Installing the Wiring Harness for the Trailer Lights

Actually running it to the battery should not be as hard as you would think. You can either run it from under the car or from inside. If you run it under the car then be careful not to have the wire anywhere close to the exhaust pipe or near a drive shaft, or anything that moves. Use the wire tires to secure the wire every 10 to 12 inches or so. And make certain the wire ties are drawn as tight as you can get them so the wire will not come out any. I ran wires for the fog lights on my FJ Cruiser from under the dash to the engine compartment with no problem at all. All cars have wires that go from under the dash to the engine compartment. Look around from under the hood and you will find some wires that will run through some small tube into the dash area. Trust me you will be able to get one more wire through such a tube. And once you have it into the engine compartment again secure the wire away from the heat of the engine or from anything that moves, like a radiator fan. Along the sides is ideal. And again secure the wire tight as can be with the wire ties. Cut off all excess from the wire ties once each one is clamped secure.

You should find it easiest inside the car to run the wire under the door sills. The bottoms of all door sills come off rather easy. And who wants to crawl under a car to fish the wire rear to front when it's so much cleaner inside the car!

And by the way you should be able to fish the wire from under the car to inside the trunk from a similar rear wire tube. That's what a hitch guy did when they had the rear end of my Fiat 500L torn apart to install the hitch and wire harness. It may be a tad more difficult now that your hitch is already installed and your car has already been put back together.

Now please post pictures of your hitch. Love to see what it looks like.

I got the wire run, it was a pain but manageable. I think it should be in OK shape. I ran it underneath and drilled in to the well in the back. It seems pretty darn secure. I need to check it after being on the road ~165 miles with the trailer today.

Cross posting from another thread:

I am an avid kayak fisherman so the kayak and my cooler is what I will mostly be towing. For tournaments with live weigh ins, the cooler will be filled with water so it will add some weight but all should be well. I fished an Upper Texas Coast marsh today pulling the trailer for the first time with the Renegade. It did great. I came home with dinner as well.


I actually use a 5 1/4 drop, turned upside down. I had this one handy so I put it in for the picture.