Towing Chevy Colorado

[bpotter]

Anyone towing the Colorado? I'm trying to find out if the turn signals and brake lights are going to drain the battery?

[Pigman1]

Towed one for 5 years. Light power should be coming from the RV, but if you're looking at something like a Brake Buddy, the answer is YES. Just run a wire from the +12 pole of your 7 pin connector to your battery and you're fine. Be sure it's 10 ga and fuse it at the battery. You do NOT need all the fancy black boxes they try to sell at the RV places. A wire and a fuse and things are great.

[bpotter]

Originally Posted by Pigman1

Towed one for 5 years. Light power should be coming from the RV, but if you're looking at something like a Brake Buddy, the answer is YES. Just run a wire from the +12 pole of your 7 pin connector to your battery and you're fine. Be sure it's 10 ga and fuse it at the battery. You do NOT need all the fancy black boxes they try to sell at the RV places. A wire and a fuse and things are great.

Thanks, it is the Air Force air brakes, so sounds like the lights will come through trailer plug. I don't think there is any power to run the system it is strictly a proportional with the coach air cyclinder .

[Cousin Ed]

We towed one for about five years with a Brake Buddy but I use Trailer LED lights rather than the truck's. Sometimes we'd drive five days without unhooking or starting the truck without any problems.

[Easyrider]

Wire it so that the lights while towing operate off your motorhomes power, then no worries!

[Pigman1]

Don't know what year your Colorado is, but if you're in tow configuration does the Colorado brake lights come on when the AF1 pulls the brake pedal? Also, on the current AF1 is there a control box under the hood that takes power from the Colorado battery? I have their previous version and it does use toad power. I also used Colorado power to light a red light on the RV dash to tell when the AF1 was pulling the brake pedal in the Colorado. I think the current edition of the AF1 has a light on the toad dash that you need to view through the rear view camera, but that wouldn't be my choice.On a fully charged toad battery, I could get 2 days before the toad wouldn't start, but the charge line worked to keep the battery up indefinitely.

[bpotter]

Originally Posted by Pigman1

Don't know what year your Colorado is, but if you're in tow configuration does the Colorado brake lights come on when the AF1 pulls the brake pedal? Also, on the current AF1 is there a control box under the hood that takes power from the Colorado battery? I have their previous version and it does use toad power. I also used Colorado power to light a red light on the RV dash to tell when the AF1 was pulling the brake pedal in the Colorado. I think the current edition of the AF1 has a light on the toad dash that you need to view through the rear view camera, but that wouldn't be my choice.On a fully charged toad battery, I could get 2 days before the toad wouldn't start, but the charge line worked to keep the battery up indefinitely.

The colorado is an '07, I will find out today as Torklift in Kent, WA is putting on the setup.
Thanks for all your help, I may just have to see if the battery goes down otherwise running the lights through the plug from the coach would be great.

[Glenn and Kathy]

This brings up an interesting point. I have the ready brake on my Colorado. If I pull on the activation cable the brake lights light up with power from the toad battery. If I step on the MH brake while not moving the brake lights light up with power from the MH. So does that mean if I hit the brakes while moving that it gets power from both the toad battery and the MH hookup? I just had the brake light switch go out, replaced under warranty. Could double power to the brake lights cause that?


Glenn

[lanerd]

Originally Posted by bpotter

Anyone towing the Colorado? I'm trying to find out if the turn signals and brake lights are going to drain the battery?

Your brake lights, tail lights, signal lights and your hazard lights are all activated from/by your mh... no power from the toad.

If you have to put the ignition in ACC to unlock the steering wheel, make sure all accessories are turned off as they will definitely drain the toad's battery.

[Pigman1]

Originally Posted by Glenn and Kathy

This brings up an interesting point. I have the ready brake on my Colorado. If I pull on the activation cable the brake lights light up with power from the toad battery. If I step on the MH brake while not moving the brake lights light up with power from the MH. So does that mean if I hit the brakes while moving that it gets power from both the toad battery and the MH hookup? I just had the brake light switch go out, replaced under warranty. Could double power to the brake lights cause that?


Glenn

It really depends on how the system's wired. As you can see, there's 2 brake lights on each side of the Colorado. If your system is wired with diodes and the diodes are on the toad, either system could be powering your lights. When a brake activation signal on the coach sends an electric charge (+12vdc) through the 7 pin connector and to the diode. If your Colorado brake pedal actuates the brake lights with the key off, then your toad brake pulling the pedal down also sends the +12vdc power to the diode. The diode will pass the current that has the higher voltage to the brake lights, so that will be how the toad battery can be drawn down. Again, there can be multiple ways of wiring the system, so how yours works could be this way or very different. Some tail and stop lights are even drilled and separate sockets and bulbs are installed in the light assemblies.

The more current toad vehicles have their lights actually controlled by a mini-computer. Therefore when the key is off, the brake lights will not work when the pedal is pressed. Toad lights on these vehicles are usually powered by the coach. However if you have a system like a Brake Buddy, the key might have to be on, or some other way to activate the system needs to be found. On my Silverado, I could not use the toad brake light switch to tell me when the AF1 pulled the brake pedal down. The AF1 work around was to install an air brake electrical switch in the air line that activated the AF1 pedal cylinder. My key is able to stay off.

To be sure the toad battery stays charged, the easiest solution is to hook the seven pin +12vdc line to the toad battery. Then it doesn't matter where power is drawn from to power systems used while pulling.

[gthunts]

I tow a 05 Colorado with a Ready Brute system and cheap magnetic tow lights. Simple to operate and works good. The Colorado 4x4 makes a great toad