Trailer Wiring Harness Installation - 2010 Jeep Patriot
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How to Install a Wiring Harness for a Trailer on a 2010 Jeep Patriot
Today on this 2010 Jeep Patriot we are going to install wiring harness part number 118552 from Tow Ready and we are also going to use a 4-pole flat connector mounting bracket and we are going to use part number 118144 also from Tow Ready. For a quick overview what is going to happen is we are going to make our attachment points behind both tail lights and then we are going to run a 4-pole wiring harness down to the hitch and we are going to take our power wire and run it to the battery and we are going to run it up the driver side frame rail up to the battery. Lets begin. Open up the tail gate and start taking off the tail lights. When you take the attachment points off these are actually plastic rivets underneath here, the cap is kind of fragile so be careful when you remove it. Use a screwdriver to get it started and then use a trim panel tool to remove it. Gently pull it back a little bit, maybe wiggle it, and then pull it apart. At this point we can leave the light attached and then take off the other one. If you can it might be a better idea to disconnect the wiring harness from the light and put the light in the same spot just so it does not move around. 01:06
That is what we are going to do. Push this red tab back and push down here, push down right here and it should come apart. Reinstall the lock pin. Now go over to the passenger side and repeat the same process. We can start installing the T-One connector. You have got two Ts here. One with green wire, this is going to the passenger side and we have got one with a yellow wire and that is going to the driver side. We are going to take our whole assembly and put it behind the bumper cover and pull it out the bottom and we will make our other runs to the other side and down to the hitch. Then on this side we will make our connections. Take the two T connectors and push them together. This is the original factory and this is the T-One harness. Push the lock pin back into place and then we are done with that side. Now this is our part that is going to go on to the tail light so we are going to leave that alone for now. We will next install the ground screw. 02:00
We are just going to install it through the sheet metal right here. At this point we can reinstall the tail light on the driver side. Start with the small connections first. That just goes back into place. The T wiring harness will plug into the other one. Put the red lock in and reinstall the tail light. We are going to route the green wire and our hitch wire underneath the vehicle and then our green wire is going to continue on to the other tail light on the passenger side. We will just push it up there as far as you can. You should probably use a pull wire to come down from the other side and pull it back up. Then we will take our T connector and pull it back through. Make the connection to the factory wire harness. Now we will draw up some of the slack from the green wire and then zip tie it to the factory harness so that way it does not droop back down and get anywhere close to the exhaust. We can reinstall the tail light just like we did before. Do the small connector first and then the T-One connector will go in behind the tail light. With that completed lets go back underneath the vehicle and install the 4-pole bracket to the hitch. 03:26
We are going to mount our bracket to the actual attachment that is on the hitch itself which is two nuts and bolts basically. Now we are going to take our 4-pole wire and we are going to do the same thing and route it behind the bumper cover and then push it into the bracket and it is friction fit so it just pushes in and stays in. Basically for the excess 4-pole wire we are going to zip tie it to the hitch. Next we are going to connect our length of black wire that came with the T-One connector. This is the wire that is going to get ran up to the battery so we are connected to the red wire on the modulite of the butt connector and then we will permanently mount our modulite. Clean off the area on the sheet metal on the bottom of the vehicle and we will just use adhesive on the back of a modulite and we will attach it to the sheet metal. It works best if you have a warm environment to do this in. Next take the black wire and start going up to the front. When we run the wire to the front I will put it above the suspension trying to hug the sheet metal as best we could. Then we came through the frame member and then we will take the wire and push it up front and reach down from the top and pull the rest through. This is a tight fit coming through here so in retrospect it probably would have been a better idea to run another pull wire down and pull it up from the bottom. The main thing you want to make sure is that you keep it away from anything that is hot and also anything that is moving with the suspension or steering components. 04:53
Once you have that accomplished just route the wire any way you see fit and run it to the battery which is underneath this cover right here. Take this cover off and turn these two knobs here and pull up towards the front of the vehicle and it pops right out. Now we have got full access to the battery so first we are going to install our fuse holder to our lead and then we will make our connection to the battery. Cut the wire in half. In one end put the ring terminal and the other end we will install the butt connector. Cut the black wire to length and then hook the fuse holder up to this wire. Next connect to the battery. We are going to disconnect the ground for the negative terminal and that way we can loosen the bolts and tighten the bolts on the positive side without getting zapped. Now we will install the fuse and then just take some time out to zip tie the wires to a safe location and put the negative terminal back on to the battery. Lets put the cover back on. The last thing we need to do is check our 4-pole in the back and when you do that use a regular incandescent light tester. Put the clip on to the ground that is exposed in here and then just go through the pins and make sure everything is working. This one is going to be running lights. This one in the center is going to be left turn. We are good there and the one on the end is going to be the right turn. That is good. The next thing we need to do is the brakes and we should have a solid signal on both of these poles here. That tests out fine. Our 4-pole is ready to go. With our final check complete and that will finish our install of part number 118552 from Tow Ready and a 4-pole bracket part number 118144 also from Tow Ready.
Info for these parts were:
Test Fit:
Joe V
Test Fit:
Nicholas E
Test Fit:
Shane T
Test Fit:
Robert C
Video Edited:
Zack K
Video Edited:
Joshua S
Video Edited:
Jacob T
Video Edited:
Dustin K
Video Edited:
Chris R
Installed by:
Jeff D
Video by:
Kathleen M
Video by:
Alan C
Video by:
Jonathan Y
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