Addding a 12volt accessory outlet from Coach to Tow Vehicle

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
Stewart69

Stewart69

Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2010
Posts
12
Location
Texas
I recently purchased a Portabel Brake System that needs to be plug into a 12 volt outlet. My tow vehicle (2009 Jeep Wrangler) says I need to disconnect the negative battery cable when towing. I would like to somehow have an 12 volt accessory outlet wired from the coach to the tow vehicle. Does anyone have any instruction on how to do this... The coach (2009 Pace Arrow) and tow vehicle are already connected (7-pin to 6-pin trailer connectors) to operate the brakes lights. Is there some way to tap into the wires and just add an outlet. I'm no electrician by any means, but can't I just connect to the positive and negative wires?

The dealership can do this for me, but I really don't want to pay the service hour fees. I would think this would be simple enough. If any event... How would I just wire to the tow vehicle battery. My concern is battery drain. Just two wires from the positive and negative post to a 12 volt outlet. Do you need fuses or anything in between.

I appreciate any help. Thanks in advance.
 
Stewart69 said:
Do you need fuses or anything in between.
Click to expand...
I can't answer your other questions but yes you should absolutely have fuses in there.  Especially if you decide to run wires directly from the coach's battery system.  Consider what could happen if a postive wire starts to get the insulation rubbed off due to whatever and then starts to hit bare metal.  Now you could have many amps running through it and a fire could start.
 
Your 6 or 7 pin connector should have a positive hot wire already inside. I don't have a drawing handy to tell you which pin it is thought. If nobody else does, I will look it up tonight.
 
I've saw connector diagrams, and I see which one is the positive (12v) and the ground. But can I just splice the into the two wires to the 12 volt outlet, and add a 10 amp fuse on the postive wire between the two. And I'm done... Seems to easy... I really don't want to burn anything up.
 
Stewart69 said:
I've saw connector diagrams, and I see which one is the positive (12v) and the ground. But can I just splice the into the two wires to the 12 volt outlet, and add a 10 amp fuse on the postive wire between the two. And I'm done... Seems to easy... I really don't want to burn anything up.
Click to expand...
What do you plan to power with the 12 volts? Is 10 amps enough?
 
Wire the outlet directly to the battery, don't splice into the existing wiring.  Put the fuse as close to the battery end of the + wire as possible.  Size the wire and fuse appropriate for the power needs of the brake system.  I believe most require a 20A outlet.
 
I plan on just powering the Blue Ox Patriot Brake System. I pretty sure I read it on uses 2 amps of power.
Once again. I appreciate all your input. The forum has answer so many questions and save so much time.
 
The Patriot contains a battery to power the brake, so it probably only uses a small amount of vehicle power to keep the battery charged.  I read the installation instructions and it doesn't specify the power requirements, just a normal 12VDC outlet which is typically 10-15A.
 
When I bought my 2008 Liberty I was told that the reason for the battery disconnect was to keep from running the battery down because the key had to be in accessory position to unlock the steering wheel by the dealer. The dealer and I placed a call to the Jeep engineers after determining that there is no lock on the Liberty steering and was told by the engineer I spoke with that there is not a valid reason to disconnect the battery except that prolonged usage of the braking system and activation of the brake lights could run the battery down I have about 14,000 miles on my Liberty being towed (just turned 11,000 on the odometer) without disconnecting the battery with no problems. Also disconnecting the battery will cause all memories to be erased so you would have to reset time, radio stations and anything else that uses memory that must have power. Some manufactuers have a feature in their computers that recognize driving habits and such which would also have to go through a relearn process such as GM's computers. Not sure if Chrysler has this feature or not. 

 
Fastcar,

I don't even think that is really needed. I tow my Liberty all the time with the battery connected and I was not charging the battery. I now use a USGear brake system and do charge the battery but again I think the determing factor would be the braking system you are using.
 
I just brought my MH home today with the new Blue OX base plate, tow bar (aladdin), and the new Patriot brake system... the Patriot brake unit just plugs into one of the toads 12V outlet (one direct to battery) .. the wiring harness for the lights is a separate set of wires/bulbs added into rear light housings..
In my case, dealer said the battery stays fully connected, the Patriot will draw very little power... battery will not go down even with days of driving unless brake stays on.... 
Hoping and trust this is true.....
No problem bringing it a few miles home except I discovered after 3-4 miles that at the end of the "training", the mechanic had apparently "locked" the front wheels in a slight turn left position when he took the key out the final time and handed them to me ... After noticing this , stopping,  then smelling rubber, I reinserted the key, turned it one "notch or click" to proper position, wheels became free and followed nicely rest of way..
One other thing I noticed already is that one other poster mentioned a few days ago in a separate post is that I'll need to put a "platform " or base board under the feet of the unit to give it better stability during setup. Will go back and relook at that design
Interesting to get it home here in the dark at -10 degrees F uphill on icy driveway and figure out how to disconnect everything.... 














 
As someone said.. If you are using a six or 7 pin connector to hook up the lights for towing, the pins are (NOT IN ORDER) Ground, Tail lights, Right turn/stop, Left turn/stop, BATTERY, brakes and back up (aux, optional on 7 pin usually NC)

The key one is BATTERY which is next to tail lights by the way.

If you have a flat 4... I'd recommend a 10 ga wire and Anderson Power poles, 20 amp breakers both ends.
 
These folks have great products for your Jeep http://www.cooltechllc.com/jeep/jk_winch_plate_bracket.shtml  the wire harness for lights works great.
I found on line an adapter plug that plugs into the mh and you than plug the toad into the adapter...which also has  2-  12 volt plugs ..I use  to keep
the jeep charged if towing more than a day... Use a
Cigarette  plug to the adapter hard wired ( fused too ) to the toad
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 482 (members: 10, guests: 472)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,964
Posts
1,388,315
Members
137,718
Latest member
urnwholesaler
Back
Top Bottom