Trailer Wiring Harness Recommendation for a 2009 Ford Escape

Updated 08/12/2009 | Published 08/10/2009

Question:

I have a brand new 09 Escpae that did not have factory installed trailer hitch. It does however have a 4 wire connector behind the bumper that appears will plug into your 118251 adapter. The factory connector does not have power to it when the parking lights or brake lights are turned on. I looked in the fuse / relay panel mounted inside left front fender under hood and there are locations to install relays per owners manualfor trailer wiring output. There is no wiring at this location. Question - where is the wiring to the connector behind bumper going? Will the 118251 work in this application or do I have to go thru the installation of the powered relay type of wiring?

asked by: Dave

Expert Reply:

Since you do not have the OE trailer hitch, the connector you found behind the bumper is not active.

In some cases, the wiring can be activated by adding 3 of the # TR38665 relays to the fuse box under the hood, but you need to carefully examine the sockets that the relays would insert into. If the sockets do NOT have metal connection points or contacts in them, then the tow wiring circuits are incomplete and adding the relays will not activate the tow package wiring, in which case you will need to use the # 118551 wiring harness.

If the sockets where the relays insert do have the metal contacts, you can activate the tow package with the relays and use the # 118251 harness.

expert reply by: DeAnne T