Can I Use the 4-Way to 7-Way Curt Dinghy Adapter 58980 with Brake Controller to Activate Brakes?

Question:

I have a 2019 Jeep Sahara 4 door that has a 4 pin flat trailer plug. Can you tell me if I use a Curt 58980 Dinghy Towing electrical adapter 4 way to 7 pin will work when using a Curt 51180 Echo Mobile Trailer Brake controller? The Jeep has a 4 pin flat that we used on one of our trailers. Now I want to use the jeep to pull a trailer that has a 7 pin plug with brakes.

asked by: Charles C

Expert Reply:

While we not carry the Curt 58980 Dinghy Towing electrical adapter, I went ahead and did some research and reached out to my tech at Curt to determine if you can use the adapter with the Curt Echo # C51180 when towing a trailer with your 2019 Jeep Wrangler Sahara.

My tech confirmed that with the Curt 58980 adapter, while it does provide a 7-way plug, it does not provide you with full functionality of all of the pins on the 7-way plug. This is because brakes require you to have a fully-functional 7-way wiring harness installed on your Wrangler in order to activate the brakes.

For the solution you need to use the Echo, I recommend installing the Universal Trailer Installation Kit # ETBC7. With this kit, it requires you to splice into your current wiring so you have full functionality on the plug to install the Echo for your trailer's brakes.

I went ahead and attached a helpful video that shows the # ETBC7 installed on a 2012 Wrangler. The installation on your 2019 model is very similar.

expert reply by: Bob C