OK guys, I haven’t dived into this very deeply yet but seeing The Deputy’s R-Pod hooked up to his 03 has got me thinking so I went outside and took a good look at the trailer wiring on Clarkson04.

I have a small A-frame trailer. It has electric trailer brakes. Clarkson came with trailer wiring and a plug. It’s a round 7 pin receiver. Seems to match my trailer’s receiver plug. Looks exactly like what I have on my RAM.

One thing I noticed when I was looking at the wires is that I have a hot wire that runs into the trailer wire loom that’s been severed. I plan on reconnecting it but I tested it and its full time hot, not ignition hot. I assume this is to provide the charging power to the trailer battery.
I have not attempted to plug in the trailer yet.

So here’s a few pics. My questions are...should this be compatible with my trailer? and what else do I need to do to wire in the brake controller?


Clarkson’s plug receiver.

The severed hot wire.

Trailer plug.

 

Grab a multi meter and do some testing

https://www.etrailer.com/faq-wiring.aspx

 

I work for a RV dealer and putting in a brake control is not difficult to do. I personally recommend a Tekonsha P3. Lifetime warranty and while more costly than a "normal one" I have never had anyone say they wish they had gotten a cheaper one.

You will have to run a couple of wires from the battery into the cab and back out to the 7 way. It's really not difficult and if you own a Rover, you should be handy with auto work.

While I have not looked into if a Disco is pre wired for a brake control, Its really not a difficult install.

 

Thanks!
I certainly don't mind getting a nice controller. So If I run the brake controller back there, I’m assuming that the setup I have should be compatible?

 

A little more info. The plug I have on Clarkson is obviously aftermarket so one of the POs had towed with it before. I was able to track down the plug I have.

54-77-001 BARGMAN TRAILER WIRING CONNECTOR CAR END

 

If you had nothing at all on the vehicle of choice, this how you would wire the charge line and brake line back to the 7-way plug.

 

You would have a fused/ breaker line going from the batt. Through the firewall to the b/c and a blue wire coming off the b/c, back out through the firewall, down the chassis to the 7-way for braking. The charge line is fuse/breaker from the batt. Down the chassis to the 7-way for a charge line.

Dont mess with the reverse lights unless you will be towing a boat with hydraulic over electric brakes.

 

OK guys. Thanks for everything so far. Along with @HuskerRover diagram and some info from @The Deputy I’m starting to get the picture. As I suspected, Clarkson has been a tow rig before. I started tracing wires and I also opened the kick panel to take a look at the fuse box. Low and behold....There’s all the wires needed for a brake controller. The previous brake controller was removed from the truck!?!? They just cut all the wires. There’s even 2 very small screw holes in the kick panel where it was mounted. Ive never even noticed them before.

There they sit...white, blue, black (tested hot) and red. So technically, I should be able to use those wires and just splice in. I’ll put a 20 amp inline fuse in for good measure. Then I can reconnect the hot red wire that was severed at the back of the truck, and I should be good to go?

This is the third time that Clarkson has surprised me.

Trailer brake controller wires. Black is testing hot.

Mounting holes for previous brake controller.

Red and blue wires that seem to run back to the trailer wire plug? Confident one red goes to the plug and one red goes to the controller. Also pretty confident the blue is running from the controller then on to the plug.

Red and blue wires running through the fire wall on passenger side.

Red and blue wires pre trailer plug. Red has been severed. Red is always hot. Which Naturally tells me its the one running from the battery. You can also see the blue wire there.

 

Thanks to you guys, Wiring in a plug to my wife’s 03 will be pretty straight forward if I decide to do it.

 

Just ordered the Tekonsha P3. Transferable between different vehicles is a plus. Thanks for the tip.