hondorayray

I have a 2006 Ford F150 with a 4.6 liter engine and don't have a trailer towing package. I need to tow my boat which weighs 1800 pounds. I only have the 4 pin wiring harness and would like to charge my boat battery while driving to the lake, I'm not using electric brakes or a controller. Please help. How do I do this?

Wisdom

You could run a hot wire from your fuse box to the bumper of your truck and make a second connection along with your 4 pin harness. Or just tap into your running lights and save yourself the pain in the ***. Really depends how much work you want to put into it.

smokeywren

The wires in the 4-pin plug are simply too light to use for charging a battery. So run a 16 gage or heavier hot wire from the positive terminal of the truck battery to the back of the bumper where the 4-wire plug is located. Run another heavy hot wire from the front of the boat trailer to the battery in the boat. Connect the two hot wires together with a quick disconnect plug of some sort. Be sure the battery cable is connected to the negative terminal of the battery so you'll have a complete circuit.

Then the altenator on the truck will supply juice to the truck battery, which will in turn charge up the trailer battery. This will be a slow charge, so it's best if you use a battery charger and completely charge the boat battery using shore power before you leave home. The charging wire from the truck will maintain the boat battery at full charge, so when you get to the water you'll be ready to party.

Wisdom

Just be careful with a connection straight to the battery if something is wrong with your boat battery it might suck your trucks battery dry if they are connected together overnight. Just something to keep in the back of your head.

obusnizzle

why not pick up a trickle charger and do it overnight without having to wire the battery up to your truck?

murf

I had the same problem.

Look at your wires coming out of the back of your 4 pin. It goes 2 feet and has another connector. This connector already has your orange (hot wire) and blue (electric brake wire). They pre wire all the trucks to the back. Just get a 7 pin adapter and tap into all the needed wires.

Also you can just get the harness from a dealer and it'll plug right into the second connector. Giving you a 7 pin.

Flash!

eTrailer sells the harness as well, that's where I ordered from:
http://www.etrailer.com/Custom-Fit-V...id=20041311085

f150skidoo

My truck didn't come with a hitch or a harness i just bought the ford trailer harness and plug directly form the ford dealer and all together it was around $80 and it was money well spent.