Troubleshooting a Dead Battery after 4-way Installation

Question:

hooked up the wiring harness today. Keeps draining the battery. help?

asked by: Chipbuck

Expert Reply:

There are a few things that could cause your battery to drain after installing a trailer wiring harness like the Tow Ready Wiring Harness # 118467. The first thing that we can test for is a bad converter box. Test the 4-flat connector on the wiring harness without any vehicle lights on using a circuit tester with an incandescent bulb like part # PTW2992. Be sure to test each pin. If there is constant power on any of the pins with the vehicle lights off, then the converter box could be bad and would need to be replaced.

I have attached a video demonstrating how to test a 4-way trailer connector with a circuit tester for you to check out.

Typically, with vehicles that are a few years old and still have the original battery, our installers have found that the battery will die or be close to dead once the installation is complete. This is because the rear hatch, side doors or hood were left open for many hours causing the interior lights to be on the entire time.

expert reply by: Jameson C