Confused and a Newbie!

Hey guys, I picked up my Tacoma Dual Cab, 6 Cyl, 4X4, SR5, with the tow package yesterday. I do love this truck! Anyway my question is; I have a 21' Sea Hunt (boat) all in with motor and everything else around 4600 #'s. I have a Load-Rite trailer with a flat five pin connector and surge breaks. I'm not sure if I have to splice into the wiring for the breaks to work correctly in reverse. If so, anyone have step by step directions? Or, do I need a break controller everyone writes about? I've been searching but I really got confused. I do have the factory pigtail in the glove box, not really sure if I need it?

Thanks

 

Welcome from GA. Someone should come along with the answer you're looking for.

 

Welcome to Tacoma World... ^^what he said^^

Frank

 

In theory, there should be a 'reverse' signal on your 7 pin plug (truck side). A 7-->5 adapter, unfortunately, wont work for you, since a 5 pin plug is NOT intended for reverse lockout. A 5 pin plug contains the same 4 wires (ground, tail, left, right) plus an extra BLUE wire for electric (not surge) brakes.

If you are absolutely certain that you have surge brakes, you will want to cut off that 5 pin plug and connect a 7 pin, wiring the 5th pin on the trailer side to the 7th on the truck side (typically should be purple).

Now there are a couple of things you need to verify before you do anything.
1) ensure that you do have surge brakes -- the coupler will have a slide mechanism and a fluid reservoir.
2) ensure that it does, in fact, have a reverse lockout solenoid,
3) verify the reverse signal on the truck side.

If the truck doesnt have that reverse signal, you will need to run a wire (fused) from the main distribution panel under the hood, to the tail light of the truck, and use a relay from the reverse lights to switch that new line from the panel. You can NOT run a reverse lockout solenoid straight off the reverse light, trust me, I tried. It will blow out the circuit.

Now if the thing doesnt have a reverse lockout solenoid, but rather a mechanical lockout, you can use a 7 to 4 adapter and ignore the 5th pin. If it actually has electric brakes, you will need to buy a brake controller and a 7 to 5 adapter.