PutCo Taillight Bars: Not Their Fault, But Not Great

amschind · Jul 12, 2023

So a while back I bought a rear LED brake/turn light bar form Ford that is a PutCo rebrand......Ford puts on some connectors and it's plug and play. I tried to install it and found that I had gotten the one for the Lariat+ with LED taillights, which meant that the connectors and box were different. After consideration, I bought the XLT kit for halogen taillights. Levitown Ford specifically notes on their site that this is XLT 300A, Tremor 401A and Raptor 800A; I MISTAKENLY assumed that Ford only made halogen and LED taillights, so that my 302A would work fine with this. WRONG.

It has become apparent that Ford has no fewer than 3 taillight connectors (maybe more, not less) which vary within trims. I can't really blame Putco for that, as they don't even directly sell these products for the '21+ F150 (all of these are Ford rebrands of Putco products, so it's hard to judge Putco for being reluctant to support them). That said, I want to strongly discourage anyone from buying one of these products because until you actually try to hook the connectors up, it's very difficult to tell if the "plug and play" connectors will fit or if the control box will be able to interpret those signals. I'm junking $1000 worth of parts because they're all partially installed AND I'm not willing to offload them on Ebay to someone who I believe will wind up in the same boat that I am.

If someone wants them, I'll send them for the cost of shipping, but I don't want any money for them as at this point I don't even trust fitment for the models that are specifically listed (since they theoretically have the same taillights and the taillight and trailer hitch connectors physically do not fit).

Anyway, learn from my mistakes and save your money.

SpaceWhiteF150 · Jul 12, 2023

Your only problem is the harness to connect them into the tails? If so there’s tons of harnesses that can be used to tie the power firmo the tails to power things.

amschind · Jul 12, 2023

MAYBE. There are 3 total issues.
1) taillight connectors. I would happily solder different connectors on the harness if I could get the correct harness and wiring info. However....
2) the third connector seems like a tow harness connector, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what it's supposed to attach to. I moved my spare to the bed and I replaced the entire trailer wiring harness to get the trailer TPMS/camera working, so I have a good view and an unfortunately complete knowledge of the wiring harnesses under the bed. Even with those advantages, I cannot find a suitable connector.
3) The control box has to interpret the signals. The one useful thing the Putco rep told me last time was that I couldn't just rig up a harness to make the Lariat+ system (the one that I purchased first) work because the Lariat+ control box gets different signals from the 6 pin taillight connectors. These taillight connectors for my XLT 300A/Tremor 401A/Raptor 800A kit are all 4 pin, but it is not clear if the information conveyed is different or if only the physical connectors differ. Further, I'd have to know what the third connector is supposed to attach to before I can figure out if the box is workable.

I hope that helps, and I appreciate the thoughtful reply.