Trailer wiring question

I have a 2009 Tacoma SR5 without any towing package. I have installed the Toyota wiring harness (

$155 08921-04960 Towing Wire Harness

08921-04960) which includes relay and fuse (not the hoppy harness) but it is a 4 way flat harness.


My small trailer (~1000 lbs) has an RV 7-way round plug.

My question is what is the best way to connect my truck and trailer wiring plugs? Is there a converter or something?

Thanks

 

I believe what you are missing with the four post connection are your electrical connection between truck/trailer and your trailer brake connection. I have the exact opposit problem when I try to pull my boat trailer with a 4 prong recepter and the 7 prong on my Taco. There is an adapter for my problem but you'll have to rewire your setup for a brake controler and electrical connection. You already have tail, brake and turn signal lights with the 4 prong. Do you have a brake controller. Don

 

OT but what camper is that. I like how small it is

 

1000lbs shouldn't need a brake controller. Pick up a generic 7 pin plug and splice the wires from the toyota harness to it for the lights. Then run a decent guage wire from the battery and a ground so you can have 12v to power/charge the trailer.

make sure everything i weather sealed, and i'd recommend soldering the connections if you can.

 

I too like that camper,what is it?

 

Thanks for info info, the trailer is made in Canada by Taylor Coach

http://www.taylorcoach.com/

I do not have a brake controller on my truck, but the trailer does have electric brakes.

 

And put at least an in-line fuse between your battery and the trailer.

 

What amp fuse would you recommend?

 

Depends on how many watts of power your trailer needs: Amps = Watts/Volts (12v in this case) round up a bit to save yourself headaches, but not too much. The gauge of wiring you use to provide 12v to the trailer will also be determined by your amperage.

I'm not sure what the fuse is for the OEM tow package (I would not exceed that), and it's raining so I'll let someone else chime in with that.

 

sweet little camper!

 

I don't have an OEM tow package otherwise I'd check the fuse size for you. If you look in your owner's manual, it'll probably have the fuse listed for the tow package equipped trucks. I'd use the same amp fuse for your set-up. If you want to get fancy, you can put a shut off switch in the cab somewhere also or a relay to another fuse so that circut dies when you shut the truck off.

 

Would this converter do it, anybody have any experience with this?


Trailer is only 1000 lbs, so no need for electric brakes and I have no need for battery charging. I guess I would just ignore those wires on the converter (i.e., black, yellow, and blue) white is the ground. I am thinking I can just plug the 4 flat into the 4 flat on the truck and then use the white wire to ground to the truck, any thoughts...???

 

I would check into the electrick brakes. True, trailers under 1000 lbs do not require electric brakes, but as soon as you put anything into a 1000 lb trailer, it is over 1000 lbs. Better safe than sorry. You can get a brake controller for $70 CAD, and with a bit of time wiring, it is good insurance for safety.

I love your trailer. I have a 16' Fun Finder by Cruiser RV. At 1980 lbs, It's not nearly as light as yours. I think I would have seriously looked into a Taylor if i'd known about it when I bought mine. Too bad Taylor doesn't make them with a Fiberglas exterior. I really appreciate the Fiberglas exterior when it comes to cleaning it, and its resistance to hail damage. I guess aluminum siding is lighter.

 

^^^ I used this. (Pricess Auto, right?)

My 4-pin connector was all corroded out so I decided to upgrade. My truck (like yours) was purchased in Canada, and is rated for 5000 lb towing. Comes with tranny cooler, larger alternator etc. I have an e-mail from Toyota to back this.

I cut off the damaged 4-pin and soldered the wires to the corresponding wires on the new harness. Used heat shrink tubing with adhesive to help keep the water out, then wire loomed everything. I connected the ground (white wire above) to the truck's frame.

I ran conductors (10 AWG) from the engine bay (I have a Blue Sea Systems fuse panel for all my after market electrical accessories) to the back of the truck to service the remainnig pins on the 7-pin. The blue wire is for the trailer brakes. (That's the output of the brake controller).

Finally, I swapped a case of beer for my buddy's brakes controller (a Reese Brakeman Compact), to finish up the install. I wired a 40A circuit breaker in the supply to the brake controller. Breakers self-reset after cooling down, which removes the need to change fuses if your brakes draw too much current from time to time. That being said, I would want to check the reason for the breaker to keep tripping if that did happen.

 

Thanks for the info bigmooze. I purchased mine @ Action Truck Accessories.