Check Tow Vehicle After Repairs

[Steven@147]

A a few weeks ago someone backed into our truck and put a big dent in the rear bumper. They got it fixed and we went on our merry way. Yesterday had to move the RV to do some yard maintenance, the wife was driving the truck and after hitch up she pulled the RV out of the drive and noticed the truck did not register the trailer was connected. It didn't know the trailer was connected. I noticed the RV rear tail lights were not working but the truck's tail lights were when she pulled it out. This should have been a show stopper right then, but since she was just pulling the RV out to the front driveway she continued. We have since modified our hitching sequence, when plugging the cord into the truck bed 7way, if the truck does not immediately recognize the trailer is connected on the evic or instrument display, the rig does not move 1 foot!

Anyway, some quick troubleshooting determined the 7way 5th wheel plug connection in the bed was dead, moved the RV cord to the 7way on the rear bumper and it was working, truck connected right up.

Well crap, since both 7way connections had always worked before, I immediately knew something had happened to the 7way trailer wiring when the rear bumper was repaired. Crawled under the truck and ran all the wiring down. It was obvious the auto body repair facility had removed the rear bumper to fix it and in that process had disconnected all the plugs on the rear wiring harness. They didn't get them all plugged back in correctly, the 5th wheel bed 7way harness was plugged into itself in a big loop, the numb skulls!.

We are headed out in 2 weeks for an Escapee's club Texas rally in the Austin hill country at Johnson City, would have found the problem then and would have had to fix it before pulling out. Was an easy fix after running down all the truck's rear wiring harness connections. Point is I never thought to test the truck trailer wiring after the bumper repair. I won't make that mistake again!

[gbkims]

It was obvious the auto body repair facility had removed the rear bumper to fix it and in that process had disconnected all the plugs on the rear wiring harness. They didn't get them all plugged back in correctly, the 5th wheel bed 7way harness was plugged into itself in a big loop, the numb skulls!.

I can see how they'd do that with the T harness that ties the truck to bumper and bed 7-pion, plugs together, must be good.

[Steven@147]

I can see how they'd do that with the T harness that ties the truck to bumper and bed 7-pion, plugs together, must be good.

Yeah, the way Ram has it, there are three big 7way harness inter connectors right behind the rear bumper. The truck rear harness first connects directly to the 5th wheel harness that runs up inside the left rear fender to the bed 7way connector, then comes back down across the bumper and terminates in the bumper 7way. They just plugged the trucks rear harness directly into the bumper 7way.
They took the other two 7way harness interconnectors and plugged them together making a big loop to itself. There are a lot of wiring connectors back under there with all the backup sensors, tailgate camera, lighting and what not.

[gbkims]

Yeah, the way Ram has it, there are three big 7way harness inter connectors right behind the rear bumper. The truck rear harness first connects directly to the 5th wheel harness that runs up inside the left rear fender to the bed 7way connector, then comes back down across the bumper and terminates in the bumper 7way. They just plugged the trucks rear harness directly into the bumper 7way.
They took the other two 7way harness interconnectors and plugged them together making a big loop to itself. There are a lot of wiring connectors back under there with all the backup sensors, tailgate camera, lighting and what not.

I've had those apart when I took a wire out of the connector so I could tap a reverse wire and then put melt head shrink over the splice like the factory splices in that Y harness.
I put some dielectric grease on the pins while I had them apart.

[Steven@147]

I've had those apart when I took a wire out of the connector so I could tap a reverse wire and then put melt head shrink it like the factory splices in that Y harness.
I put some dielectric grease on the pins while I had them apart.

Good idea Gene with the dielectric grease, As I recall I didn't get grease all over my hands from factory applied stuff, usually they just slop it on if any at all. They are weather pack type connectors so they probably didn't apply much if any. Next time I'm under there a little dab will do ya. Need to put some inside the 7way connectors also to keep them from corroding.

[Boomer58]

I was having some problems with the directional lights not working on our trailer or they were flashing out of sinc. The dealer said that it was caused by water getting in to the connection by the bumper. I took it all apart, dried it with an airgun and put dielectric grease in it. I took it to the dealer for an oil and fuel filter change and mentioned what I did. They said they would take a look at it just to be sure everything was alright. I got it home, washed it and the next morning hooked it up to go to Florida for the winter. My wife was checking the lights and nothing worked. I crawled under it and the connectors were all pulled apart. I cleaned everything with electrical cleaner and greased it again and all was good.