I went to UHAUL yesterday to see what it would cost to hook up trailer lights (4 flat) to my '96 runnner. This guy there told me it would be $75 because I would need a converter box? Every other truck I have owned I just bought a kit from hoppy at autozone and it plugs into the stock wiring harness. What makes this truck so different?

 

Your truck may or may not have a stock wiring harness that lets you "plug and play". Mine did NOT have a plug-in harness, so I spliced and soldered the wires from the converter box I bought. I got my box from Autozone for around $30 IIRC.

It took me like 2 hours to access the factory converter box (fried), splice and solder the wires, and put the trim back together.

$75 doesn't sound too outrageous from UHaul, but I bet they don't solder the wires, just use those cheap plastic splicing things.

 

You need a convertor box because the 4Runner has seperate brake and turn signal lights, and the trailer uses the same lights for both. You can buy one for around $30 -40 and install it yourself.