Trailer brake wiring?

[Superbee Jim]

I have an 09 Aspire and I am trying to find the wire under the dash that leads to the 7 pin connector. I found the C-B antenna cord and there is a maze of wires but no lables. Entegra has no blue print for it because it was one of the first ones built. Any idea what color it could be? thanks, Jim

[HarleySG]

Hi Jim,

Hope this helps.

Note below is from Spartan, when i had the same questions on my 2012 Aspire. Also attached, is the wiring diagram that he sent me. The PDF is upside down, but you can rotate it in Adobe Reader and should be able to make some sense from it and compare to what you see.

Hope this helps



Yes there is a connector that is wired with a circuit going back to the tow plug. I have attached a diagram showing what the plug looks like and it should be under the dash near the steering column.

The Blue wire SP709 goes back to the tow plug in the rear.
The Red wire is your stop light signal that shows the brakes are applied.
Pink is from a 30 amp fuse in the front fuse panel marked break control
black is ground.

Thank You

Charlie Fisher
Retail Customer& Product Support Lead, Specialty Vehicles
OFFICE 800-543-4277 - Option 1
EMAIL charlie.fisher@spartanmotors.com
WEB www.spartanchassis.com

[Superbee Jim]

Thanks for the help and I will look again but my Aspire is built on a Freightliner chassis so who knows?

[HarleySG]

Sorry, i didn't think about that.

[Gasman 2]

Jim, I'll try to help you. My experience with Freightliner was on a 2000 XC chassis so this may not apply to your coach.
At that time period Freightliner did not wire the brake wire into the 7 pin RV plug at the rear of the coach. The wire was tape to the harness near the plug. Actually two wires perhaps the other one was for Hot wire like a charge line.

If I recall correctly these wires were orange one with a white strip. I had a difficult time finding the wires in the dash area but they were to the center.

If You have not already you might check with F/L with vin # and see if they can provide help.

Richard

[voltdoc]

As I recall from our 2006 Fleetwood, Freightliner has detailed online documentation but you need to register your VIN with them to get access. Once you get the account set up, you have access to all documents that relate to your specific chassis. It would seem to me that is a Freightliner wire, not an Entegra wire.

But maybe an easier way. If you know which pin on the 7 pin connector is the wire you are looking for (this might help) see if you can borrow a tone set or wire tracker (like this), anyone in the tele or data comm field is bound to have one.

Connect the sending unit to the pin on the 7-pin connector you want to trace and to chassis ground. Now take the sniffer unit and start running it over the wire bundles behind the dash. The closer you get to the wire you want the louder the indicator sound will be. It takes a little practice, but you should be able to directly identify the wire you need.

[brobox]

The poor man's way to Rob"s excellent post is to use a test light or a voltmeter at the pins while someone holds the brake pedal. ID the color of that wire then start looking under the dash. I like Rob way better but lack of equipment makes me do it the hard way

[Superbee Jim]

Originally Posted by voltdoc

As I recall from our 2006 Fleetwood, Freightliner has detailed online documentation but you need to register your VIN with them to get access. Once you get the account set up, you have access to all documents that relate to your specific chassis. It would seem to me that is a Freightliner wire, not an Entegra wire.

But maybe an easier way. If you know which pin on the 7 pin connector is the wire you are looking for (this might help) see if you can borrow a tone set or wire tracker (like this), anyone in the tele or data comm field is bound to have one.

Connect the sending unit to the pin on the 7-pin connector you want to trace and to chassis ground. Now take the sniffer unit and start running it over the wire bundles behind the dash. The closer you get to the wire you want the louder the indicator sound will be. It takes a little practice, but you should be able to directly identify the wire you need.

Thanks, you both have good ideas! I have been under the dash for hours to find the wire going back to the 7 pin connector, I was going to put 12 volts to the brake wire at the 7 pin connector and go under the dash with a test light hope I can find it? Do you think the factory would have all 3 wires together or is that a pipe dream? One more problem is that most RVs have a " Box of many buttons " to operate the TV, Cable, Dish, antenna, and mine doesn't. It has a glob of coaxs and no buttons. I was going to have to find out where all the wires go and that wire tracker you have a link to, would that do dual purpose, to find my brake wires and find coax wires? It would be so easy for the factory to just put a 2cent lable on the wires. Again, thanks for the help! Jim

[brobox]

Jim, not having the BOMB surprises me. Travel Supreme was using them back on 2002.

[Superbee Jim]

Originally Posted by brobox

Jim, not having the BOMB surprises me. Travel Supreme was using them back on 2002.

What is a BOMB? Just went to Home Depot and bought me a wire tracker and hope to find the brake wire from the 7 pin to under the dash. Then I will try to find the hot wire when brakes are activated. I will overcome!!

[brobox]

BOMB= Box of Many Buttons.
Good luck with the tracker, that should help.

[voltdoc]

You can use the tracker you bought at HD to identify the coax but you may need to make an adapter and you can only do one coax at a time but that's not a big deal.

If you wanted something a bit more sophisticated, something like this https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004C...NgL&ref=plSrch well let you identify 4 coax at a time assuming you already know where both ends are.

[Superbee Jim]

Originally Posted by brobox

BOMB= Box of Many Buttons.
Good luck with the tracker, that should help.

No BOMB, just about 10 coax and about 8 speaker wires go into a combo DVD / surround sound box that looks like a DVD player? Then another 6 or so just hanging out, not labled. I have yet to figure out all the wires. It has a dome, antenna, 2 surround sounds, 3 TVs with 1 in the basement with nothing marked! I have looked on e-bay and there are a lot of BOMBs but I don't know how many buttons I need. I can hardly wait to start that adventure!

[Superbee Jim]

Well, my day keeps getting better!!!! I bought a wire tracer from Home Depot for $39 bucks and what a piece of junk. I took a 4 ft piece of wire and it would barely find the end! I returned it for a Fluke pro 3000, $79 bucks, hooked it up at the 7 wire connector in the back and walked up to the front, opened the door and it was already talking to me. Went to the dash and the right of the column there is a nice shiney connector for my brakes. Bingo! Wouldn't have found it with out the wire tracer. Its hot out now and I will attack it in the morning!! Jim