Journey with Confidence RV GPS App RV Trip Planner RV LIFE Campground Reviews RV Maintenance Take a Speed Test Free 7 Day Trial ×
RV Trip Planning Discussions

Go Back   iRV2 Forums > MOTORHOME FORUMS > Toads and Motorhome Related Towing
Click Here to Login
Join iRV2 Today

Mission Statement: Supporting thoughtful exchange of knowledge, values and experience among RV enthusiasts.
Reply
  This discussion is proudly sponsored by:
Please support our sponsors and let them know you heard about their products on iRV2
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
 
Old 11-29-2013, 04:48 PM   #1
Senior Member
 
osok's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Huffman, TX
Posts: 792
CoolTech Toad Wiring Harness

Read on a Jeep forum that this harness when used with a 2013 or 2014 Wrangler does not allow for brake light and turn signal to operate at same time. The claim is that the brake light cancels out turn signal when brakes are applied. I recently purchased a Wrangler and was planning to use the CoolTech wiring harness but have not yet received it to install. Does anyone have experience with this harness on a 2013-14 Wrangler?
osok is offline   Reply With Quote
Join the #1 RV Forum Today - It's Totally Free!

iRV2.com RV Community - Are you about to start a new improvement on your RV or need some help with some maintenance? Do you need advice on what products to buy? Or maybe you can give others some advice? No matter where you fit in you'll find that iRV2 is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with other RV owners, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create an RV blog, send private messages and so much, much more!

Old 11-29-2013, 04:54 PM   #2
Senior Member
 
palehorse89's Avatar
 
Newmar Owners Club
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 10,309
Folks have been buying a harness from Mopar, no problems reported like Cooltech.
I have a cooltech on my 2011 with no problems. Do a search on here as there has been posts lately about this problem.
__________________
2012 Essex 4544 2011 Jeep JK, M&G Braking, 2014 MTI 27' Hog Hauler, Wireless brake control, 2006 Ultra & 1989 Springer, 2003 Harley-Davidson
FLHR Road King Anniversary
palehorse89 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-29-2013, 05:46 PM   #3
Senior Member
 
osok's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Huffman, TX
Posts: 792
Quote:
Originally Posted by palehorse89 View Post
Folks have been buying a harness from Mopar, no problems reported like Cooltech.
I have a cooltech on my 2011 with no problems. Do a search on here as there has been posts lately about this problem.
Does your turn signal continue to blink when brakes are applied? Or does the turn signal stop blinking until you release your MH brake?
osok is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-29-2013, 05:53 PM   #4
Senior Member
 
palehorse89's Avatar
 
Newmar Owners Club
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 10,309
Quote:
Originally Posted by osok View Post
Does your turn signal continue to blink when brakes are applied? Or does the turn signal stop blinking until you release your MH brake?
My brakes applied, turn signal on, turn signal keeps flashing as it should.
__________________
2012 Essex 4544 2011 Jeep JK, M&G Braking, 2014 MTI 27' Hog Hauler, Wireless brake control, 2006 Ultra & 1989 Springer, 2003 Harley-Davidson
FLHR Road King Anniversary
palehorse89 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-02-2013, 12:35 PM   #5
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 255
Mopar makes a plug in wiring harness for towing, works great a little more $ than cool tech but no problems and maintains warranty.
Larry Young is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-02-2013, 12:49 PM   #6
Senior Member
 
hogdriver's Avatar
 
Newmar Owners Club
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Polk City, FL
Posts: 3,368
Go with the Mopar harness. I put the CoolTech on my 2012 Rubicon and it was PITA. CoolTech has poor Customer Support. The owner/operator of CoolTech implied I hooked mine up wrong (I've been wiring cars/RVs for years). Turns out he sent out a bunch of bad harnesses with poor grounds. The guy was a donkey.
__________________
Dave & Debbie
2021 Newmar DutchStar 4369
2016 Ford Edge&2019 Ford F-150 toads
hogdriver is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-03-2013, 10:20 AM   #7
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 287
I installed the Cool-Tech over a year ago on my 12 Sport and have had no problems it was just plug in route the line forward and wire it up.
__________________
Mody n Domy
full timing it
Mody n Domy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-03-2014, 11:30 PM   #8
Senior Member
Commercial Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 210
This is the Donkey from Cool Tech. I don't know where/what the reference is that we "sent out a bunch of harnesses with bad grounds". This is simply not true. The reality is that we have more than 1000 harness on 2007+ Jeep Wranglers and during our 6 year history of this product we have (2) units returned. One of the units had the ground & running wires labeled backwards. It was correctable in the field but an error on our part. The other returned harness was fine.

The "issue" with the turn signal/brake signal was in fact a problem with some of the Mopar (OEM) harnesses and many owners opted to purchase the Cool Tech harness instead. The Cool Tech harness never had this problem. I don't know if MOPAR has corrected this problem yet or not.
__________________
Jeep Wrangler/Gladiator
Toad Wiring Solutions
Cool Tech LLC
CoolTech is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-04-2014, 07:47 PM   #9
Senior Member
 
osok's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Huffman, TX
Posts: 792
CoolTech, thanks for clearing this up. Hope you continue to monitor the forum to answer questions about your product.
osok is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-12-2014, 08:25 PM   #10
Member
 
StringFellow's Avatar
 
Winnebago Owners Club
Ford Super Duty Owner
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 58
I recommend the TowDaddy (Tow Daddy). It is plug and play and just controls the taillights. I like it because it has no involvement/interface with the Jeep's computer system, etc. Plug and play at each taillight, route wires to front of car.
StringFellow is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-13-2014, 08:57 AM   #11
Senior Member
 
osok's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Huffman, TX
Posts: 792
Finally got around to installing my CoolTech harness on 2014 Jeep Wrangler and it works as it should. Blinker and Brake both work at same time. Very simple install and impressed with quality of materials.

I purchased a Roadmaster coiled elect. cable for between the Jeep and MH, but the connectors on it were of very poor quality so I changed them out. Roadmaster a leader in towing equipment was a disapointment with such poor quality connectors. The connector plug on the CoolTech was much more heavy duty. Roadmaster coiled cable does appear to be of good quality.

I installed Blue Ox base plate and the CoolTech plug adapter fit perfectly to the base plate mounting holes.
osok is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-13-2014, 11:18 AM   #12
Senior Member
Commercial Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 210
osok, good to hear and thanks for posting the follow-up. I think there's some misunderstandings here regarding the operation of the light harnesses when it comes to the operation of the brakes and turn signals. I want to try to clarify this for everyone.

It is important for everyone to know that the Jeep uses the same filament within the same bulb for both brake and turn signal indication. (The lower watt filament is used for the Jeep's running lights.) So, when you are happily driving your Jeep along and you turn on your left turn signal, the left light begins to blink. As you approach the corner, you apply the brake pedal. What happens? The right-side bulb (filament) gets illuminated constantly but the left-side bulb (filament) continues to blink. Similalrly, the right blinker could be on and if the brakes are applied, ONLY the left-side light would be a continuous bright, and the right-side would blink. How does this happen? The Jeep's on-board electronics are controlling this. The electronics KNOW when both a turn signal is on and a brake light - and the electronice trigger the correct behavior.

Now let's look at your tow vehicle. Your tow vehicle is likely all set-up to tow a trailer. This can be a boat trailer, a horse trailer, a car trailer, a utility trailer, etc - as ALL of these trailers behave the same way.... just like the Jeep. There's only 4-wires to deal with the lighting functions of a trailer (ALL of the trailers above work this way). The 4 wires are; Left, Right, Running lamps, and Ground. The running lights trigger the dim filament in the bulb. The dim filament gets 12v when it is on and no voltage when it is off. The Left and Right wires get 12v when that light is supposed to be bright (the higher wattage filament in the bulb). Your tow vehicle, just like the Jeep, uses in-board electronics to MANAGE the inherent conflict when both the brake and turn signal are on simultaneously. Specifically, the side of the turn signal gets a pulsed (blinking) 12v signal, and the other side gets a continuous 12v signal. I hope all of this makes sense.... it's the way that virtually all trailers behave.

HOWEVER, there is an issue that can arrise when towing a Jeep!! Here's the scenario: You are towing your Jeep and you turn on your left turn signal (for example). The tow vehicle begins to send a "blinking" 12v signal to the left light of the Jeep..... and it blinks. Perfect. Now you approach the corner and you step on the brake of the tow vehicle. No problem. Your tow vehicle sees that the brake is on and the left turn signal is on. The tow vehicle properly continues to send a "blinking" 12v signal to the left light and a continuous 12v signal to the right light. Still perfect. Everything is as it should be. BUT.... you have installed an auxillary braking device in your Jeep AND you have left the Jeep's battery connected. The aux braking device (pushes or pulls) the Jeep's brake pedal down. The Jeep - fully unaware that a turn signal is on (after all, ITS turn signal is NOT on) sends a continuous 12v signal to BOTH rear lights. What is the effect? The left side light sees a CONTINUOUS 12v signal from the Jeep and the 12v blinking from the tow vehicle in inconsequential. In otehr words, nothing bad happens.... but the turn signal will no longer be blinking.

The "issue" is that Jeep electronics are not on (Jeep key is off) and even if on, the Jeep doesn't know that a turn signal is on in the tow vehicle.

The "issue" has NOTHING to do with the Cool Tech harness or any other wiring harness that you may elect to use. Further, it is NOT an issue that can be resolved with diodes (both the tow vehicle and the Jeep need a clear electrical path to the bulb.) It is an issue of concurrency - something BOTH the Jeep and the tow vehicle know how to do by themselves - but when one of them says "do this" and the other one says "do that"..... conflict occurs.
__________________
Jeep Wrangler/Gladiator
Toad Wiring Solutions
Cool Tech LLC
CoolTech is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-13-2014, 11:29 AM   #13
Senior Member
Commercial Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 210
Resuming this discussion.... luckily there's some pretty straightforward solutions:

1) As most aux brake devices are not over-active (don't typically HOLD the brake down for long periods) some owners live with these episodes knowing that when the aux brake device is active, any active turn-signal indicator will be inactive - up until the Jeep's brake pedal is released.

2) I suspect that the reason that the Owner's Manual of every Wrangler 2007 up through and including 2012 EXPLICITLY states that the negative terminal of the battery be disconnected while towing is partially because of this "issue". In other words, if you follow Jeep's own recommendation, you will NOT have this conflict as the Jeep cannot sent 12v to its brake lights if the battery is disconnected. Now, admittedly, the aux braking device companies WANT you to leave the battery connected (against Jeep's recommendation), but I suspect it is not too difficult to have everything disconnected except for the power to the aux braking device.

3) You can also leave the battery connected and pull the Jeep's brake light fuse while towing AND DON'T FORGET TO RE-INSTALL IT. Same effect as disconnecting the battery - it prevents the Jeep from causing this conflict.


Anyway, I'll try to monitor this forum for the next few days if there are any questions or clarifications I can provide.
__________________
Jeep Wrangler/Gladiator
Toad Wiring Solutions
Cool Tech LLC
CoolTech is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-15-2014, 10:10 AM   #14
Senior Member
 
psw757's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 222
Cool tech?

Question for you all,

We have been using our harness now for 3+ years and works great however I keep getting burned out license plate lights on our coach 2011 jayco.

What is really odd is we just bought a new 2014 forest river diesel coach and hooked up to tow and take it in for service and they told me I had a burned out license plate light and the wire harness for it was slightly melted. Meanwhile all marker lights, brake lights and turn signals on jeep are working correctly.

Is it possible to have a bad ground burn something out on the coach and not the toad? I'm not exactly sure where to start trouble shooting since it seems to be working.

Any ideas?

Thanks
psw757 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
toad, wiring



Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


» Featured Campgrounds

Reviews provided by


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 07:55 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.