Wiring A Jeep Tj For Towing

[JohnC]

I guess I should pay better attention! To be fair, on the list of items taking up my mental bandwidth when I’m backing the trailer up, “are the reverse lights on” is down there in the neighborhood of “what color car was behind me when I turned off the freeway” and “if we say Australia is down under, do Australians say we are up top?”

I’ve never had to try backing up in the dark. But I’m not sure the lights really matter. I’m way more concerned about keeping it in the fairway and not hitting the obvious stuff on the sides. LoL

I think I only added the backup lights because they were one of the cheaper options and, well, who doesn’t always want more light when in a bind? And, without having to get out of the car. LoL!

 

[JohnC]

Ah, ok, I’ll cut that connection and redo it tomorrow with solder, heat tube, and then a mess of tape. Good tip.

There’s a waterproof type of electrical tape I would recommend to use over the connectors after you solder them. I used it when I had to splice my power cord. The guy at Home Depot recommended it and Cary agreed it’s the best for keeping a dry connection. I did then tape over all the connectors with the regular electrical tape. When that tape drys out in a couple of years you can remove it and retape over the others again.

 

[dirty6]

I’ve never had to try backing up in the dark. But I’m not sure the lights really matter. I’m way more concerned about keeping it in the fairway and not hitting the obvious stuff on the sides. LoL

I think I only added the backup lights because they were one of the cheaper options and, well, who doesn’t always want more light when in a bind? And, without having to get out of the car. LoL!

Yes, 100% on both fronts, this is me. My focus when backing up is keeping it in the fairway and at least landing close to the green, and we got the backup lights for their manual usage when setting up camp, not for actually backing up. Also, whenever I’ve backed up in the dark I’ve had a spotter to help.

 

[GlampingOn]

Ah, ok, I’ll cut that connection and redo it tomorrow with solder, heat tube, and then a mess of tape. Good tip.

Found the 7pin plug connections in the CI owners manual which is now downloadable at tinycamper.con

 

[dirty6]

I gave in today and went back at it to finish the job properly. In no particular order, I:

1) Spliced (solder/heat shrink/waterproof tape/electric tape) a wire into the Jeep’s reverse wire and ran it to the 7pin reverse(aux) wire

2) waterproof taped everything I could find

3) connected the 7pin brake controller line to a wire running up to the hood, in case a future owner (or me) wants to use a brake controller

4) spliced/heat shrunk/waterproof taped/electric taped the brake controller and power line connections to the 7pin harness

5) Put new protective floor mats in the Jeep

6) took the doors off bc it’s going to be not awful weather for 3 days

my trailer wiring setup looks basically like it did yesterday, but I’m confident it’s much more secure and resilient than yesterday’s initial install. It is also now nearly fully capable of the 7 pin connection save the brake controller, which I don’t have any use for. But it is pre-wired for a brake controller now.

 

[dirty6]

 

[dirty6]

Update:

Our 560 has been in a covered storage spot but the rent ran out so I went to collect it today. I used the Jeep to see if my wiring harness install was good to go.

It worked! Lights/brake lights/reverse lights all worked as they should. I need to fuss with the Auto-Brake controller a bit to make sure the brakes were working.

The camper is now parked at my house in a carport for a month until we move to NY this summer. North-East adventure awaits.