my new '04 f150 heritage came with a flat 4 and i need to wire it for a brake control and a round 7 plug. it has most of the wiring underneath near the tire near the rear of the truck. i have a round 7 cable without an end on it and the other just 7 exposed wires and a brake kit. what is the easiest way to make it work? any help would be appreciated.

 

Drive to a trailer/ hitch shop and hand the stuff to the guy and say "Can you install this stuff on this truck?"

 

yeah i guess that's one way of doing it, although i have a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn't be free.

 

Hi and welcome to FTE,
under your dash you find a plug for the trailor controller , you may have to go to ford or autozone for the other end to wire up to your controller, and there is a kit you can buy that will plug right in that has the 7 wire female plug, took me all about 45 minutes to install both without cutting any of the factory wiring, just plug it in and go, the only thing that took time was wiring the to the controller for it to plug into the dash wiring....

 

well, you kinda confused me with your description, so....

A) in the cab, under the dash on the rightish side, you will see a little connector. If the person who sold you the brake box (you did get one, right?) didn't sell you a Ford adapter, and you didn't get one in your glove compartment when you bought the truck, you will need to go back out and buy one. When you have it, connect the four wires as the directions tell you. Usually, red goes to red, white to white, blue to blue, etc. Then mount the box and plug the adapter you just wired into that connecter under the dash.

2) Under the rear of the truck. If there is no obvious wires laying there for easy access, you will have to do a little bit of searching. On the left side of the truck, somewhere close to the frame, you will see a large bundle of wires and a huge connector. Peel back the tape or whatever is protecting the bundled wires, and locate a relatively large blue wire (on the connector closer to the front of the truck) that has no corresponding blue wire on the rear side of the connector. Cut that wire and connect it to the blue wire coming out of your 7 pin adapter. Then splice the three wires from the 4 pin (don't recall the colors, but they contol right blinker, left blinker, and running lights). Connect the ground wire to the hitch or the frame, and you are all done! If you only need the brake, you are all done... if you are towing a camper and need the power and acc. power, or have an electric over hydrolic brake system, you will need someone who knows where to tap into those wires. It really is easy once you look under the truck. Hope this helps!

 

Where's the fun in that?!

 

exactly! that doesn't make for a very good story! thank you guys for the awsome help, it is much appreciated!!

 

You asked for the easiest, you never specified 'free'.

 

i seconded that.....

Good explaination of the trailor wiring.....

 

point well taken, that should have been the first words written FREE.

 

so if i go down to ford tomorrow and order the 7 way adapter, i can just unplug the 4 way and snap in the 7? so the adapter will have 3 extra wires on it, that i must splice together?

thank you for taking the time and lending me a hand. so once i replace that with the new one, then all i have to do is add the brake control under the dash? all the rest is done? sorry if i sound ignorant but these are definitely unchartered waters for me.

 

if you go to ford you should be able to plug and go on both ends except for wiring the controller to the plug and then plugging it in..

 

i was at ford today and they were out of the 7 way adapter but they can have it in 2 days. so the after i plug it in underneath the truck and replace the 4 way, then do i have to splice wires still or will the trailer automatically have brakes?

 

all 97 & newer truck come pre-wired for electric brakes,like i said plug and go , i just did this on my 97 & 99 , if you look closely under the truck you will see the 7 pin plug

 

ok great. i located the plug near the spare tire. but aren't there more wires coming from the 7 way? or do those plugs have all 7 wires in them?