trailer brakes and wiring

[Pampas56]

I just bought an old 22 foot camping trailer for hunting season and need to wire up a brake controller and convert from my 4 wire plug to 7 wire for the trailer.

What is a good brake controller for less than 100 bucks and how hard is the installation? Any easy tricks to wiring up the 7 wire connector? I plan to leave the 4 wire in place for my tow dolly.

Thanks for any help.

[jjzepplin]

I have the same issue. Subscribed.

[79Betty]

I think they have adapters from 4-7 pin's if not ya can wire your own adapter it's not hard but you'll only have trailer lights as that's how mine is
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[anubisani]

here ya go

[78trk]

I used a cable from a RV repair place. It had 7 wires, color coded and all the right size wires for each application. I hooked up the front like the drawing and then hooked up to the 7 wire plug. I then soldiered my rear tail lights into the cable just in front of the rear bumper.

[Pano]

I just did this to my 87 v2500. I bought a 7 pin receptacle, Ckt breakers and a 2 wire 10 or 12 gauge cable from an RV shop but the parts can be found at some autoparts stores. I had additional wire and typical wire connectors on hand.

I ran the 2 wire down the passenger side frame inside some black wire plastic wire harness wrap with enough extra at each end reach the 7 pin receptacle location and the cab.

Under hood I mounted 2 circuit breakers on the fire wall. Each breaker got power from the battery. One breaker output went down the 2 wire to the 7 pin connector and the other went inside the cab to the brake controller.

There were 4 connections in the cab. The brake control was grounded and tied into the brake pedal wire. The power came from one of the ckt breakers from the fire wall and the controller output routed down the other wire to the 7 pin connector.

At the connector I used the wires from the existing 4 pin, brake lights and a chassis ground. I mounted the 7 pin to the bumper to the drivers side of the hitch.

To retain the 4 pin option I bought a plug that can be plugged into the new 7 pin that converts it back to a 4 pin and stored it in the glove box

I wrote this from memory but I think I got it right. I also referenced the following websites.

http://www.allpar.com/fix/electrical...er-wiring.html
http://www.procarcare.com/icarumba/r...ia_towing1.asp
http://www.sherline.com/lmbook.htm#refrn3

I also plumbed in a trans cooler, and trans gauge.
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[Pano]

Also...I am using a prodigy 3 Brake controller that was given to me. I am told that most new tow vehicles come with brake controllers built in so guys that have towed for a while that have new trucks don't use them anymore. Thats why mine was given to me.

http://www.tekonsha.com/content/prod...ID=1435&part=0


http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billav...ng-generic.pdf
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[72freak]

I buy all my brake controllers off of craigs list. I just got a brand new in box CURT for $17. Works great. Its about the 4th one I have picked up with no issues. the wiring can be overwhelming but with the correct diagrams and understanding of what you are doing it can be done.

[squarebodied]

[IMG][/IMG]

Standard 7 way trailer wiring diagram. The best thing to do is to get out a test light to insure that each connection is going to the proper wiring. I have seen plenty of trucks and trailers that people have wired up to different color wiring. If you want to keep the 4 way plug and add a 7 way, the easiest way to do so is to splice into the 4 way and add the wiring for the brakes.
wiring for lights is:
Brown-Tail/Turn
Yellow-Left turn
Green-Right turn
White-Ground

[JellyBeanDriver]

I've read that Prodigy and Prodigy II are fantastic brake controllers, very easy to set up. Don't know if they meet your $100 price. Have the Prodigy on our C30 used to tow a horse trailer.

Whatever you do, don't put in a larger fuse for the parking light circuit to drive your trailer. Ours burned up the wiring in the truck from a trailer short. Went to the junkyard to strip out wiring to replace ours and I saw a lot of trucks there with wiring showing heat damage and a larger than stock fuse installed in the fuse panel.

[SilverMiner]

Originally Posted by Pampas56

I just bought an old 22 foot camping trailer for hunting season and need to wire up a brake controller and convert from my 4 wire plug to 7 wire for the trailer.

What is a good brake controller for less than 100 bucks and how hard is the installation? Any easy tricks to wiring up the 7 wire connector? I plan to leave the 4 wire in place for my tow dolly.

Thanks for any help.

One suggestion I'd make is to use an adapter similar to the attached image to plug into your rear wiring. The NAPA part number for this particular adapter is BK 7551554. I know from hard lessons that this type of adapter is far simpler than attempting to splice into your rear taillight wiring and is far more reliable as well. This adapter fits between two plugs usually found near the rear driver's side taillight up behind the bumper a ways.

I see you are in snow country, so one other tip is to make sure the adapter is supported or well attached to something other than the wiring alone. Otherwise, snow and ice will accumulate around the plug and eventually pull it loose. Not much fun to re-attach in the dark laying in the slush.

[JellyBeanDriver]

Ditto what SilverMiner said above. Etrailer.com is a good place to look at parts BTW.

[chevydude771]

I think this wiring guide might help:

http://www.hitchanything.com/trailer...ram-guide.html

[nekkidhillbilly]

i use one of the reese ones from walmart it does job. 50 bucks i think.

[hatzie]

Originally Posted by squarebodied

[IMG][/IMG]

Standard 7 way trailer wiring diagram. The best thing to do is to get out a test light to insure that each connection is going to the proper wiring. I have seen plenty of trucks and trailers that people have wired up to different color wiring. If you want to keep the 4 way plug and add a 7 way, the easiest way to do so is to splice into the 4 way and add the wiring for the brakes.
wiring for lights is:
Brown-Tail/Turn
Yellow-Left turn
Green-Right turn
White-Ground

Originally Posted by chevydude771

I think this wiring guide might help:

http://www.hitchanything.com/trailer...ram-guide.html

Not slamming anyone here for posting the information you found. Just making sure everyone is aware there is not a clear standard adhered to by all trailer and plug manufacturers. Almost a tower of Babel. Test first before you plug it in.

It has always bugged the $&%^*$ otta me that there aren't really any pinout standards for trailer wiring plugs other than a loosey goosey "it should work". It seems the trailer and plug manufacturers make their own "Standards". Not good engineering practice but great for creating angry customers.

I've bought nine trailers in the last 30 years with 7way "Pollack Bergman" ( 6 flat with round center Pin ) plugs. Some of them had to be re-worked to match the truck or car socket wiring. The vehicles were supposedly wired according to a "standard" color code and pinout. The "standard" socket pinout matched the other cars, trucks, and trailers in the herd and some trailers from the get go. So...

The front and back of the 7 round pin diagrams don't even agree with themselves in this link (aux and backup locations differ). The 7way flat diagram doesn't agree with the diagrams posted earlier in this thread either.