Did you buy a truck without a tow package? Hopefully my experience can help!!!
07-07-2013, 12:04 PM
#1
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Did you buy a truck without a tow package? Hopefully my experience can help!!!
PLEASE READ IF ANYONE TELLS YOU THAT YOU CAN'T INSTALL A FACTORY TRAILER BRAKE CONTROLLER TO A TRUCK WITHOUT A TOW PACKAGE!!!
Alright, here we go!
So I bought my barely used 2012 F150 without the factory tow package. I know I know, big mistake. Thought I was saving myself some $, because I can get most of the parts involved for much cheaper myself. Little did I know how much was involved with "adding" these parts to a truck that didn't have them. I'll do my best to explain what I did to complete this project. Sorry no pics yet. I'll try to add them later.
First step was installing a hitch. No problems there as my brother in law works at a car dealership(not Ford) and he got me a hitch for almost free. No issues with install.
I went on eBay to find a factory trailer brake controller. Not hard to find. I think I bought it from Tasca. Cost around $160 with shipping I believe. The controller was super easy to install myself. There is a couple really good threads on this site with great instructions on how to install with pics so I won't get into that.
After doing some research, I wanted to add the Ford factory aux transmission cooler to the truck. My trailer is not super heavy (5000lbs max), but I didn't want to risk hurting the tranny at all. I went to my local Ford dealer and inquired about having it installed. They looked at me like I had three heads but said it could be done and be warranty safe. Got truck booked in for install of cooler and flashing of TBC. They had to add the #9 relay and #21 fuse as well in order to get power to TBC and 12V power wire. All said and done cost me about $700. I thought it was a bit pricey but it needed to be done. I think they charged me a half hours labor for the TBC flash. When I picked up the truck I also picked up the 7/4 pin wiring harness and the mounting plate for it. This is when things got not so fun.....
So the trucks with no tow package are pre-wired to a 4 flat setup to the rear of the truck. No problem right? Just install the new harness and your good to go right? WRONG! After getting under the truck and finding where the harness plugs in, you will see that you're missing the two wires for trailer brake control output and 12V charging. These two wires used to be pre run to the back in older trucks but now they're not. So after returning the other harness and mounting plate, I bought an aftermarket 7pin round connector for the wiring. I snipped off the 4 flat end and hard wired the connections for the lights. Next was finding those other two wires. After reading tons of posts online I started looking under the dash by the steering column for the wires. I found them quite easily as they're larger (10 gauge I believe) than all the other wires under there. The TBC output line is dark blue and the 12V is orange. After tracing lines for what felt like an eternity and removing and reinstalling dash panels, I was starting to get very frustrated. I just couldn't find where these wires ended, and I didn't want to just splice into them under the dash! But I continued on tracing the wires from the back of the TBC and made my way under the hood. After looking under the hood to and from the fuse box for an hour I finally found were these wires ended!!! On the driver's side of the engine compartment just behind the engine coolant recovery tank you will find a large wiring harness attached to the body of the truck. This is the tail light harness. On the far side of the harness and in the middle section of wires you will spot the large dark blue and large orange wires. These wires "end" here(on trucks with no trailer tow package)! If you open the harness connection you will see that there are no connecting pins inside of it for those wires! At this point I was getting somewhat excited because the project that never seemed to end had an end in sight!
After coming up with the courage to snip these two wires from the harness, all that was left was to solder them with new wires running back along the frame to the rear of the truck. Just follow the rear wiring harness, it's fairly easy. After installing the two wires into the proper spots in the 7pin connector, it was crunch time. I hooked my truck up to my trailer, turned the key on and saw the two most glorious words I had ever seen on the dash of my truck.....TRAILER CONNECTED! I was able to adjust the gain on the TBC and it worked flawlessly! And everything worked in the trailer as well. The truck pulls the trailer with no issues at all! After a ton of work and frustration my "little" project was complete!
I hope this helps some people out there who might have made the same mistake as me. Moral of the story #1: Just because someone says "oh no you can't do that on a truck with no tow package" doesn't mean they're right. Do some research. You'll probably figure it out the same way I did! Moral of the story #2: Buy a truck with the factory tow package!
Thanks
Josh
Alright, here we go!
So I bought my barely used 2012 F150 without the factory tow package. I know I know, big mistake. Thought I was saving myself some $, because I can get most of the parts involved for much cheaper myself. Little did I know how much was involved with "adding" these parts to a truck that didn't have them. I'll do my best to explain what I did to complete this project. Sorry no pics yet. I'll try to add them later.
First step was installing a hitch. No problems there as my brother in law works at a car dealership(not Ford) and he got me a hitch for almost free. No issues with install.
I went on eBay to find a factory trailer brake controller. Not hard to find. I think I bought it from Tasca. Cost around $160 with shipping I believe. The controller was super easy to install myself. There is a couple really good threads on this site with great instructions on how to install with pics so I won't get into that.
After doing some research, I wanted to add the Ford factory aux transmission cooler to the truck. My trailer is not super heavy (5000lbs max), but I didn't want to risk hurting the tranny at all. I went to my local Ford dealer and inquired about having it installed. They looked at me like I had three heads but said it could be done and be warranty safe. Got truck booked in for install of cooler and flashing of TBC. They had to add the #9 relay and #21 fuse as well in order to get power to TBC and 12V power wire. All said and done cost me about $700. I thought it was a bit pricey but it needed to be done. I think they charged me a half hours labor for the TBC flash. When I picked up the truck I also picked up the 7/4 pin wiring harness and the mounting plate for it. This is when things got not so fun.....
So the trucks with no tow package are pre-wired to a 4 flat setup to the rear of the truck. No problem right? Just install the new harness and your good to go right? WRONG! After getting under the truck and finding where the harness plugs in, you will see that you're missing the two wires for trailer brake control output and 12V charging. These two wires used to be pre run to the back in older trucks but now they're not. So after returning the other harness and mounting plate, I bought an aftermarket 7pin round connector for the wiring. I snipped off the 4 flat end and hard wired the connections for the lights. Next was finding those other two wires. After reading tons of posts online I started looking under the dash by the steering column for the wires. I found them quite easily as they're larger (10 gauge I believe) than all the other wires under there. The TBC output line is dark blue and the 12V is orange. After tracing lines for what felt like an eternity and removing and reinstalling dash panels, I was starting to get very frustrated. I just couldn't find where these wires ended, and I didn't want to just splice into them under the dash! But I continued on tracing the wires from the back of the TBC and made my way under the hood. After looking under the hood to and from the fuse box for an hour I finally found were these wires ended!!! On the driver's side of the engine compartment just behind the engine coolant recovery tank you will find a large wiring harness attached to the body of the truck. This is the tail light harness. On the far side of the harness and in the middle section of wires you will spot the large dark blue and large orange wires. These wires "end" here(on trucks with no trailer tow package)! If you open the harness connection you will see that there are no connecting pins inside of it for those wires! At this point I was getting somewhat excited because the project that never seemed to end had an end in sight!
After coming up with the courage to snip these two wires from the harness, all that was left was to solder them with new wires running back along the frame to the rear of the truck. Just follow the rear wiring harness, it's fairly easy. After installing the two wires into the proper spots in the 7pin connector, it was crunch time. I hooked my truck up to my trailer, turned the key on and saw the two most glorious words I had ever seen on the dash of my truck.....TRAILER CONNECTED! I was able to adjust the gain on the TBC and it worked flawlessly! And everything worked in the trailer as well. The truck pulls the trailer with no issues at all! After a ton of work and frustration my "little" project was complete!
I hope this helps some people out there who might have made the same mistake as me. Moral of the story #1: Just because someone says "oh no you can't do that on a truck with no tow package" doesn't mean they're right. Do some research. You'll probably figure it out the same way I did! Moral of the story #2: Buy a truck with the factory tow package!
Thanks
Josh
Last edited by jtCalgary; 07-07-2013 at 12:08 PM.
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