DIY Trailer Harness Relocation

Well I blew mine up wheeling, I saw the one you could buy but I thought I could make it for a fraction of the price, and I did, all it costed me was a piece of steel, 9.99. I also need a new harness so add another 9.99, but still. I hope some of you find this useful, feel free to comment, but keep the negative crap to yourself, nobody needs to hear it.

What you will need: piece of steel, heavier gauge, not to flimsy. Jig saw with metal blade. 12mm socket and wrench(I used my impact gun). Vice, mini sledge(regular hammer should work fine too. Screw driver, 5/16 bit(I think that was the size I used, if not I will edit) Some self tappers to attach the harness in place. Markers, True Square. Tape Measure. Paint if you are so inclined and have it laying around.


First step will be to cut a piece of steel to the right size. I cut a piece 5x7, there is enough room to go 5x8 if you have the stock spare.


Once you have done that measure measure 1 1/2'' down, you will be bending a 90 degree angle here in the vice.


Then head to your vice


Hammer it so it bends on the line


Now measure 3/4'' down on the bent part and make a line using a straight edge. (you will be drilling here in 2 steps)


Remove the mounting bracket screws. Hold the bracket up to the mounting holes and use your marker to mark on the steel where it lines up.


Now make those lines very apparent


Drill on the cross hairs


Now comes the tricky part,the best thing you can do here is take your harness off and mark on the steel how and where to cut, making sure you have enough room to have the screws mount up as well. This wasn't too diffulcult for me because I had a new harness anyway. BE SURE YOU LEAVE ENOUGH ROOM FOR THE HARNESS TO CLEAR THE CROSS MEMBER OF YOUR HITCH, IT WILL HIT IT IF YOU DO NOT.As in make sure the harness is close to the spare tire, basically if you start cutting a half inch from the front of the bracket you will have enough room. Trust me I found out the hard way. You want your harness to sit as close to the edge as possible on the bracket, I drew a red line on the second photo to explain better




Paint it and mount it, done.




This did not take me long at all to make. A few notes, If you trace the wires off the wiring harness up to the cross member there is a wire tie, cut it and it will give you a lot more room to move the harness around. WEAR GLOVES AND EYE PROTECTION, METAL IS SHARP WHEN YOU CUT IT, DUH.

I really don't know how to take the stock harness apart as mine basically was gone, so I cut the wires and started fresh.

 

Do you think it's in a position that will get caught by rocks/stumps very easily?

 

You should have bought a 2 1/4" hole saw and drilled between the license plate lights and license plate. That way it is out of the way and will never get hit and it took me 20 minutes to do and 10 bucks for the hole saw!

 

"Keep the negative crap to yourself" First comment was negative. Looks good to me. I have a trailer, well building one, and need something like this. Hate those flat connectors just swaying around.

 

No, it is above the hitch receiver and the spare, so the spare would have to be getting beet to shit as well as the receiver

I have a color matched bumper... Really don't want a hole in it, looks cleaner this way to me. Took me 20 minutes to make this as well, if I didnt have to wire the new harness would have been just as fast.

 

thats a cool option for sure.

For me, it took ALOT less work to simply remove the driver side licence plate light. unplug the stock 7 pin from the harness, 2 minutes with a hacksaw to cut off plastic tabs on the backside of the 7 pin plug, feed the harness through the license plate light hole, drill 2 holes in the bumper and 2 nuts n bolts, boom done. WAY up and out of the way easier to get at, and your not draggin your trailer wiring.

 

Garage fabrication. I like it. Done plenty of it myself to varying degrees of quality but it all got the job done. Good job.