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Old 03-20-2017, 06:59 AM   #1
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Question 7 POLE VEHICLE PLUG INSTALL on FORD 6 POLE CHASSIS

The unit is an Itasca 2004 Spirit 329B on a FORD E450 Super Duty chassis and I need to install an electronic brake control and a 7 pole plug to replace the original 6 pole .
Ford tells me there is a plug under the dash for a plug in unit but I can't find it, anyone been through this B4 ??
If not I will just hardwire the unit in and add a wire for the actual brake control and a 10Ga. wire for +12V power to the trailer battery.

Lastly, Winnebago shows a spare wire at the original 6 pin plug at the hitch, does anyone know where this originates from on the Ford scheme ??

Thanx,
Bob B.
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Old 03-20-2017, 08:10 AM   #2
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There is a plug under the dash. I found mine lying on the wire loom on the left side of the radio.
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Old 03-21-2017, 05:38 PM   #3
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Each of the vehicles I've purchased came with a plug, wiring harness in the glove box for those vehicles with a factory Trailer Tow... I assume you have the ability to get one... over the past few years these have all been BLUE in color... don't know if that's a across the board standard.... also see etrailer.com they have a great selection...

If you intend to tow a lot.... think about a controller that uses a transducer in the hydraulic line.... much finer/better/easier to control but more expensive...

I assume you intend to replace the 6 pin on the back of the truck with a 7 pin... I'm guessing that etrailer.com can provide that as well.... I assume they have dropped the back up light.... lets hope they've not dropped the 12+ wire for the trailer brake...

Best of luck....
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Old 03-21-2017, 06:18 PM   #4
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Bob-

You have a little wiring to do.

The Winnebago drawings show the following:

12 o'clock TM-MM Parking
2 o'clock S-X Brake
5 o'clock RT Right Turn/Stop
7 o'clock LT Left Turn/Stop
10 o'clock GD-MS Ground
Center A-TR Backup

The brake signal will not be needed. Missing are the brake controller output and the 12V charge line. Happily, both of these are inside the loom at the rear of the coach. You need to find the wires and splice on extensions to reach the new 7-pin plug. This is relatively easy to do, and connects the 7-pin plug to the front end the way Ford intended. (Read: It makes it easy for someone else later to figure out what's wired to what.)

The six-pin electric brake controller plug is under the dash, to the left of the steering column. There may be two unused six-pin connectors there; you want the one with the red, white, blue, green and brown wires. The plug has male pins in a female housing, two rows of three pins each.
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Old 03-22-2017, 07:10 AM   #5
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Ford 6 pole to 7 pole & Brake Controller

Gentlemen,
Thanx for your replies. To date here are my results:
1. I did find the plug and I ordered the correct brake control adapter wiring.
2. WB did leave a wire in the harness marked in the owners manual as
S=spare. The issue is that it goes hot with brake, which means I have 3
wires going +12V at the hitch with brake pedal depressed. Don't know what
this is about ??
3. I cut this wire from the plug and will splice it to my Blue control output
brake wire and use it as my brake control wire, it is a yellow 12 ga. and
should work fine with a piece of blue tape at the hitch end for ID.
4. I will run a 10 ga. black W/a 40 amp CB to the rear hitch for my aux.
battery charging.

Hopefully this will result in a functional finished product !!

Lastly KUDOS to Winnebago for using YELLOW 12 ga. wires on every thing in the coach without any identifier marks on the wire.
They must buy this wire by the mile and just cut as needed for coach wiring.
It just makes the deal more challenging.
Thanx again gentlemen and I will update when completed. If you don't hear further from me check the obituaries for a suicide article !!
Bob Blasi
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Old 03-22-2017, 07:20 AM   #6
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Bob-

I pointed out that Ford gave you both a brake controller wire and a charge line wire, at the front and at the rear. Is there a reason you don't want to use what they provided?
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Old 03-22-2017, 07:49 AM   #7
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Ford 6 pin to 7 pin

Mark,
At the dash or origination point I found the wire loom for the rear plug, in it are only 6 wires which are 5 yellow and 1 white GND. No other wires present.
These give me:
Gnd.
LT/brake
RT/brake
Tail lts.
B/U
S= 12V. hot with brake pedal. **
This same group is at the termination of the rear plug.

** This is the wire I will use for the brake control + add the 10 ga. Blk. that I intend to use for my +12v aux. batt. charge circuit.
Pic. here from owners manual, scroll down you'll see it.

http://www.winnebagoind.com/resource...4/04Spirit.pdf

Actually running the Blk. 12 v wire is my course of least resistance and won't take much time at all.
Thanx again,
Bob
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Old 03-22-2017, 08:29 AM   #8
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Bob-

Yes, I see the trailer connector shown on page 6-9 of the manual. The pinouts match my post #4, including the "extra" brake signal wire, "S-X," although they are reversed because the view in the manual is from the rear of the connector.

I'm sorry. In my prior post I provided an incorrect link to the Winnebago drawing for the trailer connector. Here is the correct link. The trailer connector, and what feeds it, is shown on pages 2 and 3 of the PDF, which is Sheet 1, Zones A-6 through 11.

If you've found the correct Ford electric brake controller plug, it should have red, blue, green, white and brown wires going into it. None of these are connected to the existing hitch connector wires.

Both the "blue" and "lack" wires are already at the rear of your coach, in the wire loom. Ford has already fused a 12V charge line for you, and supplied a connection to the battery bus.

I was trying to save you time and effort, and make the wiring work as designed by the factory. Since you are already replacing the connector with a 7-pin, it only takes two splices in the rear loom to make your controller installation plug-and-play. Believe me, the next owner will appreciate that you used the factory wiring.

That all said, I wish you well!
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Old 03-22-2017, 08:37 AM   #9
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Ford 6 to 7 pole

Mark,
Will look again and erport back to you, believe me if those wires are there I will use them.

Ref. your remark that the next owner will appreciate it, is why if I go my route I will mark the existing yellow wire with a blue tape wrap. Figured that anyone doing this on their own would understand its meaning.
Thanx again, and i'll keep U posted.
Bob
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Old 03-22-2017, 02:47 PM   #10
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Bob-

There are two connectors in the rear that carry all the signals for the coach and trailer functions. You will find them inside the left frame rail, somewhere between 4 and 8 feet from the rear of the chassis. Sometimes this is in the vicinity of the rear of the fuel tank. One of the connectors is brown and the other is black, although with road grime it may be hard to tell the difference.

The diagram extract below shows the connector pinout colors, positions and wire sizes. The connector with the blue and orange wires is the one you want. Ford provided two one-foot-or-so pigtails for the coach manufacturer to plug into the connectors. So, if you unwrap the loom just behind the connector with the blue, orange and black/green wires you will find the ends of the blue and orange wires. Crimp and heat-shrink minimum 12AWG wire onto these and extend them to the new 7-pin connector. The blue is for the electric brake controller output, and the orange is for the 12V charge line. Re-wrap the loom and you're in business.
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Old 03-23-2017, 07:18 AM   #11
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Ford 6 pin to 7 pin

Mark,
Will look today and let you know.
Thanx,
Again, Bob
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Old 03-23-2017, 07:54 PM   #12
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Ford 6 to 7 pole veh. plug

Mark,
I get that you are adamant about the fact that there are FORD wires in the loom that feeds the rear wall of the coach !! However on my unit there AIN"T NONE !!
The loom feeding the rear wall and the lighting wires is quite obvious and there is nothing hidden, it's all exposed. The only connector in the loom is a 6 pin "Weatherpak" connector (not FORD) which houses the 6 wires I mentioned previously at the backwall. The main loom splits at the rear wall and wires are fed up into the backwall for marker lights, L. plate, third brake light and the L & R tail/turn and brake assemblies.
I checked the wire loom running front to back in three places, rear, fuel tank and of course at the origination point under the dash and they are all yello and white wire by ITASCA/WINNEBAGO.
The orange wire, which incidentally is the only wire used from that plug, is cut under the dashboard and spliced onto a 12 ga. yello wire which in turn ends up at the rear 6 pin connector, the X=S wire.
I did find the electronic brake controller plug into which I will plug my controller but not the blue output wire, this I will splice onto the orange/yello wire which goes to the rear and use it for my controller output and put a blue marker on it at the hitch plug. Additionally, I will run my 10 ga. black wire in the loom since it is accessible to the rear hitch and satisfies my need for a charging circuit for my trailer batt.
At this point it is plan "B" and the easiest and pretty much the only option I can see.
Thanx again and brgds,
Bob B.
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Old 03-24-2017, 06:42 AM   #13
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Bob-

I understand- Sometimes you gotta go with Plan B!

Just one thing, and then I'll file your discoveries under "Things aren't always as I expect:" If wiring matches the Winnebago drawing, the "X" wire supplies the brake signal to the rear Metri-pack connector and the hitch connector. If there are separate brake lights on your coach, or there's a center high-mounted stop light, then repurposing the "X" wire would mean those lights would no longer work.

Thanks for putting up with my pushiness... All the best!

Mark
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Old 03-24-2017, 07:10 AM   #14
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FORD 6 to 7 pin.

Mark,
This scenario is exactly what started this whole thing. I had 3 wires sending power to brake appliances at the rear hitch.
1. LT/Brake
2. RT/Brake
3. 12VDC was the X-S wire, full +12 VDC at brake use. I had no idea what is was for, I knew I couldn't use it for brake application since it wasn't regulated, and it wasn't good for +12 charging since it only came on with brake application.
At this point the X-S orange wire is disconnected and I have all rear light functions working.
Remember here that in the owners manual this wire was marked as spare ???
Last nights revelation: If I use this wire for brake control inside the harness I should either find the origination point to see if its fused or add a CB or fuse to the line.
I'll keep you posted.
Thanx,
Bob Blasi
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