tow bar fitting 2015 wk2

[genpk]

Originally Posted by drover

Mine is a Mopar badged Best Bars, NZ job, the bar mount fits into the chassis , RH has 3 bolts 2 thru a backing plate on side with nuts on the inside and LH has 4 bolted thru the towing bracket, with nuts on inside mine only look like they might be 40 or 50mm at most, I would just take note of how your bar is fitted and just get replacement HT bolts, washers and nuts of the same size, then you know they won't be stressed .... it's good practice whenever removing HT bolts to replace them
Have seen instructions for one that the mount fits outside the chassis rail, whichever bar is used its not wise to have bolt/nuts directly against the body always use a plate at least 5mm thick steel between them to spread the load as the body panels can fail and can pull away ............ and never use nut serts on this sort of gear ....

HT spring washer and HT nuts or just plain HT washers with Nyloc Nuts is good. Depending on the bolt size torque can be in the 85-110ft/lbs area, best to check the charts for nut/bolt size/type torque settings....

Ok,just got under my current jeep gc with a tow bar and had a look, the tow bar bolts go into the sub frame but there appears liitle room to get your hand in where the brackets are to get the nuts on ?
Maybe with the bumper off it will be a bit clearer .
I would have thought they would have welded the nuts onto the chasis rails?

[drover]

Originally Posted by genpk

Ok,just got under my current jeep gc with a tow bar and had a look, the tow bar bolts go into the sub frame but there appears liitle room to get your hand in where the brackets are to get the nuts on ?
Maybe with the bumper off it will be a bit clearer .
I would have thought they would have welded the nuts onto the chasis rails?

The plastic bumper set up has to be removed, the sub frame/chassis (monocoque body) on its own isn't really substantial enough to support stuff, its only about 2mm if that and sticking some nuts to it without some extra support it would soon fracture and just pull away. You will have plenty of access once you take the plastic off but is essential you sandwich the sub frame between the tow mount and a bracket/plate when bolting up...

All these monocoque or unibody vehicles they don't have the support like a proper chassis vehicle for mounting things like bar work without some extra support, they will easily distort and/or fracture ...... bull bars, with winches need decent mounts or the front will just fail likewise the tow bar..... Been there done that as had a vehicle that the bar fitted was poorly done, found the tow bar sagging before I lost it and van, the sub frame had fractured and was pulling away because of poor load distribution..... ended up rebuilding the rear sub frame to a better standard than original....... I had some pics but have deleted them as I didn't want reminding what was close to probably taking us out....................... Had enough near misses in my life.....................
My current horse has had a good going over of the front and back fixings, probably due for another................ I'm not a lover of Monocoque bodies.

I you ever hear a sound like when you bend a coke can in half then stop and have a close look at the mounts, good chance the sub frame is cracked and is opening up.....

RH on the current steed

LH current steed...

[genpk]

i guess ill just copy what they did on my factory fitted one.
Re the wiring, had a look at the loom i ripped out of another 2015.
Found the red, yellow and brown wires are tapped into the wiring loom
up near where the rear boot switch it, right near a grey connector plug.
The wire that seems unconnected and is tapped off is the blue wire, you mentioned it was the brake controller ?
I assume for the redarc ?

[drover]

Yep blue is the brake controller wire but you won't find one at the back its behind the kick panel beside your go pedal.....

look closely at the 7 pin plug and you will see what pin is what printed in the plastic ie: Stop/LH Turn/RH turn ...............

This is the australian standard colour code for trailer plugs which should be on all towing wiring the Jeep plug will have the same but main wiring of course is different I have mentioned what the jeep colours are though the Left and Right turn not sure may need to pop the light to confirm...

[genpk]

ok, for anyone wanting to do the factory tow plug, this what ive ascertained from the factory wiring loom i got out of a 2015.
Firstly, 2014-2017 no need to get any sort of flashing of the ecu, just splice into
the wiring .
The pins on the plug are numbered 1,6,5,3,2,7,4
Pins 1,6 and 7 are spliced into a wiring loom behind trim rear boot passenger side.
The loom is largish and has a large grey joiner plug on it.
plug Pin 1- yellow wire spliced into loom to white/ green wire
Pin 6- red wire spliced into loom to white/brown wire
Pin 5 - blue wire- not connected (brake control ?)
Pin 3- white wire (thicker) to earth body
Pin 2- Black wire - appeared to be not connected
Pin 7- Brown wire- spliced into loom to white/ grey wire
Pin 4- Green wire- spliced into white/ yellow wire ,drivers rear tail light
(white plug)
Hope this may help some one doing their own trailer plug wiring.

[drover]

The black wire is for reversing lights but is often used in 7 pin plugs for a low draw 12v supply to van, often it can be for the break safe charge supply, not really suitable for fridge as it will probably melt...... if its a from the factory fit out then a good possibility the trailer harness will have plugs on it so no need for any splicing at all.....

Test the circuits BEFORE you seal and tie things off though.