tow bar fitting 2015 wk2

[drover]

Okay only one way to sort it out............. just spent 30 mins under the Jeeperific and the 2015 with a Mopar tow wiring harness, marked AU is standard 7 pin wiring code, it has one wire near 7 pin running off to the right for some pick up, probably RH turn, the main cable run enters the body LH side rear coming in through side panel into the cavity under the LH pod, under the torch mount, it has a 2 wire feed off it(red &blue) for the electric brake connection, the rest of the cable terminates into two (2) plug sockets which is a jumper as at the back of the cavity, pinned to the wall you will find a connection where the rear light set ups plug into the main wiring harness, big grey jobs, you disconnect this socket and plug the tow harness into both plugs, so its just tapping into the main harness, so bingo there it is. I would remove the whole side panel if I was going to splice into the wiring though, so you have a clear run at it, digging around behind the panel you could upset things as there is quite a few wires and a RF box as well........... there is no magic box there for tow wiring at all .... just a tidy tap in....

This is on a 2015 with factory bar and harness.....

If I was going to make my own harness I would get a 7 pin auto plug wire it into the body wiring and then the tow harness I made could plug into it so it can be dismantled later if need be....

[genpk]

Originally Posted by drover

Okay only one way to sort it out............. just spent 30 mins under the Jeeperific and the 2015 with a Mopar tow wiring harness, marked AU is standard 7 pin wiring code, it has one wire near 7 pin running off to the left for some pick up, probably RH turn, the main cable run enters the body LH side rear coming in through side panel into the cavity under the LH pod, under the torch mount, it has a 2 wire feed off it(red &blue) for the electric brake connection, the rest of the cable terminates into two (2) plug sockets which is a jumper as at the back of the cavity, pinned to the wall you will find a connection where the rear light set ups plug into the main wiring harness, big grey jobs, you disconnect this socket and plug the tow harness into both plugs, so its just tapping into the main harness, so bingo there it is. I would remove the whole side panel if I was going to splice into the wiring though, so you have a clear run at it, digging around behind the panel you could upset things as there is quite a few wires and a RF box as well........... there is no magic box there for tow wiring at all .... just a tidy tap in....

This is on a 2015 with factory bar and harness.....

If I was going to make my own harness I would get a 7 pin auto plug wire it into the body wiring and then the tow harness I made could plug into it so it can be dismantled later if need be....

Great stuff, i pulled a full tow wiring loom out of a wrecked 2015 gc limited .
Had a look at it today. From my quick look on one side of tail light plugs , a yellow/white wire to one of the plugs has been tapped into by a green wire which
goes to pin 4 (end pin) on the trailer plug. Pin 3 on trailer plug has a white wire and that appears to be earthed to the body rear behind
the boot switch panel along with a black wire not connected to anything.
Pin 5 on the plug is a blue wire, that seems unconnected?
That leaves the yellow(pin1) Red(pin 6) Black (pin2) and brown (pin7)
Im a bit confused that only one wire appears to be tapped into one of the plugs out of the three plugs present on one side.

[drover]

If you didn't remove the wiring thats inside and only chopped the outside you would have missed the junction....
Google Narva 7 pin and that will give you the 7 pin colour code and positions................. on the Jeep you will need Brake light (white/tan), Tail light (white/grey is LH side) LH turn (white/orange?) RH turn (white/dkgreen ?) not 100% on the turns.......... the blue wire for the electric brake you will have to run from the front RH kick panel, you will find a red and a blue wire in there..... 12v power feed also needs to be routed as no decent circuit at rear, I used the jumper pins under bonnet. Earth pin use black and just tap onto a good spot on the body..... I would try for making the join inside where you will have most of the cables and being inside the vehicle less chance of getting corrosion into your wiring harness and you can do a decent set of joins..

[genpk]

Originally Posted by drover

If you didn't remove the wiring thats inside and only chopped the outside you would have missed the junction....
Google Narva 7 pin and that will give you the 7 pin colour code and positions................. on the Jeep you will need Brake light (white/tan), Tail light (white/grey is LH side) LH turn (white/orange?) RH turn (white/dkgreen ?) not 100% on the turns.......... the blue wire for the electric brake you will have to run from the front RH kick panel, you will find a red and a blue wire in there..... 12v power feed also needs to be routed as no decent circuit at rear, I used the jumper pins under bonnet. Earth pin use black and just tap onto a good spot on the body..... I would try for making the join inside where you will have most of the cables and being inside the vehicle less chance of getting corrosion into your wiring harness and you can do a decent set of joins..

Great info as usual, found a my14 jeep gc factory fitting instructions which great also.Show everything for removing the bumper to splicing into the looms, wires etc.
As you mentioned, all a matter of tapping into a couple of wiring looms, no boxes
or re programing the ecu required, at least not until you buy a 2018 up.
Re the wiring loom , i did get most of the wiring looms back to the top under the
rear passenger side window, couldnt reach any further with the trim panel still half on and also underneath the car back to the rear transfer case.
Id think ive got the factory loom including the wired up 7 pin plug attached , ive just got to reverse engineer it .Also need to do an anderson plug.
Looking at my current gc, it appears the power for the Anderson plug is from the battery terminals to a small block (fuse ?) then to another small block (isolator ?) both screwed inside battery box under the seat then wiring is routed to the rear of the car plug.
First things first, ive got to fit that heavy lump of a tow bar !!
Ive got a genuine factory Mopar tow bar which looks brand new but no tow bar places want to fit it, either “its not new” or “theres no money in it “

[drover]

Finding those instructions is a great help for sure, fitting the tow bar just drop the plastic back and slot it in, buy a carton of nice bourbon with the savings, removing the plastic rivets carefully you can reuse them, clean the chassis rails even add a bit of rust proof before slipping the bar in place, use new HT bolts and HT washers though with Nylock nuts and torque up well then they will stay in place...
I picked up power for the van fridge by running some 8 B&S cable from the jumpers under the bonnet, first fitted a 35a maxi fuse to the POS pin with an Anderson on it so I can unplug the cable to the rear and use the connection to provide power at the front if needed, compressor etc, the cable runs to the rear under the vehicle following wiring looms mostly then with an Anderson at the tow bar, supposed to have a piggy back circuit with Anderson on end running into the boot but , well its on the list... no need to make things complicated running the cable inside off the battery and using the jumper points means decent load bearing terminals can be used..... plus a damn sight easier than stuffing around under the seat..

The standard wiring in the Jeep even for the rear cig socket isn't good enough for running a fridge, too much loss and can have a melt down if using a compressor or other high draw device, a dedicated 8 B&S cable direct via a fuse is the best way to go, 6 B&S is technically ideal but really too damn large and expensive to boot....

All my gear runs Anderson plugs, fridge, compressor even lights then since I use decent wiring no melt downs or power losses..... Car and Van as well as boat and I buy Ebay plugs, no way Im paying $15 each for them and I solder the wire then if it breaks out bush I can repair, crimp it and its not easy to repair.

[genpk]

Thinking of buy one of those Ark double plugs, has an anderson plug and 7 pin plug all in the one assembly and that should fit onto the steel bracket the Mopar tow bar has.
Re the tow bar bolts, the bolts that came with the tow bar off the 2015 are short and dont see to go through, just bolt into the sub frame?

[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....