[Steven Burdick]

I've been on a mission to find the OEM sport bar with lights without getting hosed too much and I finally found someone within driving distance that sold me the whole set up for $1000 for my 2016 Colorado. I literally just got back from the long drive and it is late so I just put it in my garage but at first glance the install doesn't look too bad. As far as the bar it looks like it should sit right in there but I'm sure it will end up being harder than it looks. There is just one wire hanging off of it and it looks like plug and play for the electrical on the third tail light and light bar but I do not have the interior switch so I'll have to figure out what to get there and I think I will need the dealer to flash it. Anything else I need to know? I was hoping to find a youtube vid on this but so far no luck.

 

[spoonman]

installation instructions for the bar are in the description of this auction:

16-17 Chevrolet Colorado Sport Bar 23325905 w/ 3rd Brake Light Genuine OEM GM | eBay

That should help.


If you didnt get the proper light switch then you will need to find a way to wire it yourself using an aftermarket switch. Unless you buy the proper switch from a dealer and like you said get the flash code with it.

 

[Steven Burdick]

installation instructions for the bar are in the description of this auction:

16-17 Chevrolet Colorado Sport Bar 23325905 w/ 3rd Brake Light Genuine OEM GM | eBay

That should help.


If you didnt get the proper light switch then you will need to find a way to wire it yourself using an aftermarket switch. Unless you buy the proper switch from a dealer and like you said get the flash code with it.

Thanks that does help. Have you done this before? On the switch is it just a matter of obtaining and changing out the knob itself in the interior but the plug on the bar is the same for both the third brake light and the light bar?

It looks like the bar goes on fairly easy once I cut out the holes and then find the plug and play port and then I'm hoping I can easily get a knob and get it flashed to run like it should.

 

[monkeyracer]

Can you post a picture of what the pigtail looks like?

It sounds like the original owner kept the switch and the chassis harness for this. If you have both of those, it would be plug and play. Without them, you will need to wire everything yourself.

For the brake light, there should be 3 wires: Ground, Running Light, Brake Light. You can tap off the trailer harness for all three of these wires. You might want to get a t-harness for the trailer plug to make that easy. I have one of these waiting to get plugged in:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KTJF2Z0

There's also the Curt brand one:

https://www.amazon.com/CURT-55384-Custom-Wiring-Connector/dp/B0009FJ38Q

I bought the Westin because there was an "open box" deal on it for like $13, but either one will do the same.

For the lights on top, you should have just 2 wires: Ground (might be shared with the brake light, my light bar did not come with the led lights) and Power. You would run this to the battery through a fuse, a relay, and a switch.

There are harnesses you can buy on eBay/Amazon/etc that are designed to make adding a light bar easy, but most are fairly short, so you will have to get some extra wire to extend through the sport bar to the lights. I bought two harnesses though because I want to be able to control my 5 led lights in two groups: Spot and Flood. You would just need the one though.

I am hoping to get all of my lights wired up very soon, and plan to post some pictures of how I do it.

 

[Steven Burdick]

Can you post a picture of what the pigtail looks like?

It sounds like the original owner kept the switch and the chassis harness for this. If you have both of those, it would be plug and play. Without them, you will need to wire everything yourself.

For the brake light, there should be 3 wires: Ground, Running Light, Brake Light. You can tap off the trailer harness for all three of these wires. You might want to get a t-harness for the trailer plug to make that easy. I have one of these waiting to get plugged in:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KTJF2Z0

There's also the Curt brand one:

https://www.amazon.com/CURT-55384-Custom-Wiring-Connector/dp/B0009FJ38Q

I bought the Westin because there was an "open box" deal on it for like $13, but either one will do the same.

For the lights on top, you should have just 2 wires: Ground (might be shared with the brake light, my light bar did not come with the led lights) and Power. You would run this to the battery through a fuse, a relay, and a switch.

There are harnesses you can buy on eBay/Amazon/etc that are designed to make adding a light bar easy, but most are fairly short, so you will have to get some extra wire to extend through the sport bar to the lights. I bought two harnesses though because I want to be able to control my 5 led lights in two groups: Spot and Flood. You would just need the one though.

I am hoping to get all of my lights wired up very soon, and plan to post some pictures of how I do it.

At first glance the wire looks long like naybe 5 feet and I thought it would just run somewhere and plug in. After reading the instructions from that ebay page I cant tell if the wire it talks about is this one or if I am missing a harness in addition to the knob.

 

[Steven Burdick]

Here are some pics I snapped. I have not looked at it in relation to the truck but Im hoping that since this factory installed on a colorado that this is everything i need edcept the knob.

 

[Tank46]

Found a sports bar for sale with the off road lamps included (don't plan to hook up anytime soon) and it comes with just the same type of plug/wire that Steven Burdick posted right above this post. The colors on the plug are Purple, Brown and Black - just like the picture. I am only concerned with getting the Brake light working for right now.

monkeyracer, you mention how you can tap into the trailer plug. I found this thread that tells what the colors on the trailer plug correspond to (Post 4)
http://coloradofans.com/forums/201-2nd-gen-electronics-audio-lighting/248290-trailer-wiring-color-matching.html

. Yellow: Left Stop/Turn Signal
. Green: Right Stop/Turn Signal
. Brown: Taillamps/Parking Lamps
. Black: Ground
. Gray: Back-up Lamps
. Orange: Battery Feed
. Blue: Trailer Brake

So I would tap into the trailer harness at these locations:
Blue: Brake
Black: Ground
Brown: Taillamps/Parking Lamps?

How would I be able to tell which wires from the Sports Bar harness are Brake, Ground (obviously black) and Running light?

I have been researching this for the past week and I have seen a post where someone tap's into the actual 3rd brake light on the back of the cab, but I don't want to go through the window trim.

Also it appears that I would need another wiring harness (from the ebay instructions https://www.ebay.com/itm/262444938074?rmvSB=true) that I do not have. So taping into the trailer harness to get the Brake light to work on the sports bar seems like my best option.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

Can you post a picture of what the pigtail looks like?

It sounds like the original owner kept the switch and the chassis harness for this. If you have both of those, it would be plug and play. Without them, you will need to wire everything yourself.

For the brake light, there should be 3 wires: Ground, Running Light, Brake Light. You can tap off the trailer harness for all three of these wires. You might want to get a t-harness for the trailer plug to make that easy. I have one of these waiting to get plugged in:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KTJF2Z0

There's also the Curt brand one:

https://www.amazon.com/CURT-55384-Custom-Wiring-Connector/dp/B0009FJ38Q

I bought the Westin because there was an "open box" deal on it for like $13, but either one will do the same.

For the lights on top, you should have just 2 wires: Ground (might be shared with the brake light, my light bar did not come with the led lights) and Power. You would run this to the battery through a fuse, a relay, and a switch.

There are harnesses you can buy on eBay/Amazon/etc that are designed to make adding a light bar easy, but most are fairly short, so you will have to get some extra wire to extend through the sport bar to the lights. I bought two harnesses though because I want to be able to control my 5 led lights in two groups: Spot and Flood. You would just need the one though.

I am hoping to get all of my lights wired up very soon, and plan to post some pictures of how I do it.

 

[Chriss4333]

do you have to ground the black wire to the trailer harness and the purple wire to the blue wire on harness to get it to work

 

[Tank46]

do you have to ground the black wire to the trailer harness and the purple wire to the blue wire on harness to get it to work

I just installed it not 20 minutes ago. I used whats called a logic box and connected to the green trailer harness wire (right turn/stop) to the right turn logic box relay connection, yellow trailer harness wire (left turn/stop) to the left turn logic box relay connection and the purple wire off the sport bar harness to the brake connection on the logic box relay.

I then grounded it through the logic box ground relay connection with the black wire from the sports bar harness, but I just used a ground location on the frame under the drivers around where the bed light exposed wires are behind the drivers side turnsignal.

The logic box stops the 3rd brake light from blinking.

I read the blue wire is for the trailer brakes and will not even work until you have a brake controller installed and it's not the wire you should be using for this.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Truck-cap-Third-brake-light-Logic-box-AT-LC-4-Wire-light-to-vehicle/221868382912?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D44040%26meid%3D270731d7b24f403784d9a58fc1babbd4%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D332319485207%26itm%3D221868382912&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

 

[ChaosTheory]

Well, it took my dealer's only "detailer" 3 days to figure out how to install the bar and lights, and it still wasn't done correctly, so they had to have one of their head mechanics eventually do it.

Apparently it's not as easy as it looks.

 

[Tank46]

Well, it took my dealer's only "detailer" 3 days to figure out how to install the bar and lights, and it still wasn't done correctly, so they had to have one of their head mechanics eventually do it.

Apparently it's not as easy as it looks.

The logic box I used works just as described. Even got some of that round plastic tubing along with a bunch of electrical tape to help protect it from the elements.

Time will tell how it holds up though.

 

[Toughsox]

Well, it took my dealer's only "detailer" 3 days to figure out how to install the bar and lights, and it still wasn't done correctly, so they had to have one of their head mechanics eventually do it.

Apparently it's not as easy as it looks.

For it to take a 'detailer' 3 days to install it, that would mean he spent 1 day looking at the instructions and doing nothing, the 2nd day laying out the parts and doing nothing, and then spending the 3rd day actually doing it. But you said 'detailer', not mechanic so he might get a pass on the time wasted.

Why they would let a 'detailer' do anything mechanical on your truck is beyond me.....they aren't mechanics by any stretch of the imagination.

However, any real mechanic should have that bar installed in less than an hour (ONLY due to being overly cautious not to scratch your brand new truck) I mean geez, its around 12 screws and bolts......it isn't brain surgery.

Now the wiring is a different animal, since it isn't an 'entry-level type of install, but the wiring shouldn't take a weekend-warrior more than an entire day to wire. But a qualified a GM guy SHOULD have that harness installed in under 4 hours.

But they finally got yours going so, good luck with it.....those things do look nice. :wink2:

 

[Chriss4333]

did you use the black ground wire from sport bar harness too relay ground on switch or a separate ground wire from relay switch to frame then ground the wire from sport bar up front under drivers cab so you have used a 2 ground wire is what i'm reading

 

[Tank46]

did you use the black ground wire from sport bar harness too relay ground on switch or a separate ground wire from relay switch to frame then ground the wire from sport bar up front under drivers cab so you have used a 2 ground wire is what i'm reading

If you look under the driver side rear end near the turn signal you should see a harness like this:

http://coloradofans.com/forums/attachments/2nd-gen-electronics-audio-lighting/132322d1453059679-extra-wire-behind-left-rear-taillight-img_0863.jpg

In that general area I found a wire that was an already grounded to the frame (10mm bolt). Also right under that harness there is a small hole that I zip tied the logic box relay to (used some round plastic tubing like what the trailer harness is wrapped in to help protect all the wiring from the elements - including the relay, the relay itself isnt very big).

I then ran a wire (only 1) from the 10mm bolt ground location I just talked about to the ground terminal on the Logic box (spade connector).

I then used a wire tap and tapped the black ground wire from the sport bar harness in line with the above wire.

So I only used 1 ground wire and I did not mess with the ground wire from the trailer wire harness.

 

[Chriss4333]

So let me get this right you ran a ground (blk)wire from the logic box to the 10mm bolt and the sport wire (blk)you used a quick splice to the existing blk wire that you ran to the 10mm bolt that you connected to the logic box

 

[Tank46]

So let me get this right you ran a ground (blk)wire from the logic box to the 10mm bolt and the sport wire (blk)you used a quick splice to the existing blk wire that you ran to the 10mm bolt that you connected to the logic box

Yeah, and used wire tap's for the green/yellow wires off the trailer harness... It should hold up fine.

 

[Chriss4333]

Thank you for all the help.Found the ground wire you were talking about and order the part (logix box) and got the other items needed .You are the man!

 

[ChaosTheory]

For it to take a 'detailer' 3 days to install it, that would mean he spent 1 day looking at the instructions and doing nothing, the 2nd day laying out the parts and doing nothing, and then spending the 3rd day actually doing it. But you said 'detailer', not mechanic so he might get a pass on the time wasted.

Why they would let a 'detailer' do anything mechanical on your truck is beyond me.....they aren't mechanics by any stretch of the imagination.

However, any real mechanic should have that bar installed in less than an hour (ONLY due to being overly cautious not to scratch your brand new truck) I mean geez, its around 12 screws and bolts......it isn't brain surgery.

Now the wiring is a different animal, since it isn't an 'entry-level type of install, but the wiring shouldn't take a weekend-warrior more than an entire day to wire. But a qualified a GM guy SHOULD have that harness installed in under 4 hours.

But they finally got yours going so, good luck with it.....those things do look nice. :wink2:

Yeah, when my truck arrived from Wentzville, the dealer's 'detailer' added all the extra stuff like the fender flares, upgraded wheels, ton. cover, hood deflector, etc-- as well as the bar/lights. I'm guessing he was routinely interrupted for other projects, but I was told he really struggled with the wiring especially. The bar/lights delayed everything by 3 days and was finished only when an actual mechanic (tech?) completed it, which happened only after I talked to the dealership manager about why it was taking so long.

 

[Toughsox]

No way could I have waited 3 hours, let alone 3 days. While I know my dealership knew the exact day and time my truck was coming in, I called my dealer ahead of time to inform him of it from my alerts from GM. Thus, he knew, that I knew, that he knew.....after waiting 3 months for my truck to arrive, I would be there bright and early the next morning to pick it up ....which I did. :grin2:

 

[Tank46]

Thank you for all the help.Found the ground wire you were talking about and order the part (logix box) and got the other items needed .You are the man!

Glad to help! Let me know if you have any other questions, although you know the wires to tap and how to hook it up now, so you should be fine.

Wish I had some one to walk me through it - no one responded to my questions, but I researched around quite a bit and eventually found the answers I needed.