Install OEM Ford Upfitter/Aux Switches how to

[Mcfly]

I've seen some aftermarket aux switch installs but hadn't seen anyone post a factory upfitter install on a lightning. I referenced the thread on the Ice forum for the parts and how to make the harness. Shout out to @bordner42 for figuring out the illumination lightning. I purchased the items to make the harness from digikey. You only need 1 of each connector and 12 pins, I ordered extra just incase.

Link to Ice forum thread
https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/upfitter-switch-installation.12438/

Oem Parts

Upfitter switch panel part number M2DZ13D730HA

Overhead console (this can vary depending on your truck, pano roof, rear sliding window or not) mine was no slider or pano roof. If you switch over your internals no need for Forscan. ML3Z18519A70ECT

Relay fuse box (from superduty trucks) NC3Z14A303A

Harness

I ordered the wire off amazon, BNTECHGO 22 Gauge Silicone Wire Kit 10 Color Each 30 ft Flexible 22 AWG Stranded Tinned Copper Wire

Tool to crimp the pins amazon iCrimp SN-28B Dupont Crimping Tool for 3.96mm, 2.54mm, 2.5mm Pitch Dupont, JST XH VH Connectors, AWG 18 to 28

Wire t taps amazon Nilight-50004R 120 Pcs/60 Pairs quick splice wire T Tap

Add a fuse wire

Electrical tape and wire loom


How to make the harness

I used the following post on the ice forum to pin the wires to the connectors. You will need to add a t wire tap on the Hot in wire(my red wire) and splice that to an add a fuse. You plug that into the fuse panel inside the truck or behind the frunk tub. The number 11 pin wire on the upfitter switch connector side is the illumination wire. I tapped into the overhead console harness purple/gray wire using a t tap. I also tapped the ground for the upfitter side of the harness(pin 6) into the yellow/black wire on the overhead console harness. A ground must go to the overhead and also a ground to the relay box. I think I made the harness 16 feet long. I wrapped the harness in tape, ran a wire loom on the portion outside the cab. I pinned the upfitter side of the harness but left the relay fuse box side of the harness unpinned so it would be easier to snake it thru the firewall.

Upfitter Switch pin .... relay fuse box pin
9 (hot in run) to 12 (t tap add a fuse to fuse box) my Red Wire
11 (illumination) t tap over head console harness purple/gray wire my pink wire
2 (switch 1) to 2 my green wire
3 (switch 2 )to 9 my yellow wire
6 (ground) to 1 t tapped into the yellow/black wire on the upfitter side, I ran to a gound point on the fuse box relay side my black wires
4 (switch 3) to 3 my orange wire
1 (hot all times) to 5 my brown wire
10 (switch 4) to 4 my blue wire
8 (switch 5) to 11 my white wire
7 (switch 6) to 10 my violet wire

ps look real close on the connector plugs and you will see the pin number.

Pics of the connectors
Upfitter switch side

Overhead console t taps

Relay fuse box side

Install instructions
First remove the frunk tub and unplug the battery. Move to the inside of the cab. Remove the overhead console and overhead console harness. T tap the ground wire (yellow/black) and illumination wire (gray/purple) on the overhead harness. Connect those to your ground(pin 6) and illumination(pin 11) wires on the upfitter switch side of the harness. I decided to run my harness thru the main harness grommet on the drivers side foot well. Remove the drivers side a pillar trim then snake the harness thru the head liner, down the a pillar, and into the drivers side foot well. Next reconnect the overhead console wiring harness, connect the upfitter switch side of the harness to the upfitter switches and re install the overhead console. Now you can focus on getting the relay fuse box side of the harness into the frunk. Locate the large harness grommet in the drivers side foot well. I used a flat head screw driver to push a gap on the side of the grommet and pushed the harness thru. I did not pin this side of the harness to the connector so it would be easier to get it thru. Once your thru move to the frunk. Find the harness and gently pull it the rest of the way thru. Pin the wires to the relay fuse box connector as described above. Wrap wire loom around the harness. Next you will install the relay fuse box. I installed it directly to the main fuse panel in the frunk. You might be able to install it directly to the positive battery terminal as well. If your going direct to the fuse panel, remove the small cover on the side of the fuse panel. This exposes the high voltage connections. Look for the connection labeled 300 amps, connect the large red wire from the relay fuse box. I then zip tied the relay fuse box to the other harness connectors close by. Connect the harness to the relay fuse box. Run the ground wire (pin 1 ) to a ground location in the frunk. T tap the hot in wire (pin 12) splice in the add a fuse and run that to the main fuse box. I put the add a fuse into fuse spot 22. Re connect the battery and test the upfitter switches. They should light up blue when off and amber when on.

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[watts/up]

Relay fuse box (from superduty trucks) NC3Z14A303A

I find it interesting that you chose to use Ford's ICE relay box. It's the first I've seen of a Lightning owner doing so. Any particular reason or advantage?

 

[Mcfly]

When doing my research this was how it was done on the ice trucks. There's a guy who sells a kit, it comes with the same relay fuse box and a harness he makes.

 

[Mcfly]

Another benefit of using the factory relay fuse box is each aux switch is fused. I think there's four 20 amp(switches 1 thru 4) and two 40 amp (switches 5 and 6). Also it's easy to wire up accessories. There's a bundle of color coded wires on the bottom. Each aux switch is assigned a color. You just find the color wire that corresponds to the switch you want. Then connect it to the power wire of the accessory and ground it.

 

[watts/up]

Makes sense and I appreciated your write-up. I’m working to add upfitter switches to my truck but I’m going a bit of a different route wiring-wise. I’ll be sure add my install here when finished.

 

[Mcfly]

Makes sense and I appreciated your write-up. I’m working to add upfitter switches to my truck but I’m going a bit of a different route wiring-wise. I’ll be sure add my install here when finished.

Thanks, can't wait to see it! I'm going to wire up an air compressor and some lights. I'll circle back as well.

 

[bordner42]

Just finished wiring up mine finally, I went in a slightly different direction with an aftermarket relay/fuse box to power everything.

Full parts used and costs are as follows:

• Ford OEM Switch Assembly M2DZ-13D730-HA (eBay): $57.99
• Ford OEM Wire Assembly WPT-1401 (OEM Parts Online): $71.75
• Ford OEM Overhead Console ML3Z-18519A70-ECT (eBay): $56.50 (varies by truck which to get)
• 6-Way Fuse/Relay Box (Amazon): $49.99 (definitely are cheaper options out there but this is what I settled on)
• 8 colors of 25' 20 AWG TXL wire (eBay): $29.94
• Wire Harness Tape (Amazon): $9.99
• Snake Rod (Amazon): $13.99 (to pull wiring through the grommet)
• T-Tap (Amazon): $6.99 (to get illumination and ground from OEM overhead harness)
• Butt Splices (Home Depot): $16.48
• Fuse Tap (AutoZone): $8.99 (tapped into fuse 190 for ACC power for the switches) ((forget which exact model of fuse tap but got if from AutoZone))

Coming to a rough total of $320 for everything depending on what you already have around. Other things you'll need that I already had on hand are trim removal tools, socket wrench set, electrical tape, and a wire stripper tool.

OP did a good job with his write up, the Ford wiring diagrams for the switches are in this pdf I made. Page 4 is outdated but page 1 and 2 have the pin diagrams, while page 3 has the diagram to get illumination/ground from the overhead console wire assembly. I also went from the cab out to the "engine area" through the grommet, I think that's definitely the easiest way to do so. After taping the wire harness to the snake rod and punching a hole through the grommet, I found that it needed some lubricant to make its way through. Everything else is just making sure you connect the right wires to power everything up. I would recommend tapping illumination and ground to make sure they're spliced into the correct wires before moving on to the remaining 8!

For anyone thinking about attempting this, it really wasn't too hard, but will definitely take a full day or two if you're not experienced. I balked at $1000 quotes for this project before going about it myself. The hardest part of the install for me was getting through the grommet. That is, other than sourcing all the wiring diagrams and testing to make sure everything was correct (which has now already been done two different ways). Feel free to reach out with any additional questions!

 

[watts/up]

Just finished wiring up mine finally, I went in a slightly different direction with an aftermarket relay/fuse box to power everything.

Full parts used and costs are as follows:

• Ford OEM Switch Assembly M2DZ-13D730-HA (eBay): $57.99
• Ford OEM Wire Assembly WPT-1401 (OEM Parts Online): $71.75
• Ford OEM Overhead Console ML3Z-18519A70-ECT (eBay): $56.50 (varies by truck which to get)
• 6-Way Fuse/Relay Box (Amazon): $49.99 (definitely are cheaper options out there but this is what I settled on)
• 8 colors of 25' 20 AWG TXL wire (eBay): $29.94
• Wire Harness Tape (Amazon): $9.99
• Snake Rod (Amazon): $13.99 (to pull wiring through the grommet)
• T-Tap (Amazon): $6.99 (to get illumination and ground from OEM overhead harness)
• Butt Splices (Home Depot): $16.48
• Fuse Tap (AutoZone): $8.99 (tapped into fuse 190 for ACC power for the switches) ((forget which exact model of fuse tap but got if from AutoZone))

Coming to a rough total of $320 for everything depending on what you already have around. Other things you'll need that I already had on hand are trim removal tools, socket wrench set, electrical tape, and a wire stripper tool.

OP did a good job with his write up, the Ford wiring diagrams for the switches are in this pdf I made. Page 4 is outdated but page 1 and 2 have the pin diagrams, while page 3 has the diagram to get illumination/ground from the overhead console wire assembly. I also went from the cab out to the "engine area" through the grommet, I think that's definitely the easiest way to do so. After taping the wire harness to the snake rod and punching a hole through the grommet, I found that it needed some lubricant to make its way through. Everything else is just making sure you connect the right wires to power everything up. I would recommend tapping illumination and ground to make sure they're spliced into the correct wires before moving on to the remaining 8!

For anyone thinking about attempting this, it really wasn't too hard, but will definitely take a full day or two if you're not experienced. I balked at $1000 quotes for this project before going about it myself. The hardest part of the install for me was getting through the grommet. That is, other than sourcing all the wiring diagrams and testing to make sure everything was correct (which has now already been done two different ways). Feel free to reach out with any additional questions!

I'm in the process of doing this, using almost the exact same method as you and using the same relay box from Amazon and console from eBay. One note, for anyone who wants to do this in the future, you can order the switch plug and pins from Mouser/Digikey, etc. for a couple bucks instead of buying the wire assembly. I'll try and provide the part numbers when I complete mine. Check the first post above for part numbers.

Question: the relay box is the only thing I haven't ordered yet, how's the quality of it? Easy enough to wire up? Also, it looks like the PDF won't load for me.

 

[bordner42]

I'm in the process of doing this, using almost the exact same method as you and using the same relay box from Amazon and console from eBay. One note, for anyone who wants to do this in the future, you can order the switch plug and pins from Mouser/Digikey, etc. for a couple bucks instead of buying the wire assembly. I'll try and provide the part numbers when I complete mine. Check the first post above for part numbers.

Question: the relay box is the only thing I haven't ordered yet, how's the quality of it? Easy enough to wire up? Also, it looks like the PDF won't load for me.

I'm in the process of doing this, using almost the exact same method as you and using the same relay box from Amazon and console from eBay. One note, for anyone who wants to do this in the future, you can order the switch plug and pins from Mouser/Digikey, etc. for a couple bucks instead of buying the wire assembly. I'll try and provide the part numbers when I complete mine. Check the first post above for part numbers.

Question: the relay box is the only thing I haven't ordered yet, how's the quality of it? Easy enough to wire up? Also, it looks like the PDF won't load for me.

Relay box seems like it’s pretty solidly built. If I had to do it again, I could wire it up in less than 30 minutes, but learning along the way took me a bit longer. I couldn’t determine whether it was internally grounded or not, so I went ahead and grounded it to the battery with two 6 awg ring terminals hosting 3 wires each. My only complaint is that the power cables are only about 2-3’ in length, so it limits where it can be placed.

I’ll post the pdf again later when I get the chance!

 

[derelict]

This looks sweet...

 

[bordner42]

This looks sweet...

That's great, considering your work with the SwitchPro was admittedly inspiration to look into add-on lights and going down this rabbit hole! After adding the ditch lights onto mine, I couldn't stand the switch it came with and wanted something that was better quality, but a cheaper option than was you used.

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