Trailer Wiring Harness Installation - 2008 Dodge Caravan
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How to Install a Wiring Harness for a Trailer on a 2008 Dodge Caravan
Today we are going to install part number 118552 from Tow Ready on our 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan. First what we need to do to start is get behind the tail lights. So we will have to open up the trunk and take out 2 screws on each side to undo the tail lights. There are 2 torque screws that have to come out and you just simply pry off the light. You will see 2 tabs, just pull straight out from there. For now we will just go ahead and let the light sit there so we will have to make our T1 connector right here. Again it is the same thing for the other side. To begin our install, we will take our 4 pole and our converter box and stick it behind the bumper. And it will come out below the bumper. Also the wires going to the passenger side will go down there too. These will eventually get run down underneath the bumper to the other side. Just to make sure we have the socket to hook up take a look at the outside. Obviously this is going to be your reverse light. And your turning signal and running lights and brake lights are going to be this bulb. So you are going to want to take this socket and this bulb apart. You have to unlock it and it should come apart just like so. Then you reinstall the T-1 connector in the same spot. Then take the other 2 halves you have left over and connect those together. Make sure you put the red locks back into place.
The last thing we have to do is run this ground wire. We are going to just attach it straight to the body right here. Next what we are going to do is pull up the modulate. Have a little adhesive back and we are going to attach it right back below that ground screw there. Make sure you have that area good and clean. And one other thing while we are here we will go ahead and hook up our power wire that will go to the front of the vehicle. We will run that all the way past the bottom of the bumper also. Next we have this bundle of wire for power. This is going to go straight down through the bottom of the bumper and we will save this end to attach to this connection right here. Go ahead and put some tape around it to keep it dry. At this point we can reassemble our taillight. Now we got our wire harness here which we will go ahead and pull that down. We got our power wire that goes to the front of the vehicle. Next we are going to run the wires from the passenger side tail light and we will run it behind the supports that hold the bumper cover in place. Now obviously since you are out by the tail pipe here you want to go ahead and take some extra steps to make sure the wires stay away from there. Then we will take the rest of our harness and just push it back up in there. Then we will pull the rest of it back up the other side. Alright also with the 4 pole we will go ahead and follow the same routing. We will keep that by the hitch. Again we will just take off this tab and lock it and pull it apart then slide the new one in place.
Take the rest of the wire you have left over and zip tie it to itself to take up the slack. Now we will just zip tie these wires to our supports right here. Just make sure again that the wire is away from the exhaust as far as possible. Run the wire through the hitch by having it come out here through this point. Try to stay behind all the moving suspension components. It is a good idea to follow the brake lines, that will help. We are going to run it behind the support for the shock absorber. Then we will go ahead and still follow the brake line by going over here. It would be a good idea right now to tie it off with a few zip ties. We will continue on forward by following the parking brake cable all the way up. Next we are going to run the wire up along the side of the firewall here going towards the top of the engine compartment. Keep in mind to run the wire away from anything that moves like the steering linkage or any other moving parts. Just kind of push it up as far as you can in the bottom. So that way you can reach down and pull it from the top. Now go ahead and pull your wires out. Make sure it is not hitting anything that is moving. It would be a good idea to tie something off to something to keep it as taunt as possible. This wiring harness will work just fine.
Next we will want to get the fuse harness ready to go. All we have to do is cut that in half then install the ends. Install our butt connector on one end and the ring terminal on the other. At this point you probably want to get a good idea on how you want to run stuff. It looks generally like this battery cable here. We can actually connect this to our wiring harness here at this junction. So we will go ahead and cut our wires and install the other end of the butt connector here from this wire. We can probably go ahead and put on a zip tie on here like so. Alright what we will do is disconnect the battery. So that when we work with the positive post we will not shock ourselves or melt anything. Next we will put a ring terminal on and put our fuse into the fuse holder and then put our ground back on our battery. That covers our install of part number 118552 from Tow Ready.
Info for this part was:
Test Fit:
Joe V
Test Fit:
Randy B
Test Fit:
Joe B
Test Fit:
Brent H
Test Fit:
Robert C
Test Fit:
David F
Video Edited:
Zack K
Video Edited:
Andrew K
Video Edited:
Jacob T
Video Edited:
Dustin K
Video Edited:
Sue W
Video Edited:
Chris R
Installed by:
Cole B
Video by:
Alan C
Video by:
Zach D
Video by:
Jonathan Y
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