1978 f250 ranger 4wd...

Does anyone know if these trucks came with a factory tow/electric brake set up. I had a pile of spaghetti under my hood on the driver side. Some from an after market alarm and that was obvious, but i have a solenoid near the radiator, what appears to be a factory loom, and a flat connector mounted on top of the frame but in front of the rear tire??? The loomed wire must have 10 plus wire in it that run all the way to the rear lights but this "trailer looking" plug splices out of it. Any way, In the first picture, the wire is cut and was running to this solenoid with some other kind of manual switch to engage/disengage the power.

Does any of this look familiar to anyone? I have the shop manuals for the year truck but i can not find any mention of anything like this.

 

Does the bed show any signs of in bed camper or fifth wheel trailer mount .. That might be your flat plug .. The solenoid is probably for charging the house battery for the camper off the truck while going down the road .. The loom at the back of the truck is there any plug at all at the rear trailer hitch?

 

No factory trailer brakes with the tow packages. Below is what was included with the tow package.


Light duty trailer towing package:
Good for towing up to 2,000lbs.
This package included a heavy duty radiator, external oil cooler, seven lead trailer harness, heavy duty turn signal flasher and the Trailer Special emblem on the T-gate.

Heavy duty trailer towing package:
Good for towing up to 6,000lbs.
This package included a heavy duty alternator,heavy duty battery, HD rear shocks, bigger radiator, rear sway bar, swing out recreational mirrors, amp meter, oil pressure gauge, HD front springs, external oil cooler and the Trailer Special emblem on the T-gate.

 

I am leaning more towards the remnants of a bed camper. There are no sign of one ever being in the back of the truck but maybe the owner had the charging system installed?

I just can not figure how all the wires are inside the factory taped loom.

I will did a little deeper today,

Thanks,
Chris

 

That look's like factory camper/trailer special wiring. The plug under the bed is for the camper/trailer wiring. When it was new they gave you the opposite plug end to wire to your camper/trailer. Is ther a seperate battery box in the left inner fender? If so the solinoid is an isolator. Right side battery runs truck, left battery runs camper. When the truck is started the alternator will charge both batteries. It is so the truck will always start after camping.

 

You are correct, i have the second battery. I think someone molested the set up under the hood over the years because the wire went from the battery inside to an amp gauge and the back to a buss terminal. That part of the set up was aftermarket for sure. I could tell by the wires and crimps.
I wish my manual had some info about it, It would be nice to put it back the right way.

Chris

 

I am pretty sure MikeO0o0o cann supply a schematic of how it is suppose to be connected. Are the battery cables still there?

 

Sorry Mike if I got the O's wrong, I did not go back and look.

 

I removed a pile of wire, I still have it but I am sure it is junk. I am wondering how the solenoid and this switch were supposed to be?? I have both, but it looked like someone added more to it.

It had a pos/neg connector under the dash, near the the brake release handle. Looked like two separate plugins. The son (the father/original owner passed away) said he used his electric shaver with it????

I think that is were the hacking came in.

If anyone has a pic, or schematic, it would be great,

I can go back through the shop manuals again looking.

chris