Trailer Brake Controller Installation - 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan Part 1
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How to Install a Brake Controller for a Trailer on a 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan Part 1
Today, we are going to install part number 90185, the Prodigy brake controller from Tekonsha and we are going to install this on an 08 Dodge Grand Caravan. Also, on this install, we are going to be using part number ETBC-7 and also part number 118140 bracket kit. First, we are going to install the 18140 at the rear of the vehicle on the hitch. There is a hose clamp that holds it in place, basically. Kind of hold everything in place and just tighten it down. Now, we will install the bracket for the ETBC-7 kit and we will just put it on like so. Next, we will install the connector and it just goes into place like so. Put a couple of screws to hold it into place. Alright, at this point we will connect up to the preexisting 4-pole we already have. Next, we will put the existing 4-pole to the connector and before we do that we will put some dialectic grease in there keep it from corroding up over time. And we will put a zip tie around it make sure that it never comes apart. What we are going to do next is run our ground wire that will be the white with the ring terminal and then the purple wire is reverse light lead. In this instance we will not be hooking it up, that is because the trailer does not have any back up lights on it and also since this has to have a modulite for the wiring harness the reverse lights are not powered by the modulite, so it probably would not be a good idea to hook them up anyway. And then we will ground our ring terminal at the body panel near the pinch weld. Now, we will just go ahead and secure our wires to our other wires underneath the bumper. Next, what we need to do is go ahead and hook up our leads that go to the front of the vehicle. The blue will be going to the brake controller and the black will be going to the 12 volts basically straight to the battery going through a circuit breaker. We will just strip the ends off of the wire and we are going to go black to black for our 12 volt power supply and we are going to hook our white wire it is going to go to our blue wire. Just remember that the white wire is going to be going eventually back to the blue wire on the brake controller. We will go ahead and secure the wires with some tape, bind them up. Once you have them taped up secure, you can go ahead and install the loom assembly around it. It kind of slides onto the wire. You can also take the rest of your wires here and put it with it also. 2:33
Next, we will run our gray wire behind the hitch along with the other wiring and we will end up going up to the front of the vehicle. Once you get your wires run the way you want them, then we will go ahead and zip tie them together to keep them nice and tight. Next, we will run our gray wire along the frame we are actually going to tuck in behind the hitch here and we want to go over the suspension components. It is a good idea to follow the brake line and we will go over the shock absorber mount. And just follow the emergency brake cable and we will zip off, zip tie off to it in different locations. Alright, and the rest of our wire we will run up front behind the fire wall into the engine compartment and we will pull it out from the hood. Basically, we want to push up as much as we can in there so we can reach down and pull it out from the top. Next, you want to go down reach in and pull out your cable. Next, we are going to need to find a spot to mount our circuit breakers. We will need one for the hot lead going to the black wire, that is going to be the 40 amp circuit breaker and we will need one for the brake controller, in this case we will use 20 amp. There is not much really room to work with or a flat spot to mount these, so it looks like what we will do is cut this fiber right here and we will mount them straight to the fire wall right here. So, we will cut here on down to the bend right here and just fold it out of our way. Alright, we will need the 40 amp circuit breaker first and next we will install the 20 amp circuit breaker. Now that we have our breakers installed we will go ahead and run our hot wire to the 40 amp breaker and what we will do is go ahead and make a cut to this wire. Be careful when you are working around the battery. Just put a slice into it just to get to the wires on the inside. And what we are going to do with this black wire here is go ahead, we are going to cut it in half and put two ring terminals on there. One half this half going out to the connector, the trailer connector and this part will end up going to the positive connector right here. Alright, we will go ahead and install our ring terminals. Alright, and with this excess wire, you want to pull you want to strip it some more and pull out a lead as far as you need to go from the circuit breaker to where you are going to pick up your power at. Now we have got our cut piece of wire here, now this is going to go to this terminal to the circuit beaker again going to out power pick up our power here. That will take care of just our 12 volts going out back. Okay, we go ahead and tighten these up now. 5:50
Then go ahead and go back and put a ring terminal on this end of the wire and we are just going to leave that there for now because we will actually make this our last connection going onto the battery. To do the same thing for the power wire going to the brake controller. And you can see here we have got the white wire coming out from the connector and going to the brake controller. We didnt cut that cause we will continue this up to the brake controller itself. Now with the rest of this wire, what you want to do is just pull out some more just enough to go inside the cab where you are going to hook up to the brake controller and our brake controller will come with a little extra wire too to meet up to it. Some will come with more wire than others, so you kind of have to gauge how much wire you to need to use, but once you figure out how much wire you want to use to go into the cab go ahead and cut your wire. Now, the rest of the wire that you have left over, this white and black wire, you are going to use this to go in between the brake controller and the battery. And so at this point we can go ahead and strip off the rest of the sheath and we can get rid of the black wire and we do not need the sheath itself. Okay, again, this is going to be going to our blue wire on our brake controller going through the cab and we are just going to leave that sit for now. Then, what we are going to do is go in the cab of the vehicle drill out our holes for access to get back out. 7:12
Finish this installation by viewing Brake Controller Installation - 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan Part 2.
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