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Vacationer04's avatar
Vacationer04
Explorer II
Nov 06, 2013

how to wire a toad to power auxillary brake

I am going to add an auxillary brake on my Jeep Cherokee and am concerned about running the battery down while towing. I want to add power to the battery so that when the brake is active it doesn't run the battery down. I have a 7 wire plug on my MH but am not sure if it is wired to allow that. Is there a wiring diagram that I could access to see if it may be ready? I have only used a 7 to 4 cord since my last toad didn't require a brake.

7 Replies

  • My 7way only has 6 wires to it and none of them has power that would work to send power to the battery in my toad. Plus, I would have had to run a 5 or 6 way plug and rewire it to connect it properly. In the end I just decided to run a separate 12 GA 2 wire cord from the battery to the rear of the MH with a female receptacle on the end and ran an identical cord from the toad to the front bumper with a matched male plug. It is a larger wire than battery maintainers have and all I'm doing is battery maintaining anyway, right? When I hook up the lights it only takes a few seconds and I'm on my way after putting the Brake Buddy in place and setting and testing it. NO PROBLEM!
  • Thanks to old-biscuit and Wyo-traveler for the wiring link. It shows me more about my 7 pin than I knew about. Now I can decide which way to go- 5,6, or 7 pin wire to toad.
  • You already have the battery charge line in your 7 pin plug, and it's already fused on that end. Add a 20A fuse to the other end, right at the battery. There are a number of "special chargers" out there that you can buy that will only add to your cost and give no additional features as far as charging, or keeping the toad battery charged. One thing to check, however, is put a voltmeter on your 7 pin charge (bat) line and see if it's hot all the time, or only when your coach key is on. Most are hot only when the key is on, but not all. If yours is hot all the time, you'll want to pull the 7 pin plug if you leave the toad hooked up for an overnight stop. Keeps the toad from draining the coach batteries when your coach engine generator is not turning.
  • Or just go with a Ready Brake surge unit and forget mall the axtra wirng period. i sure like mine.
  • I went from 7 pin on MH to 6 pin on my Jeep wrangler. I run the 12 volt charge line through a diode so it doesn't feed back into the RV. I mounted a heavy duty diode in a small plastic box. All available from Radio Shack for about $6. Or you can buy the same thing already made up for about $110. It is called "toad charge". Wiring pin out for plugs all on etrailer web site.

    wiring
  • I have power from the RV to the battery via the 7 pin connector and from the battery to the brake unit both have a fuse, that way the battery on the toad is always charged and if the brakeaway is activated there is plenty of power.

    navegator
  • Yes....the 7 pin connector provides a battery charge line.
    It may require an added fuse or relay in fuse panel to make it hot.

    Check your MH owners manual.......fuses for towing section for location
    And Jeep will need it's 7 pin plug wired to battery

    Here is a wiring diagram for wiring..........LINK

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