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97 SE 7-PIN Trailer Wiring


Strato_54
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I own a 97 SE Pathfinder with standard transmission and I'm mounting a trailer hitch for camping. (yes i know the standard is rated for 3500.) All my trailers especially this one require the 7-Pin heavy duty plug and I'm not to sure how to wire it in. I've heard there's already a harness under the frame i can use but couldn't find what I read. Running my blue (brake) wire is not an issue and neither is my 12v. Where do i find the wires i split off of or if possible buy a harness spliter to put in with it. Thanks.

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If you don't have a 4 wire trailer plug already, you can either get the factory adapter, or this device from Curt that has factory plugs to splice into your left rear brake light.

If you want to manually do this by splicing in yourself, there are several other generic versions of this. But I wouldn't mess with it.

https://www.suspensionconnection.com/55361-nissan-pathfinder-trailer-wiring-kit.html

Good luck. It took me several years of on and off work to get my 7 pin plug and electric trailer brakes installed. I already had the 4 pin. I estimate at least 20 hours of work and 20 hours of research. But I was being too picky about how I did it.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

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4 minutes ago, colinnwn said:

If you don't have a 4 wire trailer plug already, you can either get the factory adapter, or this device from Curt that has factory plugs to splice into your left rear brake light.

If you want to manually do this by splicing in yourself, there are several other generic versions of this. But I wouldn't mess with it.

https://www.suspensionconnection.com/55361-nissan-pathfinder-trailer-wiring-kit.html

Good luck. It took me several years of on and off work to get my 7 pin plug and electric trailer brakes installed. I already had the 4 pin. I estimate at least 20 hours of work and 20 hours of research. But I was being too picky about how I did it.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

Sweet thank you very much. I could just cut off the 4 pin end and wire it in to how i need it. I'll look into that component 

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Of course thats very easy to do. My 7 pin connector I installed had a 4 pin plug in the back to just plug it in to. It also has a 4 pin on the front so if you need to tow something with that, you don't need another adapter.

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I've never owned a trailer with the 4pin. even the small quad trailer we built uses the 7pin so its what ever. i have a 7 to 4 pin adapter anyway so if i ever have something that needs it there i go 

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Actually wait i have another question. My 12v wire, does that just come right off the battery to the 7 pin connector or do i have to get a special controller for that?

 

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No controller necessary. Can go straight to the battery. I put a 40 amp fuse in it immediately after the battery.

But I did wire mine through a relay, that is controlled off of the fuel pump relay switched line, so if the engine isn't running, the trailer could never run down the car battery.

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I was thinking a switch or something but that is actually pretty smart. I wanted a way to cut it off instead of just unplugging the trailer when I'm not using it so that works perfect. Thanks alot man big help.

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  • 2 months later...
On 6/23/2019 at 3:06 PM, colinnwn said:

If you don't have a 4 wire trailer plug already, you can either get the factory adapter, or this device from Curt that has factory plugs to splice into your left rear brake light.

If you want to manually do this by splicing in yourself, there are several other generic versions of this. But I wouldn't mess with it.

https://www.suspensionconnection.com/55361-nissan-pathfinder-trailer-wiring-kit.html

Good luck. It took me several years of on and off work to get my 7 pin plug and electric trailer brakes installed. I already had the 4 pin. I estimate at least 20 hours of work and 20 hours of research. But I was being too picky about how I did it.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

i was using the search bar to look for a thread on electric rad fan installs and i came back across this. I had 0 pre wire for towing and i bought a used brake controller thing like the curt box from a used auto parts junk yard. i got that box, the 7 pin plug and about 5 feet of the wire for 20 bucks. i had none of that quick connect stuff as i had to cut all factory wire and krimp my self. I started at around 9 or so and finished by 2:00 same day even with lunch break. All i have now is light working, the 12 wire is ran but not hooked up and my blue brake wire is ran to behind my dash. I just thought id revisit this thread to say that i have no idea you spent so long getting it to work but i do agree that the engineers should rot in the hottest part hell as it was pain to take it all apart but i have only broken about 5 clips. I hope this makes you fell better and to any one reading this it really is a b**** to do so just pay someone 20 bucks and a beer to do it. 

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  • 2 months later...

coming back to this for a quick question for anyone, preferably someone that can say this with confidence. I ran 16 gauge wire for my 12 volt wire thats supposed to charge the battery, should I have ran a 14 gauge or even a 12 gauge wire for that or should what i have be fine?

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You are talking about the 12 volt power wire to the trailer? No matter what gauge you choose, you should fuse or circuit breaker it for the size wire you have. That will also tell you if you undersized it.

As far as gauge to use, it all depends on how much power you expect your trailer to require. If your trailer battery is always fully charged, and you don't leave anything on in it besides a few LED lights, then 16ga is fine.

At a given gauge size and wire length, the more power you try to pull causes the end voltage to decrease, and of course for the wire to heat up.

My 7 pin connector only had a 12 ga pigtail. The spade connector inside and RV pigtail has its limits too.

But given the long run, I sill used 10 ga. I plan to try using the DC portion of my absorbtion refrigerator, and it pulls close to 200 watts at 12 volts as I remember. I'm still not sure 10 ga is big enough for me. But I may just stick with propane when traveling.

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