Hopkins Plug-In Simple Vehicle Wiring Harness with 4-Pole Flat Trailer Connector

Video Transcript for Review of Hopkins Custom Fit Vehicle Wiring - Trailer Hitch Wiring - HM40524

Michael: Hi there. I'm Michael with etrailer.com. Today we're taking a look at the Hopkins plug-in simple vehicle wiring harness with 4-pole flat trailer connector. This is going to be a very simple way to transfer your light signals from your 2017 or 2018 Ford Escape to your trailer so that your lights on your trailer are going to show whether you're stopping, turning, or driving at night, so other drivers can see you better. It's going to keep you safer.This is a simple installation. I've seen dozens of these installed in our shop, and there really doesn't get much more simple than this.

You're not going to have to splice into any vehicle wiring. You can simply unplug the wiring from your tail lights, plug one end of this wiring into your tail light and plug the factory wiring into the other end. It's going into re-complete the circuit there, but then also send those signals to your box here, which will then send it to your 4-pole plug.The hardest part about this installation is probably going to be running your wires. You're going to have the green wire that you're going to need to run from your driver's side, where this is all going to be stored, over to the passenger side tail light. So you'll have to run that green wire.

And then the red wire is going to run from your driver's side tail light up to the battery to get auxiliary power for this, so it's not drawing any power from your taillights. And when you run those, you want to make sure that you're staying away from anything hot or moving. So you're not going to damage the wire. There are quite a few zip ties included in the kit to help you get that secured up and away in a safe place.When you mount this, you are going to want to make sure that this is not underneath the vehicle where it's exposed to the elements. They do suggest that you have it up near your tail light housing so that it's nice and protected.

Again, they give you some zip ties there to hold it up in place. And you're also going to have a ground wire with the ring terminal already installed and a self tapping screw. Just want to make sure that you're grounding that on metal. You're not going to have any paint or dirt in the way that would prevent it from having a good ground. And once you get your wire connected, your red wire to red wire at the front of your vehicle, you're going to connect your fuse wire to the red wire and then connect it to the battery using the pre-installed ring terminal there.Like I said, it's all very simple to do, the most time consuming part is probably just going to be running your wiring.

But once you have this all hooked up, you'll be able to attach this to your hitch, so it's easy to get to when you're ready to hook up to your trailer. And they do include some terminal grease. I would recommend putting that on your connections here, just to help it prevent any rust and corrosion from getting onto your connections. And they also include the cap there, so when you're not using it, it can be protected from the elements.Your stop and turn lights, max amperage is going to be three amps per circuit, and your tail lights, max amperage is going to be six amps per circuit. So you want to make sure you don't go more than that. And it's going to come with a 90 day limited warranty from Hopkins. That's going to complete our look at the Hopkins plug-in simple vehicle wiring harness with 4-pole flat trailer connector.