, do you tap that into a wire that is dimmable already?
Pin 5 and 11 just went to a switched wire using one of the fuse taps you can find on amazon. the dimming function got spliced into the wires at the dimmer control knob to the left of the steering wheel
Thank you for all the work and inspiration I got from these and your other great write ups.
Wiring and electric in general are very intimidating to me due to past experiences. Do the wires coming from the connector to the switches themselves run all the way to the fuse block you made? Other set ups I have seen for 2015 and newer F150s use three harnesses First one runs from the overhead console to halfway down the A pillar, second one picks up there and connects to the third (the upfitter relay box). At least that is my current understanding of it. So can the wiring from the upfitter switches be run all the way to the fuse block you made, therefore bypassing that second harness?
Thank you for all the work and inspiration I got from these and your other great write ups.
Wiring and electric in general are very intimidating to me due to past experiences. Do the wires coming from the connector to the switches themselves run all the way to the fuse block you made? Other set ups I have seen for 2015 and newer F150s use three harnesses First one runs from the overhead console to halfway down the A pillar, second one picks up there and connects to the third (the upfitter relay box). At least that is my current understanding of it. So can the wiring from the upfitter switches be run all the way to the fuse block you made, therefore bypassing that second harness?
May 7, 2020 at 7:46 pm
NICE writeup! I’m going to be doing this soon on my ’13 F150 and this looks very OEM which I like. One question: Where did you find the switches and wire harness for that price? Everywhere I look its nearly double that.
Thanks,
AK
May 29, 2020 at 7:41 pm
Hi Austin, we found the switches off eBay and the wiring harness we found online from a Ford Dealership in Florida that they posted. Hope this helps!
October 20, 2021 at 12:26 am
Do you make these setups an sell them? Please email me extremefireman@msn.com
December 9, 2021 at 12:29 pm
We don’t sell them, but hopefully we gave you all the information you need to guide you through your own project. its fun!
June 11, 2020 at 5:07 am
Is the harness long enough to route through the firewall or did you have to extend the wires yourself? Did other plugs on the harness get cut off?
June 25, 2020 at 3:41 am
Hi Zack, the harness was a good bit too short, so we did have to extend the wires ourself. And yes, the other plugs did get cut off and wires were run to Bosch relays.
June 18, 2020 at 5:57 pm
Will be doing this too. Did you wire pin 11 & 5 to a switched 12v source? And where did you tap into the dimmer circuit?
Thanks!
Neil
June 25, 2020 at 3:40 am
Hi, Neil! Great questions — yes we did wire 11 & 5 to a switched 12v source! We tapped the dimmer into the output from the dimmer knob by the left driver knee. Good luck with your project!
June 24, 2020 at 1:46 pm
Thank you for this. This is the info I needed to do this retrofit in my 2020 Toyota Tundra. I have been searching for this info for weeks and you provided everything I needed in a single post. THANK YOU!!!
June 25, 2020 at 3:38 am
Hi Justin, so glad you found this helpful! Good luck on getting these installed in the Tundra!
July 5, 2020 at 6:41 pm
did i miss what pins are the ground and keyed 12v for lighting? i’m trying to retrofit these in a non ford vehicle so i need to know how to make them work without any ford interface.
July 8, 2020 at 8:15 pm
Hi Brendan, thanks for the comment! We have actually edited the blog to include this — we appreciate you pointing it out!
November 30, 2020 at 5:26 am
what exact modifications did you make to the wiring harness? I have a 2020 f250 XLT and I want to add these switches but I am hazy as to what all you did to it. this is exactly what I have been looking for.
January 4, 2021 at 5:28 pm
I didn’t have to modify any of the truck harness (other than tapping into the dimmer switch and power, but htose are just the blue crimp taps and a fuse tap). The harness that was modified here was the one that I purchased from a 2017 F250 basically just to get a wired plug that plugs into the switch assembly. from there you just cut it, and splice on longer wires to reach the relays under the hood. hope this helps!
February 2, 2021 at 3:54 pm
so i’ve just completed this, wired directly to schematics, when i flip any switch on, they all go amber. switch 1-6 each go to a different relay’s pin 86. violet/grey to dimmer, switched power for the switch power etc. any help?
February 2, 2021 at 4:10 pm
disregard^ had a bad relay doing some weird things
February 3, 2021 at 1:21 pm
glad you got it sorted out!
February 10, 2021 at 9:27 pm
Amazing writeup, can’t thank you guys enough! I’m currently in the process of doing this for my ’14 f150. Tackling a first in terms of wiring! If I’m correct, it appears as though out of the 10 wires coming off the switch harness, the dimmer wire is tapped in lights under dash, switch ground is grounded in cab, and switch power is tapped off the inside fuse panel to a keyed 12v? Leaving only the main 6 switch wires to pass through the firewall. As for the power wires off the relays, did you end up crimping them together and connecting to battery or have 6 separate wires connected to battery terminal? Thanks!
March 4, 2021 at 8:26 am
John, that is exactly correct. for the relay batteries I just ran the individual wires and crimped them to the large battery terminal, this way there was no need to run a super heavy duty gauge wire to the battery. Hope the build went well!
April 12, 2021 at 7:26 pm
Looks like this was done on a 12th Gen, any ideas on where you can put this on a 13th (‘15-20) Gen?
April 14, 2021 at 9:51 am
You can do this exact same thing for the 2015-2020 with the glasses holder… OR, you can just buy the Raptor center roof console that has the switches already in it and it will save you quite a few steps and plug right in.
June 15, 2021 at 6:53 am
Hi Valentin, great write up! I’m currently about halfway through this process on my ’12 F150. I have the switches placed, but have been holding off on wiring them since I hit quite a large snag. It seem the wire harness PN: HC3Z15A404B, is on continuous backorder for some sites, and listed as discontinued on others. If I had the pigtail I could at least wire it myself, but I can’t find that number anywhere. Any idea what the part number for the pigtail is?
July 2, 2021 at 10:48 am
Hi David, thanks for being patient on a response, it has been a busy end of the month work wise. I ordered mine from Lakeland Ford in Florida, at the time it was $14 with $13 shipping… looks like things have changed… at this point, I would honestly just take the pinout, and buy some single pin pigtailed header plugs and stick those on the proper pins in the switch connector to make my own harness… just be very diligent and make sure to test continuity before you power up to make sure you have the right pins, it can get a bit confusing when you are looking at connectors from the mating or back side etc.
December 10, 2021 at 7:37 am
Where can I order
December 10, 2021 at 1:54 pm
You have to just search for the part numbers and see who sells them these days.
April 8, 2022 at 10:31 am
Hi,
do you happen to have a wiring diagram that you can share? I was wondering where all the wires from the screw terminal go to? I’m new to wiring so any help would be appreciated.
April 10, 2022 at 3:42 pm
I don’t have a schematic, just the pinout in the article itself. The relay wiring is just your typical Bosch wiring, where you have a trigger 12V source, and a ground to it through the coil, and then you have the switch positive (in) and switch negative (out) that then runs to the actual lights or equipment and then grounded using the ground terminal on that
April 25, 2022 at 4:11 am
For pin 11 & 5. How did you wire those in? Did you wire them in using a fuse from the battery? And for the dimming function, do you tap that into a wire that is dimmable already?
January 5, 2023 at 9:28 am
Pin 5 and 11 just went to a switched wire using one of the fuse taps you can find on amazon. the dimming function got spliced into the wires at the dimmer control knob to the left of the steering wheel
May 2, 2022 at 10:48 am
Hi there,
Thank you for all the work and inspiration I got from these and your other great write ups.
Wiring and electric in general are very intimidating to me due to past experiences. Do the wires coming from the connector to the switches themselves run all the way to the fuse block you made? Other set ups I have seen for 2015 and newer F150s use three harnesses First one runs from the overhead console to halfway down the A pillar, second one picks up there and connects to the third (the upfitter relay box). At least that is my current understanding of it. So can the wiring from the upfitter switches be run all the way to the fuse block you made, therefore bypassing that second harness?
January 5, 2023 at 9:25 am
Yes, we did it all in one continuous run of wire, its entirely up to you though, whatever makes it easier.
June 21, 2022 at 11:57 am
What size wire did you use to extend the harness?
August 20, 2022 at 2:42 pm
Hi there,
Thank you for all the work and inspiration I got from these and your other great write ups.
Wiring and electric in general are very intimidating to me due to past experiences. Do the wires coming from the connector to the switches themselves run all the way to the fuse block you made? Other set ups I have seen for 2015 and newer F150s use three harnesses First one runs from the overhead console to halfway down the A pillar, second one picks up there and connects to the third (the upfitter relay box). At least that is my current understanding of it. So can the wiring from the upfitter switches be run all the way to the fuse block you made, therefore bypassing that second harness?
January 5, 2023 at 9:16 am
correct, you can put connectors in for installation purposes, I just ran continuous wires.