Tow Brake Wiring

[slabman]

I'm hooking up a toad brake and am wondering if Spartan installs a line from the rear plug up to the front of the coach for this purpose? I see a blue wire coming from that rear plug along with yellow, green, brown, red and white in one wire loom and then I find the same colored wired up front under the dash. Is that blue wire used for anything else? Can I hijack it for my brake controller?

[slabman]

I'm hooking up a toad brake and am wondering if Spartan installs a line from the rear plug up to the front of the coach for this purpose? I see a blue wire coming from that rear plug along with yellow, green, brown, red and white in one wire loom and then I find the same colored wired up front under the dash. Is that blue wire used for anything else? Can I hijack it for my brake controller?

[RUFINIT]

Bob,

I just had my K2 chassis wired for my US Gear toad brake. There is a group of wires (I think four) under the dash, on the left side on mine.) Each was labled. One was for trailer brake, another was to the brake pedal (that sends a signal when the brake pedal is activated, and I don't know what the other two were for, but to answer your question, YES. We tapped into an switched hot wire for power. I was pleasantly surprised on how it was all there and easy to wire.

[slabman]

Joe, "under the dash" means what? In front of the firewall or in the cockpit? I was under the impression I had to tap into not only the blue wire, but also to a pink wire servicing the foot brake in front of the firewall. But are you saying they have all this done for us? WOW! What a chassis builder!

I'm installing a US Gear unit also.

[RUFINIT]

Bob, I responded to your message via email, but will also post here on the forum for the benefit of others. To clarify: The wires have been brought in by Newmar to under the dash inside. Spartan had provided the wire from the rear of the coach. They were helpful when I called for info. However when I talked to the folks at Newmar, they indicated they were under the dash inside the coach and there were four wires.

On my Essex, the yellow brake lever and the headlight
switch are to the left of the main speedo and guages.
They are mounted on a removable panel. Behind there
is where the wires were. We mounted the US Gear brake
controller just to the left of that and snuck the
wires in to the dash behind that panel. I believe my
friend who did most of the work also took off the
bigger removable panel where the spedo etc are
located. He found a switched hot wire there to tap
into. Don't think he put any diodes in.

Each wire was labeled so it was easy to determine
which ones to connect to.

[JIMGINOH]

Bob,
Did you ever find the right wires. I have a 2003 TS Select 45 and I have searched and searched for the wires with no luck.
I called Entegra, but they said they couldn't help.
On mine the loose blue wire goes out to a relay and jumpers over on a brown wire to perhaps the brake switch. I have tried to find the blue wire from the back, at the front, but cannot locate it. It was on the center pin of the plug, but I moved it to the 5 o'clock position.
If you were able to figure it out I would appreciate an update.
Newmar is nice enough to label these wires, but I do not believe there is anyone left at the TS factory that can answer the question for me.

Thanks,
JIM

[Joe-K]

On our Spartan MMGT chassis, the 4 wires needed for the brake controller were all available at a connector plug hanging under the dash in the vicinity of the brake pedal.

At that connector, Spartan supplies power, ground, the brake light siganl, and the blue wire which runs back to the trailer connector on the back of the rig. They are even kind enough to attach the mating section of the connector to the connector hanging under the dash, so you can do all your wiring then simply plug into the connector.

The only item to be aware of is that the brake light signal wire at that connector mimics the brake lights, not the brake pedal switch. This means that the signal wire will activate whenever the brakelights on the coach come in, (Including when the engine brake activates)

In my case, (Also using the US Gear Unifed Tow Brake) I did not want the toad brakes working with the engine brake, but rather only operate when I used the service brakes. I talked with Spartan, and pulled a fuse which deactiviated the brake lights with the engine brake feature. Now the lights operate when the foot brake is pressed only. At first I was a little concerned about them not being on when the engine brake activated, but after talking with Spartan and watching trucks on the road, I realized that that mode of operation is actually more common than the typical motorhome operating style.

[garybtt]

Joe, can you tell me wich fuse you pulled and where it is located. Thanks

[bcbounders]

Joe,

I'd be interested in knowing what the fuse was labelled, too. When we purchased our Newmar about 3 years ago, we went through the same process, but ended up finding the brake activation wire and spliced into it. I'd be interested in knowing where that fuse is, though, since I'm not a fan of the brake lights coming on all the time with the engine brake (of course, it would have saved a lot of searching if Spartan had told me about that fuse 3 years ago!).

Thanks.

[Joe-K]

Sorry guys I didn't see this post earlier as we were off camping over the weekend.

I just listened again to the voice-mail message from Spartan they had left for me with the instructions to disable the brake lights from working with the engine brake.

His exact words were "Remove the cover from the Bussman box located in the rear of the coach and remove the 5 amp fuse labeled Aux Brake Activation "


I'm at the office now so unable to look at my Bussman box again, but I think the title might have been abbreviated slightly.

[garybtt]

Thanks, I will look at my Bussmans box and see what it is listed as.

[bcbounders]

Thanks Joe! My Newmar has its Bussman boxes and fuses scattered in places different than your Tiffin, but hopefully the actual fuse label will be the same.

Appreciate the info.