New Toy to Haul and Successful 7-pin Trailer Connector Solution

[TheWoo]

I'm excited to share my successful acquisition of another new toy to pair with my Bronco - a very well-cared-for 2019 Turtleback Getaway. It's going to be a blast!

The other reason to post is that I have successfully (for my situation) navigated skipping the factory tow package.

First, I installed a Curt hitch, then the Curt plug-and-play 4-pin wiring harness. Then, I added this Universal Installation Kit for 7-pin.

This is not a perfect setup, as all I did was add the direct 12-volt power from the battery. The key was adding the Echo Bluetooth Brake Controller since there's no good way to tap into braking function. The Echo powers the trailer brakes off the direct 12-volt power rather than needing the separate brake controller wiring.

The only functionality I don't have is reverse lights on the trailer. I don't need them and am not keen on trying to splice into any of the Bronco wiring.

This saved me no significant money (bought hitch, 4-pin harness, 7-pin harness, mounting bracket for brake controller, and Echo) and I still don't have full functionality. I'd highly recommend the factory setup if you want to do any significant towing. This works, but feels like a lot of workarounds and who knows what will fail first?

Happy to answer questions, but for those who don't need reverse light functionality, this is a solution.

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[da_jokker]

The reverse lighting is the one thing I'm trying to still figure out. It won't be cheaper, but if a person were to purchase everything you did, except for the seven pin adapter and instead by the https://getautowbrake.com/ the only thing really missing is the reverse light. (From my understanding the four pin plug and play requires a 12 volt lead from the battery, so that provides you your "7 pin charging" source.

I wonder if there is any way to reliably tap into the reverse lights?

 

[NVCowboy]

Not sure which forum to stick this in, so General it is. I'm excited to share my successful acquisition of another new toy to pair with my Bronco - a very well-cared-for 2019 Turtleback Getaway. It's going to be a blast!

The other reason to post is that I have successfully (for my situation) navigated skipping the factory tow package.

First, I installed a Curt hitch, then the Curt plug-and-play 4-pin wiring harness. Then, I added this Universal Installation Kit for 7-pin.

This is not a perfect setup, as all I did was add the direct 12-volt power from the battery. The key was adding the Echo Bluetooth Brake Controller since there's no good way to tap into braking function. The Echo powers the trailer brakes off the direct 12-volt power rather than needing the separate brake controller wiring.

The only functionality I don't have is reverse lights on the trailer. I don't need them and am not keen on trying to splice into any of the Bronco wiring.

This saved me no significant money (bought hitch, 4-pin harness, 7-pin harness, mounting bracket for brake controller, and Echo) and I still don't have full functionality. I'd highly recommend the factory setup if you want to do any significant towing. This works, but feels like a lot of workarounds and who knows what will fail first?

Happy to answer questions, but for those who don't need reverse light functionality, this is a solution.

Badass. is it wrong for me to bring up just how badass that'd look with a Velocity Blue Bronco?

 

[TheWoo]

The reverse lighting is the one thing I'm trying to still figure out. It won't be cheaper, but if a person were to purchase everything you did, except for the seven pin adapter and instead by the https://getautowbrake.com/ the only thing really missing is the reverse light. (From my understanding the four pin plug and play requires a 12 volt lead from the battery, so that provides you your "7 pin charging" source.

I wonder if there is any way to reliably tap into the reverse lights?

The 4-pin does have direct power too, but the 4-to-7 adapter needs its own power. Not sure why, but that's an easy thing to do.

Badass. is it wrong for me to bring up just how badass that'd look with a Velocity Blue Bronco?

It would look great! Blue wouldn't have been my first choice, but it works just fine. What I won't be doing is hiding very well with my color choices.

 

[Brianstrange]

The 4-pin does have direct power too, but the 4-to-7 adapter needs its own power. Not sure why, but that's an easy thing to do.

1) The power for 12V feed to the 7 pin is for charging a breakaway brake battery. This should be switched power and on only when the vehicle is running.
2) The electric brake feed is variable voltage with adjustable ramp up time. This comes from the controller
3) The reverse light is optional

The remaining circuits can be tapped from the 4 pin trailer brake kit.

Notes:
The 4 pin plug in harness should be powered directly from the battery, allowing trailer brake lights to remain functional even when the vehicle is shut off.

The trailer brake controller should also be powered to the battery so the trailer brakes will function when the vehicle is off with the pedal depressed.

I hope this helps.

 

[RoLyMa27]

Badass. is it wrong for me to bring up just how badass that'd look with a Velocity Blue Bronco?

It would look even better with a Grabber Blue Bronco!

 

[2Jeeps&PatriotX1]

How much is the bronco squatting in the rear?

Did you use an extended drawbar or an extension to clear the spare tire?

 

[NVCowboy]

[QUOTE="It would look great! Blue wouldn't have been my first choice, but it works just fine. What I won't be doing is hiding very well with my color choices.
[/QUOTE]
Your “visual footprint “ is impressive.

 

[Tricky Dick]

Where there's a will there's a way! Nice work.

I do love not having to futz with my factory tow, but I might be adding a separate heavier gauge 12v supply anyway because I'm not sure pin 4 will support the charging I need.

 

[TheWoo]

How much is the bronco squatting in the rear?

Did you use an extended drawbar or an extension to clear the spare tire?

The picture makes it look like it's squatting quite a bit, but I don't think it's done any more than maybe take the factory rake out of it. The trailer rides nose down a bit more than I'd like, and I think that contributes to the squatty look.

Picture of the hitch setup:

 

[Danny's Bronco]

That's really awesome! COngrats on the trailer and the Bronco. I wanna set up the some thing with mine when it gets off Ice Mountain. Hoping to take it and one of those trailer out to AZ this fall

 

[Squatch]

Badass. is it wrong for me to bring up just how badass that'd look with a Velocity Blue Bronco?

Nah, now he's got that orange-teal going on, lol.

 

[wetdog]

What about using an aux switch for the reverse lights ,put it on a weatherpack connector stash it when not in use?

 

[musicman]

Had not heard of this company and spent some time on their site after you posted this. They make some pretty slick trailers. Post some pictures of this thing when it’s all unfolded.

 

[VoltageDrop]

The reverse lighting is the one thing I'm trying to still figure out. It won't be cheaper, but if a person were to purchase everything you did, except for the seven pin adapter and instead by the https://getautowbrake.com/ the only thing really missing is the reverse light. (From my understanding the four pin plug and play requires a 12 volt lead from the battery, so that provides you your "7 pin charging" source.

I wonder if there is any way to reliably tap into the reverse lights?

It would be easy enough to splice to the jumper wire for the reverse circuit on the Curt adapter but I would only use that to trigger a relay to actually power the trailer reverse lights due to unknown capacity of that BCM output. I do finally have all the connector pins needed to tap into the factory reverse and brake pins at the front fender connectors so I'll be documenting that in the next couple weeks. I did find a nice place to mount the connector where I won't smash it on a rock.

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