When I purchased my 2012 Ford Expedition, it came with a hitch, and a 4-pin trailer connector. There wasn’t a brake controller installed, and I needed a 7-blade connector so I could pull my trailer. Adding the 7-blade connector and brake controller was not complicated. It’s just a matter of picking up the right parts. This article is about adding the 7-blade RVconnector. Make sure you also check out the article on adding a brake controller to a 2012 Ford Expedition.
Parts Needed:
Hopkins 7-Blade / 4-Pin RV Connector P/N 40975 (Amazon – Hopkins 40975 Multi-tow Plug-in Simple Wiring Kit
Pollak 48-Inch Harness With 7-Blade Socket PN 11-998 (Amazon – Pollak 11-998 4′ Pigtail Wiring Harness
Installing The 7-Blade RV Connector:
My 2012 Ford Expedition came with a factory hitch, and this 4-pin trailer connector to the left of it.
The connector is in a rubber plug, and will slide down and out of the mount.
See the extra wire (above) that’s been capped off from the factory? This is going to make this job so much easier. That’s actually the blue wire for the trailer brake. Even though this Expedition didn’t have the ‘towing package’, they still used the same harness for the RV / trailer connector. They simply capped off the brake wire since they only installed the 4-pin plug. If you for some reason didn’t have this wire, you would have to run one all the way to the brake controller.
The 4-pin plug is cut from the factory harness, and the cap is cut off of the end of the factory blue trailer brake wire. The factory harness is then spliced in to the new Pollak harness, and sealed with electrical tape.
(new Pollak harness / socket)
Connections:
Here is a chart with the wire colors and what circuit they go to. As you can see, the Ford yellow went to the red on the new harness. Everything else was the same.
|
Ford Trailer Harness Connections |
|
| Color | Circuit |
| Yellow | Left turn |
| Green | Right turn |
| Brown | Tail/Marker |
| Blue | Trailer Brakes |
| Black | +12 volt source (ie breakaway battery charge) |
| Orange | Backup/Auxiliary |
| White | Ground |
|
Pollak 48-Inch Harness With 7-Blade Socket PN 11-998 Connections |
||
| Color | Circuit | Wire Gauge |
| Red | Left Turn and Stop | 14 gauge |
| White | Ground | 10 gauge |
| Blue | Electric Brakes | 12 gauge |
| Green | Right Turn and Stop | 14 gauge |
| Black | Battery | 12 gauge |
| Brown | Running Lamps | 14 gauge |
| Yellow | Backup Lamps | 14 gauge |
The Hopkins 7-Blade RV Connector bracket will get located to the right side of the hitch. This way the door covering the connector doesn’t hit the trim on the bumper when you try to open it.
The new bracket is held in place after drilling (2) holes and using the supplied self tapping bolts.
The Hopkins connector snaps in to the bracket, and the Pollak harness plugs in to the back of it. The harness was covered in plastic wire loom, and then zip tied up and out of the way.
The new connector is ready to use. This new connector is a 7-blade and 4-pin combination so you can tow with either.
Resources:
Checking out these .pdf files to further assist you with your installation:
Hopkins Trailer Wiring Diagram