4RUNR

How exactly does one rig up a harness on a 4runner? There are no wires visible under the bumper and doesn’t seem like there is any place to route it from the taillight?

Unhappy99

If you don't have the factory trailer reciever hitch, then they probably left out the trailer wiring as well. To see where the wiring comes from:

Open rear hatch
Unscrew the plastic trim which goes the width of the rear edge of the cargo area.
Unscrew the left side cargo area cover mounts.
Now pull up or pry up the left side of the lower plastic trim strip .
Pull out or pry out the left side plastic panel where the cargo cover mounts attached.
You only need to get in a foot or so.

About 10 inches Inside the left panel is the wiring harness. It is a 6 position, 5 contact white connector. This plugs into the Toyota 4 wire converter which you might not have if you have no trailer wiring. The converter looks like a small plastic brick stuck to the fender and costs $200 from the stealership. Its purpose to convert independent brake and turn signals to combination brake/turn used in trailers. Its a simple circuit, and they can be had at Auto parts stores or Uhaul for less than $40, but the oem toyota connector may need to be modified for an aftermarket one to work.

The wiring routes from this converter down the left side, toward the rear and then toward the center a foot or so, down into a grommet to go underneath and outside to the trailer hitch

Pep Boys, Autozone, Uhaul or JCWhitney may have a wiring converter which plugs directly into the Toyota harness.

Toyota also sells the reciever hitch and wiring converter as an upgrade $et.

HTH

pepsilover

First sorry 4RunR to jump in his post. Does anyone know I can get a adapter? I mean I have the wire hanging by the hitch but I want to have a adapter to look nice. thanks.

4RUNR

Unhappy, am I looking in the right place?

I've had this picture since the last time I had it open, and there is no harness?

WT

Mines a 97 and it was located on the right hand side not left and its was a factory installed cause I had to find it cause I was having problems with one of the wires not supplying the right voltage, found a loose connector but all is well now, the rest of what 99 said sounds right mine was routed under the truck on the right side also through a rubber grommet. So not sure if there is much difference in the years.
Good Luck

BruceTS

After my stock trailer hitch box burned out, I laughed at the price that Toyota wanted for their "KIT", in other words you can't buy a replacement part. Here's a link to the site that I purchased a kit to replace it with. It plugs right in like the factory kit at a fraction of the cost: http://216.247.247.192/miva/merchant...uct_Code=63415


If the above link don't work:

http://www.kwikhitch.com


Oh' the price $34.12

1Runner

4RUNR, all you need do is run to a parts store and get a HOPPYS brand trailer light adapter. It's a slick kit. You pull your tail lights out and plug this thing in to the factory wiring harness. The kit has the female plug end for the trailer lights, and they're long enough to run down to your receiver hitch. I think I paid 35 bucks for the one I had bought.

4RUNR

1Runner, do I have to pull and disconnect the tail lamp every time towing something? And one of the tail lamp harnesses has both turn signals on it?

1Runner

Nope.... no need to pull your lights at all after the first time. All you do is remove the tails, un-plug the factory tail light plug. Then you plug the trailer light harness in-line between the tail lamp assembly and the trucks harness. Fish the wires for the trailer harness up from the bottom of your rig and into the area where the tails mount. Sorry, I'm not doing a good job of explaining it. It's really quite simple, and the kit does have a decent set of instructions. I noticed Performance Products has the same thing in their cat. (same set-up, but different manufacturer) If you have the new cat. (fall/winter 2003) it's on page # 78. Honestly, they're a snap to install.

Unhappy99

Your photo is exactly the right place. You see your white connector which goes to left side taillights? The factory trailer convertor box plugs into this with a 5 wire 'Y' adapter (stop, left, right, tail, ground).

The box is then double sided sticky taped to the outside panel just above where you see yellow foam. The trailer harness then run under the left side of the plastic cargo end trim a few inches and down through a grommet to the hitch.

It would be great if somebody other than Toyota built a direct fit converter box. The expensive factory one burns out easily as its short circuit protection circuitry doesn't work. I built a fused version when mine broke during its first use.

4RUNR

I just came from the garage and it's not working out

Here's the problem: I have a harness with the 'box' except it taps wires rather than a direct plugin. I need 4 wires. Left turn, right turn, tail and stop lights. Each one of those white harnesses (C) on each side has only 3 wires I need, and missing the turn signals. Right side doesn’t have left turn signal wire, and vise versa, so I can't use just one side. I guess running the wire across would not be impossible, but the less wires the better.

Also the grommets, mine don't go anywhere! There are same grommets (A) and (B) on each side and neither of them open up to the bottom of the car. I'm lost

BruceTS

That black plastic plate/grommet, you need to cut a hole in it, then use silicone glue around the cable. They do go through, just feed them in and towards the front, there's a space that they will come out at. The link I posted, will take you to a site that sells a simple plug in unit. No splicing wires, just unplug your brake connector and plug the unit in, then route to the other side and plug in there. Last route the trailer connector through that plug....

since your gonna splice, you'll need to route a wire to the other side. The factory wiring kit routes it underneath the plastic strip that you took off to access those grommets.

4RUNR

I found a few circular holes, about 1/4" diameter, are those the places to route it? Though they would definitely be inaccessible from above. I had to stick a wire from underneath, catch it from above, then tape other wires to it and pull them through using the original guide wire.

Unhappy99

I just took a closer look as well, heres what I see:

The trailer harness Y adapter uses 3 wires from the left side (left,stop,tail) and one from the right. The right side wire is taped along the bottom of the bed, under the carpet. All 4 wires meet at the input to the converter box on the left side. Out of the coverter is left/stop, right/stop, tail and ground. The white ground wire goes to the bolt pictured in your 1st photo. From that bolt is another white ground which goes out to the trailer.

The trailer harness loom penetrates the body through the left grommet equivalent of your right 'B' gromment in your photo. The grommet is simply cut to allow the harness to pass through. There is an oblong opening in the body above the bumper mount where the harness comes out.

Attached photos.

Unhappy99

photo2

Unhappy99

photo3

Unhappy99

Photos Inline

Unhappy99

Yes, I have a few extra wires in there, for trailer brakes, trailer break away battery charge and trailer reverse lights. My converter box is the taped rectangular thingy with fuses in the lower left of the photo.

4RUNR

Thanks! That's exactly what I needed. I just didn't get under there deep enough to see the opening since it's very very dirty and wet under there from all the snow.



Btw, what should I fuse while I'm there? Just to be on the safe side.

Unhappy99

I use a 3 amp fuse for each turn/stop combo, reverse lights and battery charge, and a 5 amp for marker lights.

They are also diode protected to prevent current from the trailer trying to go back to the truck in case your ground goes bad. Battery charge is limited to ~300milliAmps by a regulator.