For our new pontoon with surge brakes I need to add reverse lights to the wiring harness to deactivate the surge brakes while backing up. What is the proper way of doing this? BTW this is on an 06 F150 XLT with factory 7 pin harness.

TIA
Mark

 

Your truck should already be setup for this if it has a factory plug.

 

I thought there was a relay that had to be installed?

 

Even if you don't have the relay, you should have backup lights at the 7 pin plug. The relay only powers the hot line to the trailer battery.

 

Well I do not need a constant hot wire just reverse lights. I'll have to check to see if my #7 pin is working if it is then i have a problem with the new trailer. Thanks

 

One time, a long time ago, I rented a U-Haul trailer that had surge brakes on it. It seemed to work well and I never considered that backing up could set the brakes!

How's your trailer set up? I'd think you'd have to have a solenoid to pull the linkage out of the way. Now I'm going to be fretting about this until you answer!

C'mon! Answer!

 

There is a little "key" that you put into the slot where the actuator slides. But it is not magnetic so someone has to hold it while you back up UNLESS your truck has reverse lights wired into the 7 pin connector which mine seems to not work

 

My pontoon boat trailer had the surge disc brakes with the backup light activated "over-ride" or "lockout". The trailer was already wired from the manufacturer, and both of my trucks had the 7 prong connectors. Everything worked properly just by plugging it in.

Your reverse light circuit is the center prong in the trailer plug. It should be hot when your reverse lights are activated. If that center pin is hot in reverse, then start looking for a problem on the trailer.

 

I'm not sure on our 06's. But I had an 01 that Had the 7 pin connector/factory installed/tow package. And I still had to install a relay in the fuse panel. It was just a small relay that pluged right in to make the reverse line go hot when in reverse.

Have a Cobalt boat with tandem axle trailer with surge breaks on the front axle. When the reverse lights went on, they would "unlock". But without that relay, it would not go into reverse.