On 09s the upfitter blunt cut wires are behind a dash panel below the steering column. I see some other blunt cut wires out in the engine compartment not far from the steeering column. What do they connect to?

 

those are wires for you to use in case you need to get thru the firewall.. they also come out in the lower left corner of the dash. in a different bundle.

Sam

 

This allows you to wire in extras without having to poke a new hole in your firewall. Pretty neat huh!

Joe

 

So I guess ford helps you here and shortchanges you there.??????? I would just like to have some zerk fittings to start with.

 

He might be talking about the red white blue trailer brakes wires?

 

Ford loves you so much they put them there just for you. They know your time is valuable and they wanted to save you time running wires through the firewall.

Thanks Ford!!

 

Thanks, that's an odd way to do it. I would expect that the upfitter wires would go through the firewall into the engine compartment. What they have done is more flexible though as there are probably many different ways folks can use them.

 

The only thing I didn't like about the pass-through wires was that they don't really seem large enough to handle the bigger loads (30a) that upfitters #1 & #2 can carry.

I recently added some additional off-road lights to the front of my truck and determined that the current the light would draw is greater than 20a; therefore, I needed to use one of the higher current upfitters. The yellow blunt cut wire under the steering wheel was larger gauge than the pass-through wire, and I didn't feel comfortable having that kind of bottleneck. What I did was solder a new wire the same gauge as the yellow wire and simply ran it through the firewall in the factory location. More work, I know, but now there isn't a bottleneck.

 

but if you want to control a rear mounted device, then thru the firewall is the wrong way to go..

Sam

 

"I recently added some additional off-road lights to the front of my truck and determined that the current the light would draw is greater than 20a; therefore, I needed to use one of the higher current upfitters. The yellow blunt cut wire under the steering wheel was larger gauge than the pass-through wire, and I didn't feel comfortable having that kind of bottleneck. What I did was solder a new wire the same gauge as the yellow wire and simply ran it through the firewall in the factory location. More work, I know, but now there isn't a bottleneck."

It would be better to use a relay for the lights and use one of the smaller upfitter switches to trigger the relay.

 

I disagree Sam, for a pickup we are normally controlling stuff from the cab, so our wiring will originate there. It makes sense to go out the firewall, then down to the frame and back. I ran my wiring down the right side of the frame as the left is very congested near the fuel tank.

For a cab chassis it's a different game as you might have a separate control station behind the cab and the wiring setup would be more involved.

SR is right about the wire gauge. There should be a "through" wire at the same capacity as the "heavy" switch. This avoids having to add a relay. SR - very cool avatar!

 

Wht don't you guys just put 2 of the little wire together to make 1 bigger 1.

 

That would be the correct way to do it.