Installing a 7-Way and Trailer Brake Controller on a 2011 Ford F-150 with Factory 4-Way  

Question:

Expert Reply:

In order to determine if you will need any additional wiring you will want to look under the truck and find where the factory 4-Way harness plugs into another harness forward of the rear of the truck. If you find this harness you will see that where it is plugged in the forward harness has more wires going into it than the harness that leads to the 4-Way. If you peel back the protective covering on the forward harness there should be additional wires.

Use a circuit tester like # 3808 to test these wires. One will have 12 volt power and this is the wire you will connect to # 37185 black wire. There should be another wire, blue, that is output from the brake controller. To test this wire, install the brake controller with the wiring harness # C51436, and have someone apply the manual override while you test the wires. The wire that shows power with the manual override connects to the 37185 blue wire.

If your truck does not have this connector and/or wires underneath then you will need about 20 feet of wire # 10-2-1. Connect black to black and blue to white. Then you will route the wiring under the truck avoiding areas that can pinch or burn the wire. Then route the wires up through the engine compartment. Separate them and route the blue wire into the truck cab through the firewall.

The blue wire will need to connect to the brake controllers blue wire so you will need to cut the blue wire before the plug end that goes into the truck. Under the hood the black wire will need to first go to a 40 amp circuit breaker, # PK54540, and then from there to the the positive battery terminal.

expert reply by: Michael H

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