Mopar Flat Tow Harness arrived

[RCH]

WhiteElk, I am following behind you. I am very interested in the RVI towed battery charger. Is there any trick getting it connected through the MOPAR Flat Tow Harness? Were there instructions and were they clear? I was not going to try the harness itself because with the 45 volt battery, the 12 volt battery and all the connections and electronics, I just lacked the nerve.

Congratulations on your install. Very cool.

v/r rch

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[sab3864]

You do not need to buy an umbilical. The Mopar kit comes with a proprietary 7-way to OEM connector umbilical.

WhiteElk (or anyone else)

The instructions on page 5 show to "Install harness into connector" for the proprietary OEM connector to use their umbilical. I'm curious if you think you can instead install the harness into a standard 6-way socket to make use of the normal umbilical power cords? I guess the question would be if there is enough slack for the ends of the harness to reach down to where you would normally mount the socket under bumper.

I have been leaning toward the roadmaster products for baseplate and tow bar, but the newer tow bar has the umbilical integrated into it. It is a bit of a premium price but sort of leaning toward it since it is aluminum instead of steel (for the lightweight of it).

Thanks for any thoughts you might have.

 

[WhiteElk]

SAB,

The Mopar harness terminates at the top of the passenger side of the front bumper. I doubt the harness would be long enough to run to the driver side of a baseplate. You could however, by a length of six-way trailer cable and make the run from the base plate to the Mopar Tow Harness Fuse Block.

WE

 

[WhiteElk]

WhiteElk, I am following behind you. I am very interested in the RVI towed battery charger. Is there any trick getting it connected through the MOPAR Flat Tow Harness? Were there instructions and were they clear? I was not going to try the harness itself because with the 45 volt battery, the 12 volt battery and all the connections and electronics, I just lacked the nerve.

Congratulations on your install. Very cool.

v/r rch

For future installers, RCH indicated by PM that his Jeep is a 2.0l JL and that it has a different battery/charging set-up than the 3.6. I confirmed with Mopar that the RVi charger will work fine with the Mopar OEM Flat Tow harness on a 3.6 JL.

 

[Jondrew]

I’ve actually come up with a new plan. I’m going to try using my magnetic tow lights that I’ve stored for emergencies. Going to wire them under the frame and have them connect to the 6-pin blue Ox connector. I’ll have another plug at the rear for when I put them on.

Since I’m using an RVI 3 brake and RVI tow line charger, I don’t think I need the Mopar or Cooltech harness. At some point, I might feel bold enough to drill into my tail lights and install a separate led bulb. That’s how I had my CRV set up. No connections to the vehicles electrical system.

 

[sab3864]

SAB,

The Mopar harness terminates at the top of the passenger side of the front bumper. I doubt the harness would be long enough to run to the driver side of a baseplate. You could however, by a length of six-way trailer cable and make the run from the base plate to the Mopar Tow Harness Fuse Block.

WE

Thanks so much for the info, that does help.

 

[T's Jeep]

WhiteElk (or anyone else)

The instructions on page 5 show to "Install harness into connector" for the proprietary OEM connector to use their umbilical. I'm curious if you think you can instead install the harness into a standard 6-way socket to make use of the normal umbilical power cords? I guess the question would be if there is enough slack for the ends of the harness to reach down to where you would normally mount the socket under bumper.

I have been leaning toward the roadmaster products for baseplate and tow bar, but the newer tow bar has the umbilical integrated into it. It is a bit of a premium price but sort of leaning toward it since it is aluminum instead of steel (for the lightweight of it).

Thanks for any thoughts you might have.

I already have a 6-way standard socket installed on a Blue Ox baseplate for a Roadmaster Invisibrake located under the driver's seat. The Mopar harness will terminate on the right hand side at the front bumper, per the instructions, except I plan on installing it below the position shown in the instructions. Then I will connect the Mopar provided umbilical, trim it and splice into the wiring for the Invisibrake near the 6-way receptacle. The Invisibrake already comes with a battery charger, however, the lights on the motorhome must be on for battery charging.

I would like to know if anybody has installed both an Invisibrake and the Mopar Flat Tow Harness and might have some guidance they are willing to share. Right now I'm just waiting on warmer weather to get things done.

 

[WhiteElk]

Update on Mopar Flat Tow Harness for JLR 2 Door. My tail lights weren’t working with the OEM harness. Local Jeep dealer determined it necessary to connect both of the wiring harness ground lugs on the two door (Mopar instructions said to install only the ground lug on the forward end of the harness). Seems to have fixed the problem. I plan to report the instruction manual error to Mopar.

 

[T's Jeep]

Update on Mopar Flat Tow Harness for JLR 2 Door. My tail lights weren’t working with the OEM harness. Local Jeep dealer determined it necessary to connect both of the wiring harness ground lugs on the two door (Mopar instructions said to install only the ground lug on the forward end of the harness). Seems to have fixed the problem. I plan to report the instruction manual error to Mopar.

With the weather getting warmer here in Delaware I plan on starting my harness install this week. First, I have to take my JL into the dealer to have the rear window replaced (broken defroster connection) I see one ground in the engine compartment in step 15. Is the second ground you mention the one that appears in step 51 labeled for 4-door only. Your post for this second ground for 2-door Wranglers is greatly appreciated.

 

[WhiteElk]

With the weather getting warmer here in Delaware I plan on starting my harness install this week. First, I have to take my JL into the dealer to have the rear window replaced (broken defroster connection) I see one ground in the engine compartment in step 15. Is the second ground you mention the one that appears in step 51 labeled for 4-door only. Your post for this second ground for 2-door Wranglers is greatly appreciated.

You are correct, ie; install the mid-chassis ground to the lug inside the trim by the passenger door. The forward ground to a chassis ground or the battery negative terminal. Good luck.

 

[RCH]

For future installers, RCH indicated by PM that his Jeep is a 2.0l JL and that it has a different battery/charging set-up than the 3.6. I confirmed with Mopar that the RVi charger will work fine with the Mopar OEM Flat Tow harness on a 3.6 JL.

I followed WhiteElk's lead using the RVI charger with my dealer installed MOPAR Flat Tow Harness. I can confirm it works flawlessly with the 2.0. It appears that the MOPAR Flat Tow Harness completely cuts out the Jeep electrical system.

I went with the RVI because it contains a diode to prevent my Jeep 12 volt battery from energizing the MOPAR Flat Tow Harness when it is NOT connected to my RV 7Pin.

I never did quite figure out where the RV 12 volt went to from the end of the A cable when it connected to the B cable. Anybody have a wiring diagram for this harness. I have the install sheet but, it doesn't actually show how the black wire into the fuse box on the end of cable A supplies power to the 4 wires in from the cable B. The B to C tracking is more straight forward. Is the black 12 volt wire just bussed across somehow to provide voltage to the 4 wires out on cable B?

 

[dapipp]

I have some questions based on which towing harness is used.

Mopar RV Tow Harness (82215382)

1) Was/is it worth the cost?
2) is there enough room at the end to cut off the proprietary OEM connector off the end and solder/heat-shrink/seal extended wires on to them to run to a standard 6 pin connector. I want to run the wiring back up near the battery area without exposing the solder/heat-shrink/seal joint to the outside of the vehicle.
3) It is my understanding that this kit will only light up the tail lights and license plate light, not any of the forward (side markers, turn signals) lights.

CoolTech JL Tow Harness Kit

1) How comfortable are you with this as a long-term solution that is spliced into a main harness.
2) If the switch goes bad while out and about what would it take to fix it far from home.
3) Does it not only light up the rear but also the front lights?

 

[MKJL]

I have some questions based on which towing harness is used.

Mopar RV Tow Harness (82215382)

1) Was/is it worth the cost?
2) is there enough room at the end to cut off the proprietary OEM connector off the end and solder/heat-shrink/seal extended wires on to them to run to a standard 6 pin connector. I want to run the wiring back up near the battery area without exposing the solder/heat-shrink/seal joint to the outside of the vehicle.
3) It is my understanding that this kit will only light up the tail lights and license plate light, not any of the forward (side markers, turn signals) lights.

CoolTech JL Tow Harness Kit

1) How comfortable are you with this as a long-term solution that is spliced into a main harness.
2) If the switch goes bad while out and about what would it take to fix it far from home.
3) Does it not only light up the rear but also the front lights?

Mopar Harness
1) That’s for you to decide. I thought it was well built.
2) I cut off the OEM connector and wired the harness to a 6 pin connector that came with my Blue Ox cable. That connector was then installed into the Rockhard 4x4 bumper. You can easily connect your own wiring here and extend it anywhere you want.
3) You are correct.

I will add that this harness is a lot more work to install as opposed to the JK version.

 

[T's Jeep]

For any of you that have already installed the Mopar Tow Harness - I have a question on the connection of the "A" wire harness to the connector shown in step 12. It shows removal of the white plastic lock that comes in the connector. Does this "lock" come all the way our and if so how is it removed? I can only get mine to move about 1/8" inches which isn't far enough to insert any of the 6 pins. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[T's Jeep]

You are correct, ie; install the mid-chassis ground to the lug inside the trim by the passenger door. The forward ground to a chassis ground or the battery negative terminal. Good luck.

Thanks for the help. Started today and now we are in for lots of rain in the next couple of days.

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