Swapping Center High Mounted Stop Lamp / Third Brake Light

[teeminus]

I’m wondering if anybody has ever swapped out their CHMSL / Third Brake Light? My 2021 Ram 3500 with 12.1 inch UConnect came with the CHMSL that includes both the Cargo View Camera as well as the Surround View Camera.

I recently had a Leer topper installed and apparently Leer has not yet taken into account the larger size of this new CHMSL and as a result, the topper sits flush up against the CHMSL when installed properly. As such, when driving it’s constantly banging against the CHMSL. The quick fix was to move back the topper ~quarter inch to provide enough gap to allow the topper to flex freely. Unfortunately, the body lines don‘t match up as well.

I’m wondering if anybody has ever gone backwards and swapped for the CHMSL that comes on the Tradesman trim (P/N 68412024AA), which is a completely flush CHMSL (the one with the cameras sticks out ~2.5 inches) which would provide plenty of gap between the topper.

Obviously, the harness wouldn’t match but my intention would be to not even plug it in - basically just to ‘seal’ up the hole since the light is no longer needed. From what I can tell, the footprint is exactly the same on the two parts.

I’m wondering if this would affect any of the systems/cameras upstream or downstream by leaving this harness disconnected permanently? I’d give it a quick shot but the topper has already been installed / adjusted back ~quarter inch.

 

[Will_T]

Here you go. A post in a long thread about this very subject where I described what I did using this light.

 

[Rockcrawlindude]

Weird. I have an ARE topper and that was one of the questions they asked and called to verify a second time before making my topper. It wasn’t a perfect experience but they got that part right.

 

[teeminus]

Here you go. A post in a long thread about this very subject where I described what I did using this light.

Thank you Will! Do you have a link to the thread you mentioned in your reply?

 

[teeminus]

Weird. I have an ARE topper and that was one of the questions they asked and called to verify a second time before making my topper. It wasn’t a perfect experience but they got that part right.

I was wondering why Leer didn’t do the same thing. It’s hard to tell in the picture, but there is a cutout specifically for the CHMSL with the cameras. It just needs to be cutout ~.25” further in order for all of the rest of the lines to line up with the body all of the way around. Basically, if you’re HD you get the cutout and if not, it’s flush (for all I know they use the same shell for the 1500s as well…).

 

[teeminus]

Thank you Will! Do you have a link to the thread you mentioned in your reply?

Never mind - I found it. Sounds like you did what I was thinking of doing as well - reconnect the cameras and just stuff them in the headliner - to avoid any problems with the rest of the system. How difficult is it to remove the two cameras from the CHMSL?

 

[Will_T]

Thank you Will! Do you have a link to the thread you mentioned in your reply?

Sorry! Somehow I managed to not insert the link. Here it is now.

edit: See you found it, great! It has been long enough now that I don't remember exactly but it was pretty simple to unplug the cameras and apparent how to get the cameras out of the light once unplugged. I plugged them back in and put them into the headliner so the truck thinks they are still hooked up. They just show black if you go to them. The rest of the cameras and the surround work as before.

 

[teeminus]

Sorry! Somehow I managed to not insert the link. Here it is now.

edit: See you found it, great! It has been long enough now that I don't remember exactly but it was pretty simple to unplug the cameras and apparent how to get the cameras out of the light once unplugged. I plugged them back in and put them into the headliner so the truck thinks they are still hooked up. They just show black if you go to them. The rest of the cameras and the surround work as before.

That's exactly what I was thinking myself and hoping to hear. The cameras are black whether they're on the original light (with topper on) or stuffed in the headliner so it really makes a lot of sense. I really appreciate your quick reply and detail!