rocker swap on Painless Trail Rocker???

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berick1

New member
Has anyone attempted to swap out the rockers on the Painless Performance Trail Rocker. It is my understanding that they use 'carling' switches which should match up with the Contura XIV rockers that OTRATTW makes. Any thoughts / experience with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
I just did this for 3 of the switches (front/rear lights/CB radio). OTRATTW rocker covers and their $2.65 tool pops them off.

Now I'm toying with the idea of getting replacement carling switches with green LED lighting instead. Anyone know what model of carling contura V I need to do that?

Now to figure out what to power with the other switches....
 
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Any chance there is a "how-to" thread out there on how to hook accessorizes up the Trail Rocker??? I have a set of Rigid Duallys that I would prefer not to destroy as I attempt to figure this out. I assume I need to do some cutting of the Rigid harness and some splicing, but I'm just not sure how. Thanks.
 
berick1 said:
Any chance there is a "how-to" thread out there on how to hook accessorizes up the Trail Rocker??? I have a set of Rigid Duallys that I would prefer not to destroy as I attempt to figure this out. I assume I need to do some cutting of the Rigid harness and some splicing, but I'm just not sure how. Thanks.
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I assume you are not going to be using the rigid switch?

This should be pretty easy, and you are not going to end up with much of the rigid harness left. Probably just the plug close to the lights themselves and then a few feet of wire to splice the power into the accessory wire coming from the painless system. The other wire off of each light will need to be grounded (unless the painless system provides a ground for accessories).
 
Sharkey said:
I assume you are not going to be using the rigid switch?

This should be pretty easy, and you are not going to end up with much of the rigid harness left. Probably just the plug close to the lights themselves and then a few feet of wire to splice the power into the accessory wire coming from the painless system. The other wire off of each light will need to be grounded (unless the painless system provides a ground for accessories).
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Thanks for the response Sharkey! That's correct on not using the Rigid Switch. I'm not sure if the Painless system provides a ground or not. I assume it can't hurt to ground it anyway just in case.

I guess my confusion is coming from not fully understanding what the Painless system can power and what will need to be hooked to the battery and just switched on by the system. I remember someone telling me that accessories like on-board air and a winch will need to be hooked directly to the battery and just switched, where as some others can draw power from the system. This is my first foray into any sort of electrical modifications on a vehicle and I'm hoping not to learn lessons the hard way :hot:
 
berick1 said:
Thanks for the response Sharkey! That's correct on not using the Rigid Switch. I'm not sure if the Painless system provides a ground or not. I assume it can't hurt to ground it anyway just in case.

I guess my confusion is coming from not fully understanding what the Painless system can power and what will need to be hooked to the battery and just switched on by the system. I remember someone telling me that accessories like on-board air and a winch will need to be hooked directly to the battery and just switched, where as some others can draw power from the system. This is my first foray into any sort of electrical modifications on a vehicle and I'm hoping not to learn lessons the hard way :hot:
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Most accessories with higher amperage will have their own larger wiring to hook up to the battery, like a winch. At that point, the solenoid on the winch is basically like a giant relay that just needs triggered 12V power, which is where the Trail Rocker comes in.

LED light bars and such, you will just need to provide the power with one of our 8 output wires and be good to go by using one of the provided stainless butt connectors and applying heatshrink. We include plenty of 12 gauge TXL wiring as some accessories come with less than stellar wiring.
 
Painless Performance said:
Most accessories with higher amperage will have their own larger wiring to hook up to the battery, like a winch. At that point, the solenoid on the winch is basically like a giant relay that just needs triggered 12V power, which is where the Trail Rocker comes in.
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In addition to the positive from the winch that goes directly to the battery, is there going to be another wire from the solenoid that I can hook up to the trail rocker? Or am I trying to do something that is unnecessary? Do people install on / off switches to power their winches? Thanks in advance.
 
From what I have seen, on/off switch for powering the winch and a momentary on/off/on rocker switch to control in/out functions of the winch. Seems to be the safest bet. I'm in the middle of my Painless install and would like to have control from the rocker panel. I'll be following for tips


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Wheatbackdigger said:
From what I have seen, on/off switch for powering the winch and a momentary on/off/on rocker switch to control in/out functions of the winch. Seems to be the safest bet. I'm in the middle of my Painless install and would like to have control from the rocker panel. I'll be following for tips


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
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From what I've been able to find so far it looks like if I want to control power to the winch from the Trail Rocker (or any other switch for that matter) I will need to install something like this:

https://www.northridge4x4.com/part/battery-accessories/62132-warn-power-interrupt-kit

That seems to be the only way to add an in-line power interrupter. I can't speak to controlling the in/out function though. I am planning on using the remote for that function.
 
Jeeeep thanks for posting the pic! I was always curious as to if the painless overhead worked with a roll cage, had this ability, and how it looked installed. Did you have to relocate the rear view mirror? Sorry if I derailed the thread.


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jkris said:
Jeeeep thanks for posting the pic! I was always curious as to if the painless overhead worked with a roll cage, had this ability, and how it looked installed. Did you have to relocate the rear view mirror? Sorry if I derailed the thread.


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they included a rearview mirror relocation bracket - it works great. it's installed in the pic.

The overhead is mounted to the footman loop in mine but it does have an indent in the back to attach it directly to the roll cage
 
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