Whelen TIR3 LED light install, brake wire location?

ak85lp

ak85lp

(Paul)
Joined
Jul 12, 2009
Messages
232
Location
Franktown Ontario Canada
Bike
2018 VStrom 1000XA
I recently got a Whelen TIR3 LED light to use as an enhancement for the brake light on my ST1100. I just need to know exactly where on the brake wire I need to tap into for the power/trigger. Is there a picture or some easy description to find the location? I can do the rest of the install fine but I'm not sure exactly where that wire would be.

Thanks
 
I tied into the brake wire under the seat, I carefully cut a slit in the tape and fished out the needed wire. I don't know the color off hand but doing it there is less of a pain than doing it at the tail light it's self.
 
It draws very little current. Absolutely no relay needed. You could run a few without needing a relay.
 
Bigmak96 said:
I tied into the brake wire under the seat, I carefully cut a slit in the tape and fished out the needed wire. I don't know the color off hand but doing it there is less of a pain than doing it at the tail light it's self.
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And it's still working wonderfully. (My wife followed me the other day and commented on how eye catching the strobe was when the brake was on.)


Those in the know use Tapatalk Pro.
 
Whenever I add things like LED tail/brake/indicator lights, aux lights, whatever, I like to use so called Hitachi or similar connectors. I tap into the wiring harness, put a female connector on the leads I've just installed, then a male connector to the LED light. This way, next time I tear the bike apart, it is a simple matter of unclipping a connector. I admit, it is more work to set this up, but next time everything comes apart quickly and goes together just as easily.
 
When I did my trailer wiring I used a splice cable. It was about 6" long with a male and female connectors on it. It had wires coming off for turn, signal and brake. These were for the trailer harness. I plugged it into the rear lighting harness. When I need to I can go back to stock with no issues.
 
On the right side near the bottom of the frame 'v' is a junction that goes 'hot' whenever you press the rear or front brake. A test light will make it easy to find. I just pigtailed into that connection so I did not have to split a wire or solder a wire. (Did on all three of my ST1100s). The blue wire is from the TIR3.
 

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Uncle Phil said:
On the right side near the bottom of the frame 'v' is a junction that goes 'hot' whenever you press the rear or front brake. A test light will make it easy to find. I just pigtailed into that connection so I did not have to split a wire or solder a wire. (Did on all three of my ST1100s). The blue wire is from the TIR3.
Click to expand...
D'oh!!!Leave it to UP to find the easiest place to do it.
Please forget my under the seat meathod. It works but why not do it the easy way. Thanks Phil.
 
Uncle Phil said:
On the right side near the bottom of the frame 'v' is a junction that goes 'hot' whenever you press the rear or front brake. A test light will make it easy to find. I just pigtailed into that connection so I did not have to split a wire or solder a wire. (Did on all three of my ST1100s). The blue wire is from the TIR3.
Click to expand...

Good to know!


Those in the know use Tapatalk Pro.
 
carpdm said:
Thanks Uncle Phil. Is there a similar junction on the ST1300?
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I can't speak to which one it is Tom but there will be one. I fires the relay for the rear brake so you should be able to probe the wires to see which one goes hot when the brake is applied.
 
Uncle Phil said:
On the right side near the bottom of the frame 'v' is a junction that goes 'hot' whenever you press the rear or front brake. A test light will make it easy to find. I just pigtailed into that connection so I did not have to split a wire or solder a wire. (Did on all three of my ST1100s). The blue wire is from the TIR3.
Click to expand...

Thnaks Phil, no I haven't got it hooked up yet or looked at it. How did you tie into that wire?
 
I use the method I learned from MCCruise. They provide 'pigtails' where you create a 'y' pigtail with the proper connections on each end - one to plug into the originals on each end and a leg off to plug in the new connection. That way you are not cutting wires or soldering junctions and it can be removed and put back as it was if you need to do it. Usually you can crimp the 'new' wire connection into one end or the other of the connectors that go into the original connector. It sounds a lot more complicated than it is. ;-)
 
Uncle Phil said:
On the right side near the bottom of the frame 'v' is a junction that goes 'hot' whenever you press the rear or front brake. A test light will make it easy to find. I just pigtailed into that connection so I did not have to split a wire or solder a wire. (Did on all three of my ST1100s). The blue wire is from the TIR3.
Click to expand...

Thanks to everyone for the help and ideas. I did look in my service manual and found that I was looking for a green/white wire and with Uncle Phil's help it was fairly easy to find once I removed the right side cover.

-I had a bit of a hard time orienting myself with UP's picture here as the silver brake module on my 2001 ST was to the left of the pic.
-I looked for the green/white wire coming from the front and could see it very close to the rear brake control. A 12 Volt tester confirmed I had the right wire
-I used a type of tap that screws into the wire and then the TIR wire could tie into that
-There was a small hole in the frame near the top that I was able to sand down to bare metal and tie my ground to
-from there I just routed the wire under the seat and through an opening in the fender just behind the side bags
-the TIR light mounted very easy to area where the rear deflector was. As was mentioned before it was almost an exact fit
-I put in a couple of quick connectors for the wiring near the back so hopefully it will come apart when the rear fender needs to come off
-there are plastic fins in the rear fender for strengthening the fender and I was able to drill a small hole through there big enough for an electrical tie and tie the whole wire set to keep it away from the rear tire
-some plastic split tubing completed it all and made it look half decent

The light is not super bright but the default on/blink is more than enough to grab the driver behind the grab their attention. Picture attached. I hope this helps someone else.

ST.jpg
 
ak85lp said:
The light is not super bright but the default on/blink is more than enough to grab the driver behind the grab their attention.
Click to expand...

+1 on the blink/strobe functionality. Did you try the light before hooking up to the bike? Was it the same brightness it is now? These are emergency warning lights used on a lot of ambulance fire and police vehicles. It should be pretty damn bright. My E3 lights up houses across the street at night. Makes me feel a little guilty and use it sparingly.

Not that you want to blind anybody but the TIR3's brightness should be pretty impressive.
 
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