Installation of Draw Tight Brake Controller on a 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 Pickup

Expert Reply:

Brake controller installation on the 2002 Dodge Ram Truck with a factory 7-way trailer connector installed at the rear of the vehicle should be fairly simple. You will need to use the Universal Brake Control Wiring Adapter, Dodge, item # 20261, and find the connector under the dash near or above the emergency brake pedal. Once this connector is located and the adapter is spliced to the brake controller you should just plug in the adapter and your wiring should be complete. At this point you will follow the instructions for setting up the brake controller.

If you find that the 7-Way connector on your vehicle is not factory installed, and you do not have the connector under the dash for the Dodge adapter, then you will most likely have to hard wire the brake controller. Start by tracing the wiring from the connector and finding where the blue wire is ran to the cab of the vehicle. If it is not ran to the cab then you will need to run a 10 gauge blue wire, item # 10-1-1, to the connectors number two terminal (7 o-clock position inside the connector). You will then need to run a power wire, black item # 12-1-1, through a 30 amp circuit breaker to the vehicle battery from the break controllers black wire. Next you run the red wire to the wire coming from the brake pedal switch that goes hot when the brake pedal is pressed and has no power when it is released. Finally you need to ground the white wire to a suitable vehicle ground.

We have a complete brake controller installation kit, ETBC7 that comes with all wiring, circuit breakers and 7-Way trailer connector to hard wire a break controller and 7-way connector.

expert reply by: Bob G