# 2014-2017 Ram 2500/3500 switched power tutorial with pics.



## ktfbgb

Hey everyone, I worked on some of my plow wiring today. Since there have been several questions lately regarding installs on the late model Ram trucks I figured I would put this together for everyone for future reference.

The Ram 2500 trucks do not come with the upfitter ports under the hood unless specifically ordered on the truck. The literature I have read states that it's a factory only option and no aftermarket option is available. So, if you don't have them, this thread should help a lot.

For reference mine is a 2014 Ram 2500 crew cab SLT with the 6.7 Cummins. I have cross referenced the bodybuilder guide for 2013 through 2016 for a couple different questions the last few days, and they are all pretty much the same. But, do your due diligence and check the guide for your specific model year etc. Below are some links for the Offocial Ram bodybuilders site.

Home page for the guide - http://www.ramtrucks.com/en/bodybuildersguide/

General plow install guideline - http://www.ramtrucks.com/assets/bbg/pdf/ramspigg.pdf

Halogen headlight electrical diagram - http://www.ramtrucks.com/assets/bbg/pdf/ramspiqbes.pdf

Halogen headlight plow install instructions - http://www.ramtrucks.com/assets/bbg/pdf/ramspiqbhui.pdf
This document explains where to splice in for the plow wiring, including the only approved switched ignition feed on the truck which we will cover in the next part of the thread.

Projector headlight electrical diagram -http://www.ramtrucks.com/assets/bbg/pdf/ramspippes.pdf

Projector headlight plow install instructions - http://www.ramtrucks.com/assets/bbg/pdf/ramspipphui.pdf
This document provides the splice instructions for trucks with the projector style headlamps. It refers back to the halogen document for the ignition run feed.

Ok in the next post I will put up some pictures and how too!


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## ktfbgb

Ok so I had my new plow installed by the dealer at the beginning of this year. This is how they wired it! Pathetic. Ok so here is some info on the Late Model PDC. The blade fuses that are in these are not the Mini fuses. They are the Micro fuse. They also use the cartridge fuses. These fuses are a female fuse so they don't have blades on the fuse, the blades stick up from the PDC as you can see on the right side of the pic in the three empty bays. Ram uses two different sizes of these. The green cartridge fuses under the blue wire are the mini cartridge size. The purple and blue cartridge fuses are the Micro cartridge fuses (FMM). The Micro cartridge fuses are rather new in these trucks and no one in my town carries them. You have to get them from the dealer or they are readily available to order online. Ram also does not include any spare fuses to use as replacement so you need to carry your own.

Here is what I found out as to why it was wired this way instead of using fuse taps or add a circuits like a normal install. The blue wire shoved into the yellow 20 amp blade fuse is the switched power run for the plow. This is a Micro fuse, and there isn't anywhere local that carries a Micro fuse tap that can handle a 20 amp circuit. The only available ones in town have a small wire, guessing 20 guage, and is only rated up to 10 amps.

The other blue wire shoved under the blue FMM fuse, cap is busted off from their install, powers the hands free plowing feature on my plow. This circuit is the trailer reverse circuit. There is not a fuse tap made for this style of fuse, so they jammed it in there. I never use the hands free so I'm not sure if I'm just going to disconnect it, or splice it into the harness under the PDC. I will decide tomorrow when I finish cleaning up the rest of the dealers mess under the hood. If I do splice it in, I'll take pictures and add them to the thread.

Next up is tapping the cigar lighter wire for switched power.


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## ktfbgb

As stated in the bodybuilders guide, the only approved circuit to splice for switched accessory power, is the cigar lighter. The harness is short so you can't just pull out the cigar lighter to splice there. Just not enough wire. So you have to pull the bottom plastic molding, the center consol trim panel, and the cup holder or storage drawer, whichever one you have, to access the harness. There are only a few screws, mostly it's push in fasteners that you pop out. I also recommend pulling the panel under the steering wheel to allow for more room.










Once you get the Center trim panel loose you have to pull all the connectors off and move the panel out of the way.










Then pull the storage tray or cup holder pictured on the floor with the harnesses above it. Now you access to the cigar lighter harness. It is the two wire with white plug. I pulled it up and over the Center support for better access and stripped back the factory tape to expose the wires.










Here is a close up. Power wire is blue with pink tracer. It is 18 guage wire.









Here it is with the splice complete. Wrap it back up with tape and reverse the process to reinstall all the plastic trims.

I spliced in some red 18 guage wire to feed a bus bar/terminal block, whatever you want to call it. You can just splice the plow harness in here but I want to add a auxiliary PDC in the future. I want the PDC to be switched on with the key, so I'm going to control the relay to power the PDC from this circuit. Keep in mind that you are only supposed to add 2 amps to this circuit so if you want to do the same make sure you use a relay. I'm going to use the aux PDC to power some led strobes and a light bar in the future. When I build the PDC I'll do a similar thread.










I mounted the terminal block to the back of the plastic trim panel for under the steering wheel. It is on the right side, next to the OBDII plug for the code reader. It's hard to tell but it's raised in this location with a double wall. I used short self tapping screws with a washer underneath to make sure they didn't push out the finished side of the panel.










The red wire is the wire I spliced into the the cigar lighter harness. It's attached to the far left terminal. The blue wire is from the plow harness, and the black fuzzy in the top left is the inline fuse for that wire. There are three nuts on the second terminal because of the way the ring terminal was I needed some height to get it to sit flat without being tweaked. I added some locktite to the lock nuts just to be sure. I will attach the wire from the relay for the new PDC to one of the other two terminals once I go ahead and get it built. Just zip tie the wires up so nothing flops around and your done.

Hopefully this will help some other guys out with their installs. I am by No means a professional and take no liability for the information contained in this thread. I just did a bunch of research and wanted to make it a little easier for some other people. Remember to confirm with your plow install manual and the bodybuilders guide. If I do splice the harness underneath the PDC I'll post more pics of that. The bodybuilders guide states in another section that it is acceptable to splice under the PDC for switched aux power so you can do it there if you want. It just specifically says to do it where I did for plow installs. Since the wire on my harness comes out about 12" from the controller plug, this method made the most sense for my application.


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## 1olddogtwo

Good info.


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