12 Volt power to 7 pin connector

[Topsail]

I'm going to add 12V power to the RV 7 pin connector to power the RVI battery charger on my Honda CRV. I've been reading various threads on IRV2 and on this site and it's helpful but I'd like pointers from you folks.

Based on what I've read it looks like Winnebago 2006 and on comes with a plug under the drivers side for electric brakes but the 7 pin connection isn't wired? I not sure if this is accurate and I don't know if I should even try to use this if it's there. This sounds more complicated than coming straight off the battery.

My thought is to run a 10 gage wire off a house battery with a 20 amp automatic reset switch and then straight to the 7 pin connector. If there is a better way I'm all ears.

I don't like the idea of having power to the 7 pin without a rocker on/off switch but apparently this is common? Removing the cable from the RV to the tow is fine if I'm stationary for more than an hour or so.

I'd really like to hear from anybody who's done this on a Voyage or similar before I crawl back under the RV to run the wire.

[DavidM]

I have only used tow vehicles with the 7 pin connector to charge my trailer's house battery, but what you propose sounds fine including 10 gauge wire and a 20A breaker.

On my TV and trailer I only get as much as 10A charging into one Group 24 trailer battery, mostly because of the fixed voltage on the TV's alternator and the voltage drop in the wiring. But to charge your toad, I suspect all you want to do is trickle charge it with maybe an amp or so.

David

[Winterbagoal]

Agree with David. It should work.
Why not use a manual 20A breaker, as your disconnect switch?
On my towing setup with all Blue Ox parts/wiring, there's a 20A mini-blade fuse on the towed charging circuit wire just before it hits the Wrangler's battery, if that means anything to your plan.

[Topsail]

Thanks guys, the RVI charger does include a fused link so that side is good. I thought to use a manual reset breaker but if I keep it in the battery compartment then it would be a pain (I think).

[Topsail]

After getting under the rear of the RV and examining the wire bundle feeding the 7 pin connector I've managed to identify the six wires going into the back of the plug.
They are as follows:
1. Trailer Connector Electric Brakes. Output from Controller, Winnie Wire #149622-06-000 N - LLG, yellow wire.
2. Right Hand Turn & Brake, Winnie Wire #149622-06-000 N - SC, yellow wire.
3. Back Up Lights, Winnie Wire #149622-000 N - TR, yellow wire
4. Left Hand Turn & Brake, Winnie Wire #149622-06-000 N - SD, yellow wire.
5. Chassis Clearance Lamp CRT#1, BRN Typical, Winnie Wire #149622-06-000 N - MM (note it is a yellow wire. Not sure what BRN Typical means) I guess this is Running Light wire?
6. Ground, Winnie Wire #149622-06-000 N - RRJ, white color.
7. Power socket doesn't have a wire?

I would think that since the Electric Brake is wired to the front dash area and my RV does not have the electric brake controller installed I could use this feed. This is where I've left off. I'm not sure how to tap into the fuse box. I have watched some videos where GM truck owners add a fuse and find an existing wire lug for electric brakes already available. Using an existing wire seems to be a better way to go especially since it's already installed in a protective shield.

Anybody here ever do this? If so please let us know what you did.

[Winterbagoal]

Originally Posted by Topsail

After getting under the rear of the RV and examining the wire bundle feeding the 7 pin connector I've managed to identify the six wires going into the back of the plug.
They are as follows:
1. Trailer Connector Electric Brakes. Output from Controller, Winnie Wire #149622-06-000 N - LLG, yellow wire.
2. Right Hand Turn & Brake, Winnie Wire #149622-06-000 N - SC, yellow wire.
3. Back Up Lights, Winnie Wire #149622-000 N - TR, yellow wire
4. Left Hand Turn & Brake, Winnie Wire #149622-06-000 N - SD, yellow wire.
5. Chassis Clearance Lamp CRT#1, BRN Typical, Winnie Wire #149622-06-000 N - MM (note it is a yellow wire. Not sure what BRN Typical means) I guess this is Running Light wire?
6. Ground, Winnie Wire #149622-06-000 N - RRJ, white color.
7. Power socket doesn't have a wire?

I would think that since the Electric Brake is wired to the front dash area and my RV does not have the electric brake controller installed I could use this feed. This is where I've left off. I'm not sure how to tap into the fuse box. I have watched some videos where GM truck owners add a fuse and find an existing wire lug for electric brakes already available. Using an existing wire seems to be a better way to go especially since it's already installed in a protective shield.

Anybody here ever do this? If so please let us know what you did.

No, never done that myself.
I had it done professionally on our Navion to Wrangler, using the full Blue Ox rig, including the wiring kit. The 20A fuse sits on top of the Wrangler's battery just before it connects to the + cable/post/lug.

So, you need to feed some power from your chassis/coach batteries to the #7 pin on the outlet at the rear of your coach, so it can pass some battery charging power through the umbilical to your towed's battery?

The issue is, you want to use an existing circuit for an electric brake controller to power that #7 hole in the umbilical outlet.

I'm still thinking it might be easier to run a standalone wire from the chassis battery + post under/through the coach to the #7 hole in the umbilical outlet. You could put a 20A breaker in it at the chassis battery as your manual on/off switch.
On the towed side of things, does the umbilical outlet on the baseplate have a #7 12VDC power pin/wire to connect to the towed's battery? If it does, run the wire from the towed side of the 7 pin umbilical outlet to your towed battery, and add a mini blade 20A fuse in that side of things for redundancy.

Or, take the whole thing to an RV dealer or a commercial light/medium trailer sales/rentals place that does RV/towed hitch/towbar/baseplate/wiring installations, and ask them for some advice, or simply ask if they can do it for you, unless you really want to DIY this project.
Have you tried asking e-Trailer? They're supposed to be pretty good at diagnostics and installations.

Wish I could be more help, but I'm often more likely to pay someone to do it for me, so I know it should be done right, or I'll have some recourse if it screws up.

[Topsail]

Winterbagoal, since I'm coming from a 7 pin going to a 6 pin I'll need to either use the existing electric brake wire OR disconnect it from the 7 pin and run another wire as you suggest. It will be easy to run a new wire but it won't be as protected as the old existing brake wire running in a wire chase and inside the RV framework. Adding a new wire will be exposed under the RV. One last thing, since we are full time in our RV for an otherwise unknown duration it's not easy taking it in for service and I hate to say but I don't feel comfortable with having the locals do the work.

[Winterbagoal]

Originally Posted by Topsail

Winterbagoal, since I'm coming from a 7 pin going to a 6 pin I'll need to either use the existing electric brake wire OR disconnect it from the 7 pin and run another wire as you suggest. It will be easy to run a new wire but it won't be as protected as the old existing brake wire running in a wire chase and inside the RV framework. Adding a new wire will be exposed under the RV. One last thing, since we are full time in our RV for an otherwise unknown duration it's not easy taking it in for service and I hate to say but I don't feel comfortable with having the locals do the work.

I missed the 7 to 6 pin part. Is that endemic to the RVI battery charger?
I had the same concerns about the exposed wiring supporting the tank heaters on my Navion, and so picked up some of this stuff to add some physical rotection to them underneath the chassis. Not perfect, but better than nowt.
https://www.flexconduit.com/flexible-plastic-conduit/
I also agree about not letting certain individuals touch my rig, but sometimes you have to get professional help.

[Topsail]

Naw, the 6 pin is the typical connection on the tow. The RVI charger is connected to the 6 pin for power and shared ground. Very easy. It is fuse and diode protected too.

[Winterbagoal]

Sounds like you've got a handle on it, then.
Good luck, sorry for the distractions.

[Topsail]

No distraction and I always appreciate input. Everybody adds and I pick up things from others. Thx!

[Winterbagoal]

Same here.
It's all good, with few exceptions.

[Bill Custer]

Originally Posted by Topsail

I'm going to add 12V power to the RV 7 pin connector to power the RVI battery charger on my Honda CRV. I've been reading various threads on IRV2 and on this site and it's helpful but I'd like pointers from you folks.

Based on what I've read it looks like Winnebago 2006 and on comes with a plug under the drivers side for electric brakes but the 7 pin connection isn't wired? I not sure if this is accurate and I don't know if I should even try to use this if it's there. This sounds more complicated than coming straight off the battery.

My thought is to run a 10 gage wire off a house battery with a 20 amp automatic reset switch and then straight to the 7 pin connector. If there is a better way I'm all ears.

I don't like the idea of having power to the 7 pin without a rocker on/off switch but apparently this is common? Removing the cable from the RV to the tow is fine if I'm stationary for more than an hour or so.

I'd really like to hear from anybody who's done this on a Voyage or similar before I crawl back under the RV to run the wire.

I have the RVI 2 with battery minder towing a Honda Fit. If we are talking about the same issue here’s how my set up works: I wired the Fit with a 6-pole receptacle connected to the Honda’s turn signals and break lights. The middle pole is a 12-volt wired to the RVI battery minder that keeps the battery charged while towing.

I use a 7 pin to 6 pole adapter on the RV side. I learned through the usual mistake that many adapters are set up with the middle pole wired to run an electric brake so you have to use an adapter wired so the middle pin is the 12 volt. Here is the E-Trailer listing for one although they are available almost anywhere.

https://www.etrailer.com/Wiring/Hopk...SAAEgLLuvD_BwE

I hope that helps.

[HotMech]

You don't need to go all the way to the batteries. Just make the connection at the generators battery connection, ad a fuse and tuck it in the gen cabinet. Then just run it to the power pin on the trailer connector. Thats what I did. Kerry

[Topsail]

Originally Posted by Bill Custer

I have the RVI 2 with battery minder towing a Honda Fit. If we are talking about the same issue here’s how my set up works: I wired the Fit with a 6-pole receptacle connected to the Honda’s turn signals and break lights. The middle pole is a 12-volt wired to the RVI battery minder that keeps the battery charged while towing.

I use a 7 pin to 6 pole adapter on the RV side. I learned through the usual mistake that many adapters are set up with the middle pole wired to run an electric brake so you have to use an adapter wired so the middle pin is the 12 volt. Here is the E-Trailer listing for one although they are available almost anywhere.

https://www.etrailer.com/Wiring/Hopk...SAAEgLLuvD_BwE

I hope that helps.

Bill, I noticed that plug on the etrailer site. Nothing wrong with going that direction. I may do a better follow up with some pictures when I finish this project. I would have finished this a couple of days ago but a tooth had other plans. Yeah, I'm a big baby and finally went and had a root canal today. Now I can get back to getting this behind me.

I'll add this for now; I opened up the wire loom and found on my coach that the trailer brake wiring was already in place to the 7 pin. I wasn't initially sure until I exposed the wiring into the connector because some units didn't have this pre-installed.

Next step was to see where the brake controller wires went or if they were even run to the front. Mine were right where they were supposed to be, hanging down under the dash behind the emergency brake pedal and labeled. I did a continuity check just to verify which pin connector was for the Brake Monitor Light. This wire can be used for power to the tow 6 pin. So far it looks like I'll be going with the industry standard 7 to 6 connections. Saves remembering.

The last step will be tapping a short line from that brake controller wire to the fuse box on the firewall of the engine compartment using the spare hot lug for the brake controller.

In other words all this has been in place and I just needed to figure it out. I'll give it a little more thought before I finish. The existing fuse is 30 amp, but I'll change that to a 20 amp.

It did take some effort on the web to piece this puzzle together and this response is long, but I sure wish somebody had made one tying these pieces together. Hope it helps somebody.

[Topsail]

Originally Posted by HotMech

You don't need to go all the way to the batteries. Just make the connection at the generators battery connection, ad a fuse and tuck it in the gen cabinet. Then just run it to the power pin on the trailer connector. Thats what I did. Kerry

Your suggestion is a really good one and I was considering doing it this way. Thx for the input.

[Topsail]

After looking at the fuse panel by the emergency brake I noticed it has a 30 amp reset button labeled for a brake controller. This was installed by Winnebago. Because of this I checked the wire that's labeled "brake controller power". It is HOT even with the key off.

I can easily tap into this hot wire to provide power for the tow vehicle battery charger. But... this hot wire is larger than the "brake controller output" wire leading to the rear so I may use a 20 amp on/off breaker to protect the smaller wire and have the option to turn it off.

I didn't think this power source would be complete based on the fuse panel in the engine compartment. That panel may have been furnished by Workhorse and it has the typical spare lugs for accessories such as a brake controller.

Apparently 2006 and on already have power for the brake controller and this can be used for a tow car battery charger.