The trailer should be wired and ready to go. There is a brake control wire on one of the pins and that will connect to the brake controller’s brake wire. I ran power from under the hood through a 15 amp fuse, and ground to the brake controller, then there is a connection that needs to tap into the brake pedal (as mentioned in previous post, the wire tap posted by @Kmrtnsn would be ideal for this - wish I had used one of those
). You then need to run a wire from the controller to the trailer connector. Here is a great site for showing the different pin-outs for connectors:https://www.dieselhub.com/towing/trailer-wiring.html
The trailer should be wired and ready to go. There is a brake control wire on one of the pins and that will connect to the brake controller’s brake wire. I ran power from under the hood through a 15 amp fuse, and ground to the brake controller, then there is a connection that needs to tap into the brake pedal (as mentioned in previous post, the wire tap posted by @Kmrtnsn would be ideal for this - wish I had used one of those
Also search for your vehicle model for videos and pictures on getting to the brake connector - on my 2014 JK it was pretty easy - I removed that panel under the steering wheel and the connector can twist to unlock to let you get to the wires. Send me a message if you have any questions I can answer.
Regarding brake maintenance, these are drum brakes and should last for quite a while, probably at least 30k miles.
Great recommendation to keep a few of those in the electrical spare parts bin. I hadn't seen that type before, looks much better than the old blue ones that more often than not cut the wire you are tapping.
@DannyLLama that is the pump I purchased - amazing value for what it does. I bought vinyl tubing from Home Depot to use for running to my water tanks. I also am working on building a mount to just put the pump on top of a water can with a short run of tubing that it comes with to reach down into the can. This is great for quick overnight stops where I don't want to deploy the kitchen. For handles, do you mean the tie downs along the sides? Those are E-Track mounts and I use E-Track O-ring Tie Downs in those. By the way, Harbor Freight sells the tie downs and they have smaller rings which may work even better. If you mean how the trash bag is hanging, I am just using a piece of Velcro for that. The yellow bin on top holds my firewood and extra oil/grease/gear oil. I do use these in the trailer to hold everything else. My actual tool box is a military rocket box that I restored and it lives inside the Jeep.
Regarding battery charging - I installed a 100Ah battery in the tongue box, and I have 3 ways to charge - I installed a Renogy 40 Amp DC-DC charger in the tongue box, and ran 6 gauge wire from the Jeep battery to back bumper, through an Anderson connector to feed the charger (60 Amp breaker at the Jeep battery connection). I have a switch box for all my lights and used one of those for turning the charger on and off.
Regarding your question of running this through the 7 pin - those wires are fairly small size so I don't recommend doing that unless you are using a low current charger.
I monitor the battery with a Victron Connect with Bluetooth so I can see state of charge, temperature, etc. from the cab while driving. The Renogy charger will charge the battery from ~50% to 100% while driving in about 90 minutes. The 40 Amp one is likely overkill for one battery - if I had to do over again I may have gotten the 20 Amp, but that fast recharging time is nice to have.
I also have a 220w portable solar system and mounted the solar charge controller inside the tongue box as well. This works better than I expected and can easily keep the battery topped off with about 6 hours of sunlight.
I also recently purchased a NOCO shore power charger since I was in a campground with AC power for a few days. This works really well with my battery - I decided to not mount this in the tongue box so I could use it with other vehicles if needed.
My use for battery power is mainly my Whynter refrigerator (I normally keep it in back of Jeep but did run wiring inside the trailer if I decide to put it in there), lights, and a heated blanket for colder temps in the RTT. I also installed a USB charging hub that I use to charge phones and other USB devices. I've got a small DC inverter for charging laptops. I installed boat LED lights on each side of the trailer (3 each side) and can control each side with a rocker switch. I also installed a spot light on the rear and another rocker switch can turn that on and off.
I attached my wiring diagram and a couple of pictures of the install (before I cleaned it up).
[Disclaimer - I take no responsibility for the safety of any wiring that anyone does on their trailer or vehicle. Be sure to have your work checked by a vehicle electrical specialist.
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@Kmrtnsn I installed a switch box very much like the one you linked to (I bought from Amazon) in the cab of the jeep and it controls all my lights, but I also am using one of the switches to send 12 volts to an SAE connector at the back that gets connected to the trailer and the Renogy charger to turn it on. I like to turn this on and off as I need to, while monitoring the battery with the Victron BMV-712 so I can turn it off once it is fully charged, or not use it once the temp goes too high. I never thought about using another switch box on the trailer, that is a good idea, although it will add complexity to the circuits there. I just used waterproof toggle switches and mounted them through outside of tongue box. I attached a few more pictures to show the wiring. It is fairly simple, I ran two 6 gauge wires from battery (red via 60A breaker mounted to top of battery with industrial strength velcro) inside the frame rail to the rear, used heatproof tape where the muffler is close, and then to the Anderson connector. This all involves a lot of soldering - I used a torch to put all the connectors on these wires and a lot of heat shrink tubing.
