electric brake controller

[treegump]

(Posted in trailering/electrical - but reposting here)

Where is the electric brake controller plugged into? My truck already had it, didn't work, so I bought another one, and it still doesn't work. There are 2 sheathed wires with 3 wires in them a piece (looks like 12/2 Romex) and they go from inside the truck through the floor board and to the engine compartment and from there back to the back of the truck.

1 set of wires go to the fuse panel in the engine compartment - to the main lugs of the fuse panel. The other set appears to go towards the driver's side battery - but the wires appear to be snipped...so I don't know where they go or went to.

Then both wires run to the back of the truck and I have a 7 pt plug, a 6 pt plug, and a gooseneck plug in the bed - so I have 3 wiring harnesses going into 2 sets of wires headed back up towards the engine compartment.

I'll get pics posted when I get a chance.

 

[Turbine Doc]

Depends on whos controller you have check out this generic hook up http://www.randpcarriages.com/tech/ http://www.randpcarriages.com/tech/brakecontrol.html

http://www.randpcarriages.com/tech/wire.html

Found GM specific instructions as well http://www.randpcarriages.com/tech/99chevy.html

 

[treegump]

thank you! I'll print these out and take a look at my brake controller as soon as I get a chance!

 

[WarWagon]

The brake controller needs power, ground, brake signal, and a wire going to the trailer plug along with a good ground path to the trailer brakes including trailer ground and trailer plug pickup side ground.

The cut wires could be the RV power / battery charging wire. - Direct to the trailer plug +12v.

 

[treegump]

The cut wires could be the RV power / battery charging wire. - Direct to the trailer plug +12v.

had never thought of that...my dad has a 5 ton dump trailer with a battery but he charges it with a battery charger. Never considered trying to hook up something for him to charge the battery from the truck. That's not through the trailer plug in, is it? That would be a separate plug, right? Wow...thanks for that little epiphany.

 

[treegump]

The cut wires could be the RV power / battery charging wire. - Direct to the trailer plug +12v.

wow...thanks for that little epiphany... So...is that ran separately? Like I said above, I have a 7 pt plug on the left of the hitch and a smaller round plug on the right. Could the smaller plug be for the RV power? Know of any place where I can wire a battery charging wire or rv power up? I have a trailer that could use lights inside, and my dad has a 5 ton electric dump trailer that could use the boost while dumping (he has to charge it before almost every use cause he doesn't use it all the time).

Wow....I'm an idiot :mad2: ...a harness supplying power / battery charge sure would be handy!! If I did this right, I could have 1 line supplying charge to the battery (would I need a larger alternator?), 1/+ line supplying lights on switches - and just use the extra/smaller trailer hookup... Thank you!!

 

[DEERE3594]

had never thought of that...my dad has a 5 ton dump trailer with a battery but he charges it with a battery charger. Never considered trying to hook up something for him to charge the battery from the truck. That's not through the trailer plug in, is it? That would be a separate plug, right? Wow...thanks for that little epiphany.

Thats standerd on the 7 way trailer plug IIRC. Constant hot from the battery. How our horse trailer is set up

on edit: its the black wire on the top left that is the constant hot to the trailer

 

[WarWagon]

The factory charge setup sucks. Look at the wire size. It is mainly to power lift jacks, lights, and float charge an RV/ebrake bat. The trailer plug also has current limits. Then you get to the voltage drop and wire distance issues. The trailer plug will not top off the RV battery really well. Keep in mind that alternators will simply burn up trying to charge a discharged/dead battery before you go crazy with big wire, plugs, etc.

Best setups have the auto reset 30A breakers on them under the hood for this wire. It can make your day longer before the dump trailer battery goes dead, but, you will have to top it off with a charger.

 

[DieselCash]

If a trailer is wired correctly the 6 and 7 wire plugs both have a 12V battery from the truck to the trailer.

The only difference between a 6 and 7 plug is the 7 plug has reverse lights going to the trailer.

If your truck was wired correctly using the correct colored wires it should look like this;
Green = right turn
Yellow = left turn
White = Ground
Brown = Tail and marker lights
Blue = brake controller wire
Red(or black) = battery
Purple = back up/reverse lights

I know this because I am in the process of re-wiring my truck.

The PO used scotch lok wire connectors on everything. I hate them! :thumbsup:

 

[treegump]

DC - is it possible the 93 had different color codes than my 96? According to my chilton's book and to my back-up lamp setup - my reverse lights are on a light green wire. Or are you simply talking about the 7 pt trailer harness?

 

[DieselCash]

I was mainly talking about the trailer harness.

Yes, your 96 may be different.

 

[treegump]

I was mainly talking about the trailer harness.

Yes, your 96 may be different.

ok - just checking. thanks!

 

[GM Guy]

If a trailer is wired correctly the 6 and 7 wire plugs both have a 12V battery from the truck to the trailer.

The only difference between a 6 and 7 plug is the 7 plug has reverse lights going to the trailer.

If your truck was wired correctly using the correct colored wires it should look like this;
Green = right turn
Yellow = left turn
White = Ground
Brown = Tail and marker lights
Blue = brake controller wire
Red(or black) = battery
Purple = back up/reverse lights

I know this because I am in the process of re-wiring my truck.

The PO used scotch lok wire connectors on everything. I hate them! :thumbsup:

Agreed, I need a new harness from the chassis harness to the tail light harness because of scotch lok, luckily they didn't attack the chassis harness itself.

 

[treegump]

If a trailer is wired correctly the 6 and 7 wire plugs both have a 12V battery from the truck to the trailer.

The only difference between a 6 and 7 plug is the 7 plug has reverse lights going to the trailer.

If your truck was wired correctly using the correct colored wires it should look like this;
Green = right turn
Yellow = left turn
White = Ground
Brown = Tail and marker lights
Blue = brake controller wire
Red(or black) = battery
Purple = back up/reverse lights

I know this because I am in the process of re-wiring my truck.

The PO used scotch lok wire connectors on everything. I hate them! :thumbsup:

Just clarifying for myself - the Red(or black) = battery - that's to recharge/supply power to the battery of the trailer? So...when I look at a trailer feed and trace it back through the truck - that should lead to my truck battery. And if there isn't already a 30A breaker, I should put an inline breaker into it. If there's not a red(or black) wire in the trailer harness, I could add one, right?

 

[DieselCash]

Just clarifying for myself - the Red(or black) = battery - that's to recharge/supply power to the battery of the trailer? So...when I look at a trailer feed and trace it back through the truck - that should lead to my truck battery. And if there isn't already a 30A breaker, I should put an inline breaker into it. If there's not a red(or black) wire in the trailer harness, I could add one, right?

Yes the red/black is to charge the trailer battery or run lights or such.

yes, with a fuse or circuit breaker some place.

I would use a self resetting circuit breaker instead of a fuse.

My truck does and never came with one from the factory. I will add my own from the battery all the way to the back. I will also use a 30amp circuit breaker.

Hope this helps! :thumbsup:

I will be doing mine soon. I just need to get home to be able to do it.

When I do I will take pictures.

 

[treegump]

Yes the red/black is to charge the trailer battery or run lights or such.

yes, with a fuse or circuit breaker some place.

I would use a self resetting circuit breaker instead of a fuse.

My truck does and never came with one from the factory. I will add my own from the battery all the way to the back. I will also use a 30amp circuit breaker.

Hope this helps! :thumbsup:

I will be doing mine soon. I just need to get home to be able to do it.

When I do I will take pictures.

Thank you - and I just read somewhere that someone was going to use 8 gauge wire for theirs...let me get the link - dodge forum - http://dodgeram.org/tech/mods/electric/trailer_wire.htm and another chevy forum - http://www.fullsizechevy.com/forums...de/390838-7-pin-trailer-connector-wiring.html

 

[DieselCash]

You could jump up to an 8ga wire. 8ga wire is not to much larger for the price you will have to pay for it. From one site I use, 10ga is $0.60 a foot and 8ga is $1.13 a foot. Hare is a link to facts on gauges of wire;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wire_gauge

But, use what will make you feel happy and safe. I have been told those dump trailers can suck some battery juice.

You could use battery cable if you want and use this to keep the battery charged. This would be over kill in my eyes.

 

[treegump]

Understandable. I'll probably just stick with 8 or 10 gauge wiring. As I was replacing my boost gauge line I was reminded that someone had installed a button/light just above the E-brake...at least, I doubt this was stock. The red wires are plugged into the RR wiper, and the Illum in the cab. It appears that one of the red wires goes into the wiring harness headed back and then comes out and goes to the 6 pt plug. Not sure where the other red wire goes... (But you can see from the pics the huge mess of wires. The new/clean wires are my back-up lamp wires. and I included a few pictures of the fuse panels and such)

 

[treegump]

more pics

 

[DieselCash]

That is almost as bad as my truck was. I just de-wired everything and will re-wire it all back.

Wish you luck!:thumbsup: