Diode Dynamics HitchMount Reverse Light Kit, C1

This is one cool little mounting kit! Ingenious how it clicks into the hitch receiver. You can break those tabs out (per instructions) and are able to add a locking hitch pin so it can't be stolen. Ingenious! Took about 10 minutes to install it completely. The wiring harness provided plugs into the back of the plug setup under the truck, next to the spare, leaving your original plug-ins available for a trailer. You will however need to find a place to either relocate the light or unplug it and store it in order to install a hitch to pull a trailer. Fortunately that is very rare on this vehicle, as I have a pickup to haul things with, and this kit is on our 4Runner. The tiny cube light provides a surprising amount of light for its size, and is a welcome addition to the stock reverse lights. Yay! I can see backing up! Mission accomplished!

I love this hitch light. It works as a pulsing third brake light and also a super bright reverse light. It’s a little pricey, but you get what you pay for the build quality is second to none if you’re looking into getting something like this just go ahead and buy it. You will not be disappointed.

This is a great product. Slick design, super-fast installation, true plug-n-play. The components are high quality and the layout is brilliant in its simplicity. It takes only one minute to remove if a tow-hitch needs to be installed. Highly recommended.

The light works great! However, it made my 2022 Ford Transit practically undrivable!!First, there are the fast left and right turn signals. Second, there are several error messages initiated with brake application. When the brake is depressed there is the Trailer Disconnected dash message and chime. Press OK to stop it or just let off the brake, which presents the Trailer Connected message and chime. This one will go away on its own, but you can clear it, too. Interspersed with these messages are Trailer Right Lamp Failure and Trailer Left Lamp Failure messages and chimes. There’s another message indicating a trailer light issue. Any time the brake is applied, it’s a series of cascading errors blocking the view of normal dash information. Combine that with fast turn signals, I think few would find this tolerable, no matter how good the light is.I called Diode Dynamics support. The representative was very polite and gave me all the time I needed. (So, thank you!) He suggested I try using the brake light jumper included in the kit. The AMP plug is disconnected from the harness and the jumper’s AMP is plugged into the strobe box. Then the jumper is tapped into a brake light. I chose the left brake light since it was closest to the trailer plug. It seemed promising….Well, it didn’t work. The left turn signal was not fast, but it wasn’t quite right either. The right one was still fast. The Trailer error messages were still present, although I didn’t get the generic trailer light message, but maybe I didn’t give it enough time. I’d seen enough!I’m going to call Diode support again. I think they have a harness for late model F150 pickups. My Transit has the factory brake controller. (Wouldn’t both vehicles have similar BCMs?).Anyway, the light works great. For older vehicles without the “smarts” it is probably fine.UPDATE:I decided to avoid the trailer harness (mostly) and tap into the tail lights. I called Diode Dynamics about that. They gave me the wiring of the DT connector at the hitch light:Yellow - Brake and turn signalsBlue - Tail lightsRed - ReverseBlack - GroundI could have figured that out myself, but it indicated to me it was doable. From there it’s tedious process of unwrapping the DD harness and tracing the wires. The inputs of the strobe box are the hardest. First, it requires 12v power source, which can be tapped from the factory trailer harness (it’s a red wire, not to be confused with Reverse!). Second, it uses separate inputs from the left and right turn signals, so that requires a tap to the opposite of whichever taillight you choose to tap from (I assume this is to keep the brake light from coming on with a turn signal). Third, it requires a ground, which I also grabbed from the trailer harness. Strobe box output is Red which taps into yellow (brake, turn) and black.But, most of this information is self evident once the wiring harness is stripped. So,Left taillight-White (brake, turn)-Blue-RedRight taillight-Yellow (brake, turn)Trailer harness (use a test light)-12v-GroundThe hardest part (besides running wires) is finding the correct wires to tap in the taillights.

Overall thoughts, had to modify it to get it to not stick out so far. Install was simple and easy, though not much to zip tie excess wire to. Brake and flash functions work well. Backup light illumination with and without is marginal but it is better. (note I have SIRIUS bulbs in the housing already). Gives me a bit more light and presence on the road. I will admit if you’re looking for a lot of illumination this probably isn’t it.

I haven't tried hooking the trailer up yet to test if the dongle interferes in any way but I'm ecstatic over the ease of installation and performance. With a 35 hanging on back of the 18 Rubicon reverse lighting was a challenge to avoid shadowing off the wheel. This system projects without hindrance and illuminate well.

My only disappointment is that it is not as bright as it claims to be. Installed in 5 minutes just like the company says. Fit perfect. Functions well. But again not as bright and world-changing as some of the claims. Especially for a big truck. It's more like a double AA battery flashlight. You can see a little better but leaves some room for improvement. There are plenty of Cree led bulbs in the market that can generate some serious light, while keeping wattage low. Plenty of handheld flashlights that run in 2 cr123 (3.7v x2 = 7.4 volts combined) batteries pumping out 1200 lumens plus. Trucks run on 12v. Come on. We can do better with this brightness.Great concept. Ok execution.

Love this new addition to my ram limited1500 little on the expensive side in my opinion but for the added safety benefit ease of installation and clean design that makes it look OEM worth the buy for me, also very easy to remove or put back in place if you need to tow eventually. 💯