Roadmaster Brake-Lite Relay Kit for Towed Vehicles

by: Robert02/03/2019

I installed this on my towed vehicle about a year ago. The initial installation went well and the instructions provided the necessary information on installation. After a year, I have not had any issues with the equipment and the car's break lights work as expected as both a driven vehicle and a towed. There are a number of ways to setup a towed, and once I decided on using the vehicle lights rather than a light bar, this kit was kind of a no-brainer. Also, during the past 12 months I have purchased additional items from etrailer and have always been satisfied with both the products purchased and the support from etrailer. 602324

The system continues to work as expected. We always perform a light check when hooking up the vehicle and have not had any issues with these components.

Robert M - 02/04/2020

I ordered an entire setup to flat tow my Subaru with my RV. Having never done this before I was nervous about missing something I might need. etrailer made it very easy when I called them on the phone. I told them what I was trying to do and they made sure I had everything needed to complete the job. I was given a name and phone number to call the same person if I had any issues. When one of the boxes was opened it was missing two pins from the manufacturer. A quick phone call and they had them in the mail in a matter of hours. This kind of personalized service is missing in our ever changing world. It was a pleasant surprise to find it here. Great Job etrailer. I will favorably recommend to everyone. 493271

by: Jdhow04/05/2017

I found this much more difficult to install than I expected. 2012 Jeep Wrangler. Reguired me "standing" on my head working with short wire connections where a mistake or need to rebare a wire was tough. Original mistake was using type of harness which required this. In hindsight would have gone with complete harness ( with bulbs) and completely bypassed the jeeps own lights 363067

Relay works as advertised - cuts power to my 2013 Edge brake lights (with the key in the off/or accessory position) preventing the Edge brake lights from overriding the coach brake/turn signals when my supplemental braking system pulls the Edge brake pedal down. Bit of a chore to install, mainly due to close quarters under driver's side of lower instrument panel and forced to lay half way in/out of Edge over the door sill. Also, vehicle info on Roadmaster web site indicates the Edge brake light wire coming from switch is purple/white, but I found 2 purple and white wires on mine, both together in the same socket on the brake light switch. Guess it depends on one's color sensing, but one of mine was a lighter shade of purple and the other darker, more shiny. I spliced into the light purple one first and naturally it was the wrong one, so had to reconnect it and splice into the other one to make everything work. Not a biggie, but the mini fuse tap supplied in the kit will not work with the low-profile mini-fuses used in the Edge interior fuse panel - you have to use a regular mini-fuse. FYI - 2013 Edge Limited, V6/FWD; Air Force One supplemental brake system; DEMCO RV Tow Harness wiring kit (9523100) for tail/brake light connections (plug in/no splicing); DEMCO baseplate and Blue Ox Towbar. 124112

The 2013 Ford Edge doesn't require a fuse to be pulled, but doing so will eliminate the need to cycle the engine. If you pull MAIN IGNITION # 28 in the driver footwell fuse box, you can skip the starting and running procedure at the end of the tow. To do this you can either the fuse to be removed or to install a fuse bypass switch like part # RM76511
Roadmaster FuseMaster Fuse Bypass - 13" - 20-Amp Mini-Fuse
$61.42. If you don't pull or bypass this fuse, you will need to follow the engine start procedure Ford outlines in the manual. Ford also indicates in the manual that if the Edge is a 2.0L 4 cyl. you must use a tow dolly to keep the front wheels off the ground, no flat tow. If it is a 3.5L or 3.7L V-6, you can either flat tow with all 4 wheels down or on a trailer. No tow dollies with front up and rear down.

-- Patrick B - 4/23/2014

I ordered all the parts required to safely flat tow out 2017 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk from etrailer.com. The only part they didn't have was the Mopar Flat Tow Enhancement kit Jeep requires to flat tow this model. Ordering from them was great, the website is easy to use and I was able to locate all the pieces compatible with my specific vehicle. The expert recommendations help my decision choosing the right parts. I ordered from etrailer even though I found some of the parts on other websites a little cheaper. I chose to pay a little more because of all the effort etrailer has put into installation videos and guides. I was very pleasantly surprised to learn from etrailer that they have a price match guarantee! So my equipment consisted of the following Mopar Flat Tow Enhancement Kit (from Jeep) Roadmaster Battery Charge Line Kit for Towed Vehicles Mighty Cord 7-Way RV Style Trailer Connector - Trailer End WesBarg 7-Way, RV-Style Connector w/ 6' Long Coiled Cable Trailer End Pollak Black Plastic, 7-Pole, RV Blade-Style Trailer Socket - Vehicle End Hopkins Custom Tail Light Wiring Kit for Towed Vehicles SMI Stay-IN-Play DUO Supplemental Braking System Roadmaster Brake-Lite Relay Kit for Towed Vehicles Blue Ox Alpha Tow Bar - Motor Home Mount - 6,500 lbs Blue Ox Base Plate Kit - Removable Arms Blue Ox Tow Bar Cover - Aladdin, Aventa LX, Aventa II The installation videos are great but not all inclusive. Take the time to read the instructions that come with the parts. This is a major project, I took about 30 hrs over a full week but as you'll see in the pictures I took s few extra steps to make a cleaner look. Some of those extra steps: The base plate install requires the bumper be modified cutting off a flange on each side, I spray painted this to prevent corrosion. In the install video of the baseplate on the drivers side they use an extra quick link (not included) to run the safety cable around the wiper fluid reservoir. I took the time to remove it and run the safety cable behind it. I didn't want our nice new vehicle to look like it can be towed so I played the brake away switch and 7 way trailer plug behind the license plate, so when not being towed our vehicle looks great! Some things to be aware of. The Brake air cylinder that mounts to the brake pedal with four bolts may need longer bolts, it did on our Jeep. Spend the money for weather tight heat shrink crimp fittings. The Hopkins wire harness was about 1.5 feet short to get to my plug location. Buy extra zip ties, electrical tape and split loom. I recommend reading all the various installation manuals and watching all the videos because the various components integrate together and if you install one at a time you'll be doing a bunch of extra work. The brake light relay is a real pain in the butt, not because of the hardware but because of the location of the brake light switch which is very hard to get to. Overall I am very happy with the products and how the installation looks. We haven't towed it yet but do not expect any problems. 413529

Still very happy with our purchase. We’ve towed over 10k miles and have had zero issues with our tow setup. I’ve shared my experience with several other RVrs and recommended your company for their needs. Thank you

Roy - 07/30/2018

I have a 2016 Jeep Wrangler Sport Unlimited 4 door, after I installed the Hopkins Custom Tail Light Wiring Kit for Towed Vehicles - HM56200, I found I had to install the Road-Master Brake Lite Relay for Towed Vehicles - RM-88400 , I'm using a supplemental brake system, when the brake is depressed with ignition off, the brake lights come on and cancel out any directional signal on my toad, installing the relay solved this problem. I watched the video and this was helpful. Installation took me a few hours, climbing under the dash was not an easy chore for me, I'm not as young as I want to be, had to purchase 16 gauge Red wire to run to Fuse box under the hood, also I recommend having extra wire ties to do this. I recommend both products, easy to install and good quality. 316372

Products are working well, have not had any problems with the system

Rich L - 11/13/2017

I have now installed the following on my 2017 Wrangler: Brake light relay kit . Hopkins Towed vehicle Tail Light wiring kit. Blue Ox base plate. Blue Ox Patriot Portable RF Braking System. All of this has taken about 3 days of work spread out over a week or so. Overall it went well. Not too many surprises. Crawling around under a car at 71 is a bit of a strain but I'll get over it. I must say that Donna P. has been a wonderful source of great information and has stayed right on top of the process. eTrailer has been a great source for this project. I would recommend you all with no hesitation. 396394

I am still in love with the products. My only issue is having enough time to use them more.

John M - 06/15/2018

Relay works as described. your video installation in a 2016 jeep JK was great. product has an improved fuse box mount that is better than what is shown in the video. I also drilled a wire sized hole in the side of the fuse box on the fender side of box to run the power wire thru instead of cutting a chunk out as you did in the video. etrailers total shipped price was lower than XXXXXXX. 314713

Evidently Roadmaster had made some slight alterations from the depiction, for the better. The fuse wiring was a spade end with two fuse holders built in. The holder closest to the spades was for the original circuit and the other for the new circuit. This was very handy. I had watched the installation video and thought it would be fairly easy; therefore I attached the terminals to the green, black, and white wires before even going to the CR-V. I did however purchase different spade connectors as I thought I may want to remove the brake relay switch in the future for another vehicle should I trade. Also the yellow connector is quite large and the video showed bending the wire over itself so that it would hold on the smaller wires. This was a wise decision. What was the problem was the wiring in my CR-V. The video showed similar size wiring from the brake switch. What I found was smaller wire, loomed very close to the brake switch. Evidently Honda had made some modifications. I believe the wire was 22 gauge and there was no real way the blue or yellow connectors would have worked. That said, after disconnecting from the switch, stripping the loom back to get some exposed wiring, cutting and using the 22-16 gauge connectors, drilling a hole for the ground screw, etc. the switch worked perfectly. I did vary the fuse location from the 7.5 Amp #29 Occupant Detection System (ODS) to the 15 Amp #28 Washer as I figured it would less likely interfere with any operation. 445760

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Working great with no problems.

Richard - 10/24/2018

The Jeep Wrangler video was very helpful for the installation process. It should be updated to include the new type fuse holder. As with most vehicle repairs, having the correct tools for the job is very important. 472802

This can be a rather difficult installation for a do-it yourselfer but thanks to the etrailer instructions and video any handy person can accomplish it. Just make sure you watch the video and do it exactly as instructed. I downloaded the video to my laptop and put the laptop on the front seat of my F-150 so I could follow their step by step procedure and avoid doing any damage to my dashboard when disassembling it. 758860

by: Bryan02/15/2020

Easy to install. Took awhile for me to understand installation but working well a year later 754941

by: John Swezey01/04/2020

We are very happy with our towing equipment. We have used it a lot this past year with zero problems. 736886

by: Don E10/15/2019

Easy installation into 2007 CRV. Seems to work fine over the past year. 717472

Same as with the review of the wiring harness, this was done at a trusted repair shop. I took it there, as I had run out of time to do it at home. I am glad I did. It can be done at home, but it was a much bigger job than I or my trusted mechanic friend had expected. He did an excellent job with the advantage of a lift, a shop full of tools, and a lot of mechanical experience. Now that it is in and has 1,000+ miles on it, it is a really nice set up. 715408

Cailee was great to work with! 696608

The installation video for the 2011 Honda CR-V was excellent and I used it to install the Brake-Lite Relay Kit on my 2012 CR-V. However, the picture of the kit at the beginning of the video was very misleading. It didn't show the fuse holder or the fuse talked about in the video, instead there was a yellow component pictured that had no relation to the installation or the actual kit that I received. Fortunately all the necessary parts were in the kit I received and the installation went just as the shown in the video. It works as described. 674254

Good quality items. Easy instructions. Only difficulty is crawling under the dash. If you have even done that, you know what I mean. I 672955

Never flat towed before, enlisted etrailers help on what to get. Just returned from a 4000 mi trip to the northwest ! Had no problems towing a 2005 Jeep lj behind my motor home. Thank you etrailer for your assistance and great videos! Installed the system myself! Very happy! 671523

From all of the positive reviews I'm sure this product works well for most people, but it didn't work well for me. Not much positive about this product except it did work after 2 days of trying to get the wiring sorted out. I ended up with two butchered wires because the installation instructions were incomplete and contained errors. I bought this for the plug and play since I could have bought all of the parts in the kit for less than $10 and figured out the wiring on my own, which I had to do anyway. Anyone with a 2010 Base Honda Fit should note that if you have a green/silver wire (kit instructions say to use for relay) and a green wire on a common terminal off the output of the brake light switch, you should be prepared to cut the green wire to install the relay. I can't say all are like mine because I understand that many have only the green/silver wire off the brake switch. 665232

by: Bill M06/22/2019

I truly enjoy travelling with my MH and Roadmaster RM-88400 tow bar and braking system. I can stop wherever I like and unhook and be gone in 5 minutes. When finished site seeing or shopping I can be hooked up and on the road just as fast. Great system. 661404

by: Bob B.06/02/2019

Great kit, easy to install! 651768

by: Bernie05/20/2019

Great product. Easy to install. 644020

by: Roger M05/15/2019

Have towed my truck over 6,000 miles and still working great. 642146

by: Glenn05/12/2019

Easy to install and works as intended. 641116