Converting 4-Way on 2016 Nissan Quest to 7-Way For Use with Pop-Up Camper

Question:

Our van has a 4 flat wiring set up, but our pop-up has a 7 pin. I see plenty of products and videos telling me in general how to use them, but I still cant figure out where I am supposed to attach the additional wires on the adapter to my vehicle. For example, to what do I connect the blue wire power brakes in my van? I really appreciate any help you can offer!

asked by: Jennie

Expert Reply:

There are a couple of ways to convert a 4-Way connector to a 7-Way depending on what the trailer is actually equipped with.

If your pop-up doesn't have electric brakes or a battery that you need to charge, using an adapter like the Hopkins # 37185 is your best option. This will plug right into the existing 4-Way on the Nissan Quest to provide you with a 7-Way on the other end. If the trailer doesn't have brakes or a battery, the only additional wire coming from the adapter that needs to be connected is the white ground wire, which just gets attached to a clean, bare metal surface. In this application the other wires (blue, black, and purple) aren't needed and can just be tied off.

Now if your pop-up does have electric brakes or a trailer battery then you will need some additional components when converting the 4-Way.

The blue wire from a 7-Way will normally get run to a brake controller inside the vehicle to power the trailer's brake assemblies. The black wire is ran to the battery under the hood of the tow vehicle to activate the 12V circuit on the 7-Way, which can be used to maintain the charge on a trailer mounted battery or to run smaller 12V accessories. The purple wire is used for aux or reverse lights, which likely isn't needed for your camper.

The easiest route to take for this and what I recommend for your setup (if your camper has brakes) is to use a combination of the Wiring Kit # ETBC7L, which includes the new connector and wiring needed to convert the 4-Way to a 7-Way, and the Curt Echo Brake Controller # C51180.

The Curt Echo, unlike most other controllers on the market, does not require the blue wire on the 7-Way to be ran which just allows for a much easier install process. It only requires the 12V circuit to be active on the 7-Way. The # ETBC7L Kit mentioned above includes only the components you will need for this particular controller.

Once you have the new 7-Way installed the Curt Echo simply gets plugged into it and paired to your smart phone via Bluetooth. And that's it. That's the entire install procedure. It will automatically send power back to the camper's brakes based on the deceleration of the tow vehicle (the harder you brake the more power it sends back) and because your phone is what is used to adjust any settings or activate the manual override, you don't need to add any other component to the cab of your Quest like with other units.

I have attached a couple short video demonstrations that you can check out as well.