Today we are going to show you a little bit of wiring. Basically kind of like wiring 101 and what to look for when your going to hardwire into the vehicle. What hardwire means is actually getting to the wire and splicing into them to make a connection. T1 connectors are different. They actually have a connection point and harness which you take apart and fit the T in the middle of that. Now on this vehicle we will show you the typical wiring schematics and a couple variants from that. The typical connection point is like where this wiring comes into the back of the tail light and there is always going to be a connection point, almost always. Older vehicles, it would have just ran straight, but with pretty much of your newer vehicles you are always going to have a snap connection like this. Basically a T1 connector simply would just go ahead and fit in between this harness.
Usually there is a little tab right here that you push down, somewhere on the assembly, and you pull it apart. Then your T connector would actually fit in between here and then your wiring would come off from there. That is essentially how a T connector works. Most of the time you will have just one connection that you make. But occasionally on a T connecter you will have to go from two different places. Basically you will have to tap in behind the driver side tail light and then run a wire to the other side on the T connector to the passenger side also. A lot of T connectors are like that. It is just how the wiring is made because the wiring on vehicles predominantly come in two different varieties. In this application here, the wiring harness actually comes down the driver side and comes across here to the tail light on the driver side, tees off, goes into the drivers light, and then goes on over to the passenger side tail light. Now also, that split right here, instead of it being right here to T off, that could be in the other varieties, goes up further back into your vehicle. A lot of mini vans and SUVs are like this. The harness will have just one going down each side of the vehicle. At that rate you are still going to have to go from one side to the other to make your connection points. Like this particular instance we could tap everything from this side of the vehicle to the harness right here. It is kind of more of the exception then the norm. A lot or times it might not be practical to go right here if you know where the harness is. It might just be easier to make your connections behind the tail light, run it underneath the plastic, across and back to the other side and just keep everything in the trunk area. So you do not have to take apart all of this stuff.
Questions and Comments about this Video
I purchased a trailer wiring harness for my 2013 Toyota Corolla and note that it specifies a fused connection to the negative battery terminal in addition to chassis ground - this will be a real pain to route from the front to the back of the car. I dont understand this requirement since the negative battery terminal is also ground.Several years ago I installed a similar kit in my 2006 Toyota Matrix and it did not require this connection.Why does the Corolla harness include this connection?thanksKevin
comment by: Kevin A - 10/21/2012
The harness for a 2013 Toyota Corolla, part 118459, requires a 12V power lead to be run to the positive terminal of the battery with the fuse holder in-line. That is the red wire with the butt connector coming out of the box. The ground wire, white with ring terminal, comes out of the box and will be attached to an existing ground stud in the rear. The reason that power wire needs to be run to the battery is to provide a dedicated power source. Without this the box will not function. The direct power source allows the trailer system to be isolated from the vehicle system by providing its own power. Without it, the box would have to pull all the power through the factory tail light system which either will not support the load of the trailer lights or is small enough that should something short circuit on the trailer it could damage the vehicle tail lights or wiring.
Patrick B - 10/22/2012is this t-one connection for a 2012 rav 4 only for 6 cly,can it be used for a 4 cly as well?
comment by: jsoeph c - 12/12/2012
For a 2012 Toyota RAV4, either 4 or 6 cylinder, you would use part 118412.
Patrick B - 12/14/2012Chrystler 2000 300m is this to old for this product I will be adding electric brakes later should i use something else ?
comment by: clint - 1/30/2013
For a 2000 Chrysler 300M, you can use part 118364 to add your basic 4-Pole trailer harness. From there if you will be using electric brakes on your trailer, you can add a 7-Pole which is the most common connector used for trailers with electric brakes. We have an add-on kit for adding a 7-Poleto a vehicle that already has a functioning 4-Pole. That is part ETBC7.
Patrick B - 2/8/2013
Today on our 2005 Chevy Silverado, we are going to hook up the hot lead for the seven pull connecter at the back of the truck. To do this well simply remove the fuse box cover and the first position, on the first row is a blank fuse, we are going to remove it and install a 30 amp fuse. With that fuse installed, we can go ahead and replace the cover and were now hot at our seven pull connector. There you have it with the install of the hot lead fuse on our 2005 Chevy Silverado.
How To Troubleshoot a Modulite Demo
Today we are going to troubleshoot a modulite that is not really working so we will check it out and show you what to look for. This will apply to all modulites and this will also apply to converter boxes as well. The only difference being that it does not have a power wire for a converter box. The first thing we want to do is put a tester on the 4-pole just to make sure. We will hook up our ground to our ground lead and then we will turn on the left turn signal which we have going, we have got nothing. You can turn on the other signals and see what we have got, nothing here. Try the running light circuit, nothing here either. 00:28
How To Differentiate a Two Wire and Three Wire System
Today we are going to do the Frequently Asked Questions of what is the difference between a three wire system and a two wire system. It is actually very easy and very simple. All it is, is you take away two wires and the same thing applies to the four and five wire system. Starting off on the car side we are going to attach the wiring to, we are going to have five wires. Green is going to be right turn, red is going to be the brake signal, yellow is going to be left turn, brown is going to be your running lights, and the white is going to be ground. When you talk about the three wire system you are only talking about the right turn, the brake signal, and the left turn. You omit the brown wire and the white wire. That is our three. On the two wire system you are only dealing with the two combined signals, the brake signal and the turn signal on the same wire. We are only dealing with the left and right turn. 00:46
Testing and Troubleshooting a Modulite Vehicle Wiring Harness
All right today we are going to go over how to check over a modulite as shown right here which converts a 5 wire to a 4 wire system. We are going to go over the basics which are really simple. Basically we are just going to test input into the modulite and test the output of the modulite. That will tell us one of two things, we have no input going into the modulite, that means there is something wrong on the car side of the connector, there is nothing wrong with the modulite. If you have power going into it, but nothing coming out then you know chances are it is the modulite or there is a problem on the trailer itself. When testing you always want to test these modulites or converter boxes without the trailer hooked up first.
Trailer Wiring Harnesses Troubleshooting
Today we are going to cover kind of a different subject. Basically, we are going to talk about getting your wiring installed and what is happening afterward. Okay, for instance, you went to the trouble to get your wiring installed, you plug it into your trailer, and nothing happens. There could be a lot of different things going on with it. First off, you need to figure out for sure whether it is on the towing vehicle side - the car or truck - or if it is something on the trailer. We will show you how to test the different types of wiring systems we have shown here. And that way you can tell for sure if it is your wiring harness or if it is your trailer.
