Leer Canopy Wiring Question

Hey everyone,

I'm brand new to the forum. I have searched to find answers to my question but I was overwhelmed with possibilities...

I bought a Leer canopy for my 2009 2nd Gen Tacoma 6ft bed and I'm not sure how I want to wire it in...I need the break light and the one interior light tied in.

The previous owner of my truck had wired into the tail light for a different canopy...it does not match that of my Leer canopy. I don't know which ends to modify, or the names of any of these parts.

Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

Grab a motorcycle battery, or lawnmower battery if you have either laying around (car battery works too, but they're just heavy), and you can check what each wire does from your topper if it's unclear. Ground it, and use a wire to connect each post and see what lights up. You're going to have to cut at least one of those plugs off and find a match in order to have the quick-disconnect capability... The plug on my ARE was impossible to find, I used a trailer receiver plug from tractor supply.

Also ent up running a hot 12v all the way through the frame, from the battery to the brake light area in order for my overhead LED's to be able to function with no key in the ignition. It has been super helpful.

Congrats on the cap. After finding mine, I'll never go back.

 

Not sure I can answer your question exactly becasue my dealer installed and wired my cap. I do know that the interior light taps into the rear tail light wire, so the light only works when the lights are on (I don't like that). The brake light for the cap taps into the brake light wire for obvious reasons.

 

There is no full-time hot for the interior canopy/shell light at the rear off the truck. Key on with parking lights will heat up the rear parking light circuit. I just ran 2 strings of push button battery LED tape over the side windows for lighting. Canopy brake light is just a hot (red most likely) and ground (black). Pick up a ground from a metal body screw and rear brake light from the green with red tracer wire. It is pretty simple. You can add a pair of simple plug in connectors inside the canopy for easy canopy removal/disconnect.

This thread is overly complicated (on offense to OP good info) has all the info:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/camper-shell-wiring-step-by-step-picture-load-warning.279665/

 

Purely a guess, so please double check the wiring diagram for your trucks tail light assembly, but it "appears" that the orange and red wires are power wires for your brake and reverse lights. It also "appears" that the white wires are tapped from the same white/black stripe wire on your taillight assembly, and "could be" your ground for brake/reverse lights.

The 3 wires on your camper shell are likely brake/reverse/ground, so you'll want to double check your trucks brake light wiring diagram, figure out which wire serves which function, and take note of what color wire is tapped into it. You can also just look at which bulb is which (reverse or brake) and make a really educated guess, but you definitely need to differentiate the power from the ground. My assumption is that the white wires are ground bc they're sharing the tap (or so it appears) and that wouldn't be typical of power wires.