Aux Switches

[Atty]

So the switch ad relay are 2 separate part numbers?

Yep, the Aux switch block I bought was 68376644AE (got the part number from this website) it's for the diesel, has exhaust brake switch, tow/haul and front /rear park switches as well as the 6 Aux switches). The best place to locate the relays will be in the Aux PDC box just aft of the driver's side battery (already has the cabin diesel heaters relays in there). You'll also need fuses etc. The relays and fuses aren't generic off the shelf but are common in RAMS etc. I found the part numbers for fuse and relays in this thread too. You will need to use AlfaOBD (or something similar) and have an OBDII reader ( I already had one from other vehicles) and a security bypass module (bought mine from infotainment) it's a bugger to get to but they have a video showing how to do it. I have done it a few times now and gotten very quick at it.

 

[Atty]

Found this diagram for the Aux PDC while looking for the terminals/connectors required... Once I find the connectors I'll have everything I need to wire it up.. If anyone out there knows what the part numbers are for the needed terminals and would be willing to provide them that would be great!

• 8x male fuse terminal (pins 35-45)
• 12x female terminals for relays (power side of the relay, pins 51-52, 56-57, etc..)
• 12x female terminals for relays (control side of the relay, pins 53 & 55, etc..)

 

[Atty]

Update on my efforts..
Had to do my wiring differently to what I posted earlier as I wasn't thinking clearly and the switches 1-3 would have just activated all the lights regardless of which one I selected. Here's my updated wiring diagram. This set up allows me to control the front outside lights without ignition (sw 5), the front middle light without ignition (sw4), all front lights with ignition on and high beam on (sw 6, this allows me to turn on the additional front lights and have them cycle with the high beam), rear lights (sw 3), and sw 1 and 2 as spares (for whatever else I decide to hook up later on). You may be thinking it's weird that I started by using switches from the right hand side.. it's because we intend on taking this truck to Australia at the end of the year and it will be converted to right hand drive and then they will be closer to the driver.
anyway here is the diagram

 

[Atty]

I found the terminals that I needed for the fuses in the Aux PDC I bought them from Connector Experts (they weren't cheap for the 10 of them but that's all that I needed). Terminal number 506A fits perfectly.

 

[Atty]

as for the other terminals in the Aux PDC, I was able to modify a standard yellow female connector to correctly locate into the slot.. took some time to modify and I even took a little video if anyone is interested... I'll have to figure out how to share that as it's a massive file size. basically what I did was lever up the middle section at the back enough to allow my diagonal cutters to cut the middle section, once that was cut through I bent up each side and trimmed to the correct length and then bent them back down. This modified female connector can be used in the input and output of the relay (from fuse and going to the item to be powered) total of 12 to wire all 6 relays.

 

[Atty]

and finally for the control side of the relays (input and output) I used one of the terminal 506A connector to pull power from the Aux PDC power busbar (just like for the relays), I was able to get all my control wires off of the one connector, but would recommend wiring up 3 per connector to make it easier. These connectors/terminals also standard and didn't need any modifying to locate into the Aux PDC. I did however remove the blue shielding to make it easier. all the terminals/connectors fit properly into the Aux PDC box and are fully protected within each slot. The output of the wires is what I then ran through the firewall (used the clutch cover with a grommet and silastic to fully seal) and hard wired them to the wires at the back of the switch.

 

[Atty]

So once my relays have arrived (serves me right for ordering online and for as cheap as I could find (Ali express) my system will be fully functioning. To get the high beam component working I used a solid state relay (SSR) that I mounted under/behind the Aux PDC that takes it's signal from the left hand side headlight high beam wire. I used a SSR because I was worried that the current draw from a normal relay may have been enough to trigger a fault in the high beam circuit. That relay opens/closes the common wire that goes to sw 6 (see above diagram) and is separated from sw 4 and 5 by diodes to allow operation only one way. This prevents my previously talked about issue of switches 4-6 doing exactly the same thing.

Total cost for this was approx:
Aux switch (part num 68376644AE-001) $140
5x Relays (part num 871E-1A-D-R1 U19) $16 but still waiting on.. ordered these over a month ago and yet to arrive in country, there are other options but wanted a cheap option
1x SSR DC-DC (Amazon) $14
Connectors for fuses (packet of 10 part num 506A connector experts) $44 .. freight was expensive and so were the connectors.. but couldn't find elsewhere and noone that had the numbers was willing to give them out..
mini J case fuses (local autoshop) $5each ( i only bought what I needed..) $20
wiring - I already had.
AlfaOBD $50
OBDII connector (already had)
Security Bypass Module (Infotainment website https://www.infotainment.com/products/fca-security-gateway-module-bypass) $58
Total cost for this setup is including freight to my door and comes in at $342.

The added bonus with AlfaOBD II and the SBM is that I now have the ability to adjust other options in the car and will look into the possibility of adding 360/surround view cameras with the CHMSL camera.

 

[BigSwede]

Anyone have a part number for the aux PDC for those of us that don’t have one?

 

[Atty]

Anyone have a part number for the aux PDC for those of us that don’t have one?

Here is the part number and website for you to do some further research but it says it's discontinued and the replacement part shows a weird looking part rather than the Aux PDC.

Ram 2500 Kit. Auxiliary power distribution center - 68209998AB | Myrtle Beach SC

Kit. Auxiliary power distribution center. [auxiliary switches - i/p mounted], wiring only. Ram 2500. Genuine Ram Part - 68209998AB (68209998AA, 68209998AC). Ships from Myrtle Beach SC

www.moparpartsinc.com

Auxiliary and Intregal PDC.. Ram 2500 - Myrtle Beach SC

Ram 2500 Auxiliary and Intregal PDC.

www.moparpartsinc.com

But in all honesty of you don't have the Aux PDC then I'd just buy and install a generic relay box that you can get from Amazon/Ebay etc that will come with the terminals etc required rather than the expense of buying specific terminals to fit in the Aux PDC box and the specific relays and fuses.
Good luck!

 

[Distillusion]

It would be nice if they had a single wiring harness.

Just my observations:
The difference in prices for just a short harness component are crazy. Those harness, just for a part of the dash, range in price from $200 to over $500, depending on which options they support. If the whole truck was wired with its full harness, the difference would probably amount to over $1,000. It's not a vast number if you're spending that kind of money on the truck, but it's not trivial for folks who are tight on budget, and watching for $500 off here and there. The related problem is with buying pre-built trucks off dealer lots - you see very few with the aux switches - and it's only a $145 option. Dealers have no incentive to order this for all their trucks because most folks that buy these things don't make many - if any - mods. So changes would have to come from Ram directly as standards. How to convince Ram that this wouldn't just appeal to a small fragment of their market?

 

[farmallboy]

I think I will disagree here.. When you look at the volume of trucks produced, to add a few wires and connectors to a harness is really minimal, I used to work for a few manufacturing companies.. (an example would be a machine that cost $450 to build sells for 1.2 million bucks--yes its true) So the Manufacturer builds a vehicle gets discounts for the volume of materials it buys.. I can tell you they don't pay $250-$500 per tire like we do when we shop..
At any rate, I hardly see trucks out there that don't get modified,, we all do it. On rare occasion will I see a stock vehicle running around. I think it would be awesome to sell the trucks like they do but also add an option you can opt for called Option "U" when you select this option it comes with something like a laramie harness with all the plugs for everything.. I know there are alot of folks that can't afford a limited or laramie so they get a tradesman, or a Bighorn,,then they can save up for the OEM upgrades and just plug them in..Why not???

You sir have a great idea. If I had to pay 500-1000 extra even just for "Laramie wire prep package" it could be worth it if you wanted all sensors, cameras etc


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Distillusion]

I think I will disagree here.. When you look at the volume of trucks produced, to add a few wires and connectors to a harness is really minimal, I used to work for a few manufacturing companies.. (an example would be a machine that cost $450 to build sells for 1.2 million bucks--yes its true) So the Manufacturer builds a vehicle gets discounts for the volume of materials it buys.. I can tell you they don't pay $250-$500 per tire like we do when we shop..
At any rate, I hardly see trucks out there that don't get modified,, we all do it. On rare occasion will I see a stock vehicle running around. I think it would be awesome to sell the trucks like they do but also add an option you can opt for called Option "U" when you select this option it comes with something like a laramie harness with all the plugs for everything.. I know there are alot of folks that can't afford a limited or laramie so they get a tradesman, or a Bighorn,,then they can save up for the OEM upgrades and just plug them in..Why not???

I've seen the difference in large-volume contract pricing across the board for several types of manufacturing. Sure, they don't pay what we do for retail pricing. But just consider a single wiring harness. If it includes all optional features, then not only is the part higher, but the cost to install is higher as well. They have more wires to route, meaning more labor at the factory. For example, there's a lot of wire to route in the bed for the gooseneck / 5th wheel electrical, the RamBox power, the LED bed lights, trailer cams, and more. When you stop to consider the entire truck wiring package, it's a good deal of parts and labor. Even if it were to only take a single hour of additional labor, spread that across all 600,000 trucks Ram sells each year, it adds up to some bigger numbers. If the costs were *just* $200 additional parts and 1 hour of labor (> $70 when you add the employment taxes and overhead costs) - that would be $270 x 600,000 = $162 million dollars a year.

I still wish they'd do it, but I can't see them doing it when they look at big numbers across the board.

 

[Distillusion]

Ram produced 703,000 trucks in 2019...

Ram reported 633,694 pickups produced in 2019.
They also produced 56,409 ProMaster commercial vans. And another 12,920 unspecified.
From their report to the newswire services.

 

[Distillusion]

The cost to install is minimal..it takes literally 3-5 minutes to install a dash harness,,,REALLY!... Mopar does not produce the harnesses so they DO get bulk discounts.. When you are talking about a harness with three, four, five extra plugs that are not connected during install, then the impact is really minimal.. I have worked in manufacturing as I said before, it is not a big impact as you would have us believe.

In 2016 Ram produced 38 trucks per hour... Total of 332,830 trucks that year,,,so it doesn't take an hour to install a harness

As I indicated clearly in my first comment, I'm not talking about just the dash harness. That's only one small part of all the optional harness they could install. It starts to add up.

 

[Distillusion]

I am quite sure you are not getting the point.. No it doesn't add up. Ram buys a harness from a contracted source, for them to add plugs etc does not take that long,,making a harness is no different than a vehicle on an assembly line. When the harness gets to Ram, they pre-stage them on the line and the techs install them as the truck rolls by. I have made many harnesses, wired many consoles etc.. So I think I have a bit of knowledge on this..

I am quite sure you're not getting the point... Someone at RAM has predetermined that it costs more, and that they can save money by not doing it. If it was so close in price, they would be doing it already.

I still would prefer they do it.

 

[Brutal_HO]

Let's keep these conversations civil please.

 

[Xflight29]

Although a cynic might say the reason manufactures combine popular options into packages is so they can make more money, this isn't strictly true the real reason this is done is to streamline production processes and actually make the trucks and options less expensive than they would be otherwise. when you build a truck all these options are available to order at that time.

 

[John Jensen]

I am civil

If civil, how fo you explain, "Let me explain to you--without getting out the crayons (Geesh) "

Sorry Brutal, I just couldn't resist

 

[Brutal_HO]

If civil, how fo you explain, "Let me explain to you--without getting out the crayons (Geesh) "

Sorry Brutal, I just couldn't resist

The topic was resolved, no need to beat a dead horse.

I reserve comments like that to people who:
1. Do not nor have they ever worked in Manufacturing (large scale)
2. who have never made wiring Harnesses
3. who are not engineers
4. who have not worked with control systems

I have had the opportunity to have worked in all those fields and then some. I was also an instructor of advanced electronic/electrical control systems, an Executive of an engineering company. I currently hold two Patents and enjoy inventing real world applications, not some key chain lights ...
So you see, you can only explain something so many times then turn blue. I do not begrudge anyone's opinion, but I do not hold to an Opinion, I am motivated by Facts because facts are indisputable, hence the name "Fact"..
I may be harsh, but then that is the Military side of me coming out, we could not afford opinions...

Lastly, I will post this link for you: https://www.mymoparparts.com/v-2019...4l-v8-gas/electrical--wiring-headlamp-to-dash
As you can see with these harnesses there is not much difference in price--That is retail price. If we look at the wholesale price the cost would be lower, I will not get into the actual cost of a harness but I can tell you---its not that expensive!
Cheers!

Many here can attest to my "brutal" handle, and I also served my country, but that's no excuse to treat anyone poorly, and we do need to refrain from personal attacks or insults. I didn't see anyone say they were a Marine, so no need to play the crayon card, which could be considered quite insulting to some. I've often used the term, "I can explain it to you again, but cannot make you understand it." Do unto others if you will.

Let's keep this thread on topic about Aux switches. You guys want to discuss manufacturing and economics, please start a new thread.

No reply necessary.

 

[John Jensen]

I reserve comments like that to people who:
1. Do not nor have they ever worked in Manufacturing (large scale)
2. who have never made wiring Harnesses
3. who are not engineers
4. who have not worked with control systems

I have had the opportunity to have worked in all those fields and then some. I was also an instructor of advanced electronic/electrical control systems, an Executive of an engineering company. I currently hold two Patents and enjoy inventing real world applications, not some key chain lights ...
So you see, you can only explain something so many times then turn blue. I do not begrudge anyone's opinion, but I do not hold to an Opinion, I am motivated by Facts because facts are indisputable, hence the name "Fact"..
I may be harsh, but then that is the Military side of me coming out, we could not afford opinions...

Lastly, I will post this link for you: https://www.mymoparparts.com/v-2019...4l-v8-gas/electrical--wiring-headlamp-to-dash
As you can see with these harnesses there is not much difference in price--That is retail price. If we look at the wholesale price the cost would be lower, I will not get into the actual cost of a harness but I can tell you---its not that expensive!
Cheers!

You certainly have a nice resume. I really don't know why you are responding that way to my post. I wasn't asking to explain what "getting out the crayons " meant, I know what that means. My post was about your sarcasm no being civil.
By the way, your first paragraph smacks of the same sarcasm and except for #3, your assumptions of me are 100% wrong.
I'm not arguing or retaliating, just as you reference, get facts straight.