Need new brake light (tire)

[TrailJoy]

Yesterday I decided to see how well my kayak fits in my Jeep. It turns out, surprisingly well!! But the brake light could be a problem, and this setup won’t work with my Paddleboard. I’m looking to ditch it to buy the ones that light up behind the tire instead, but my JLUS has the back up cam. Does anyone know of a model that will work? I’ll likely be buying from Amazon.ca since I’m in Canada.
Thanks!

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[limeade]

I use the Oracle LED Illuminated Wheel Ring Brake Light (bought from Northridge 4x4, so not sure of it's availability in Canada). Had to ditch the stock light when I went with the Metalcloak Sportgate tire carrier. It's easy splice into the stock 3rd brake light wiring. If you have the stock tire carrier, should be pretty easy to mount too. There are three "arms" which extend inward from the ring. The kit comes with small self tapping screws to then secure those arms to your tire carrier.

 

[conFUcius]

I use the Oracle LED Illuminated Wheel Ring Brake Light (bought from Northridge 4x4, so not sure of it's availability in Canada). Had to ditch the stock light when I went with the Metalcloak Sportgate tire carrier. It's easy splice into the stock 3rd brake light wiring. If you have the stock tire carrier, should be pretty easy to mount too. There are three "arms" which extend inward from the ring. The kit comes with small self tapping screws to then secure those arms to your tire carrier.

How did you run the wire from the brake light ring to the third brake wiring? I drilled a small hole through the stock spare tire carrier to run it but it’s still pretty hard (not to mention the t-taps I received from @ORACLElights were cracked) since the wiring off the ring is really short.

 

[Rhinebeck01]

How did you run the wire from the brake light ring to the third brake wiring? I drilled a small hole through the stock spare tire carrier to run it but it’s still pretty hard (not to mention the t-taps I received from @ORACLElights were cracked) since the wiring off the ring is really short.

@conFUcius

I encourage you, a young guy (I'm 71) to go out and get yourself a cheapie soldering gun and some soldering supplies and learn how to do simple soldering... Easy to do... to simple solder... practice a bit on some scrap pieces of wire... you do this and you will build on the skill over the years... a skill that will be a real plus for you.

You can do this simple splice into the 3rd brake light wire. Forget those t-taps.... Ok, yeah, I will occasionally use them but....

As for you ring..... if the two wires on the ring, are short... extend each of them, with some scrap pieces of wire and then hook then up your ring up to your 3rd brake wire. Extending the wires is easy to do even if you do not solder. Your best bet is a little slack in the wires as to tight wires will be stressed with the Jeep, bouncing around, tweaking, etc...

Hint: When you do splices, on your Wrangler, etc., take it for granted that the splices will need to weather lets say, the elements... rain, snow, dampness, mud, etc..

Be sure to tape them up good, use shrink wrap, etc... I also go one step further and after all, put a carefully applied (not slopped on) coat of liquid tape over the area... cheap insurance lets say.

 

[limeade]

How did you run the wire from the brake light ring to the third brake wiring? I drilled a small hole through the stock spare tire carrier to run it but it’s still pretty hard (not to mention the t-taps I received from @ORACLElights were cracked) since the wiring off the ring is really short.

Like @Rhinebeck01 stated, I soldered the Oracle wires to the factory wires and used heat shrink tubing to seal them from the elements. For almost all of my wiring projects, I only solder them if I can and definitely use shrink wrap, with liquid tape as a backup in case I can't get my heat gun or a lighter into a spot to melt the heat shrink tubing.

I bought a kit of shrink tubing from Summit Racing a few years ago and has several hundred pieces of various diameter tubing. You can use multiple sizes over each other when joining wire of different sizes to ensure a water tight seal.

When I trimmed the factory brake wiring, I did it close to the stock light, leaving enough wire in case I need to wire it back. The resulting wire harness exiting from the tailgate grommet was long enough to zip tie to the MC Sportgate carrier and wire to the Oracle light ring. I ensured the soldered areas were zip tied securely to the carrier so they weren't bouncing around or hitting the tire carrier.

 

[conFUcius]

@conFUcius

I encourage you, a young guy (I'm 71) to go out and get yourself a cheapie soldering gun and some soldering supplies and learn how to do simple soldering... Easy to do... to simple solder... practice a bit on some scrap pieces of wire... you do this and you will build on the skill over the years... a skill that will be a real plus for you.

You can do this simple splice into the 3rd brake light wire. Forget those t-taps.... Ok, yeah, I will occasionally use them but....

As for you ring..... if the two wires on the ring, are short... extend each of them, with some scrap pieces of wire and then hook then up your ring up to your 3rd brake wire. Extending the wires is easy to do even if you do not solder. Your best bet is a little slack in the wires as to tight wires will be stressed with the Jeep, bouncing around, tweaking, etc...

Hint: When you do splices, on your Wrangler, etc., take it for granted that the splices will need to weather lets say, the elements... rain, snow, dampness, mud, etc..

Be sure to tape them up good, use shrink wrap, etc... I also go one step further and after all, put a carefully applied (not slopped on) coat of liquid tape over the area... cheap insurance lets say.

Stupid question (I’m new to this), how do I determine what gauge wire to buy to extend the wires from the brake light ring? Does it matter?

 

[conFUcius]

Like @Rhinebeck01 stated, I soldered the Oracle wires to the factory wires and used heat shrink tubing to seal them from the elements. For almost all of my wiring projects, I only solder them if I can and definitely use shrink wrap, with liquid tape as a backup in case I can't get my heat gun or a lighter into a spot to melt the heat shrink tubing.

I bought a kit of shrink tubing from Summit Racing a few years ago and has several hundred pieces of various diameter tubing. You can use multiple sizes over each other when joining wire of different sizes to ensure a water tight seal.

When I trimmed the factory brake wiring, I did it close to the stock light, leaving enough wire in case I need to wire it back. The resulting wire harness exiting from the tailgate grommet was long enough to zip tie to the MC Sportgate carrier and wire to the Oracle light ring. I ensured the soldered areas were zip tied securely to the carrier so they weren't bouncing around or hitting the tire carrier.

Got it - thanks! I was thinking to myself that the wire slack given is way too short.

 

[Rhinebeck01]

Stupid question (I’m new to this), how do I determine what gauge wire to buy to extend the wires from the brake light ring? Does it matter?

@conFUcius

There is no such thing as a "stupid question".

Well, if you do not have a wire gauge to measure the wires on the ring, then snip of say a 1/2" off of the wire and tale that with you to Advance Auto, etc.. Now, at Advance Auto just compare your little piece to the rolls for sale there.

Does it matter.... well, in this case probably not, but you should get into the habit of trying to match up/use similar gauge wire when you are doing this kind of chitt.. 8-)

 

[conFUcius]

@conFUcius

There is no such thing as a "stupid question".

Well, if you do not have a wire gauge to measure the wires on the ring, then snip of say a 1/2" off of the wire and tale that with you to Advance Auto, etc.. Now, at Advance Auto just compare your little piece to the rolls for sale there.

Does it matter.... well, in this case probably not, but you should get into the habit of trying to match up/use similar gauge wire when you are doing this kind of chitt.. 8-)

Oh, I’m in health care... believe me, there are stupid questions (relative to the number of years of experience ). Really appreciate all the tips. This is my second Jeep and I first got into them to learn how to work on vehicles (I am not handy at all). I swear up/down whenever I do anything but I guess you learn from experience?

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