Wiring up the Van
I have a full size Dodge van and we would like to wire it so we can have breaks and a charge line to the trailer. We picked up a small 17 foot TT for the grown kids to take when they go camping with ...
Forum Discussion
donn0128 wrote:
Before you spend a lot of time running wires, look under the back of the van for a trailer wiring harness. If all else fails go shopping you can find basic plug and play adapters specific to your vehicle. As for brake wire, 12 or 14 gage wire is more than suitable. Factory is I believe 14 gage wire.
Factory on the trailer will often be 14ga, but that is rather light since it will drop more voltage than a heavier wire.
My suggestion would be to wire your tow vehicle with 10 ga (yes, that seems excessive but it will give you much better brake response).
Keep in mind that one axle will draw 6A, two axles will draw 12A so 10ga really isn't out of line..
Since you are starting from scratch (no factory plug in from the vehicle under the dash) you will want to run 10Ga wire directly from the battery to the controller (supplies power to controller AND brakes). The run 10Ga from the controller output to your trailer plugin.
Follow the above advice will result in better brakes than if you simply used 14ga..
You will most likely need to add a fuse at the battery for the controller and if you use 10ga this allows for a 30A fuse which will give plenty of capacity for your controller and brakes..
