Brake Controller Installation - Fiberglass RV
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Old 03-31-2007, 04:25 PM   #1
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Help! Brought a Prodigy Controller. Now trying to install. Cant find an OEM connection under the dash - had it all to pieces. Something tells me Chevy did away with the plug & play connection for 2006? some salesman muttered something about this to me down the phone, but was not sure. any one know? or is it hidden somewhere?

There are 4 cut wires (2 orange and 2 blue) that look like they could be useful but the label on them is not clear. 2 look heavy duty and 2 light duty.

anyone familar with this install?

many thanks.
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Old 03-31-2007, 05:08 PM   #2
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Call Tekonsha Tech Support at their 1-800 number -- They maintain diagrams for all the common (and maybe even the uncommon!) vehicles, are familiar with the quirks that exist and I found them to be friendly and easy to work with.
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Old 04-01-2007, 07:30 AM   #3
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Pete is correct in that it would be best to contact Tekonsha for the latest information. The phone number is (800) 325-5860.
Chevrolet has had issues with trailer brake controller compatibility that make it almost impossible to know what to expect when you hook up your Prodigy. Some owners reported that the trailer brakes didn’t work unless the head lights were on and others said that the trailer brakes would apply without pushing on the brakes.
It looks like Chevrolet did away with a plug for the vehicle specific controller harness at the end of the 2004 model year
On newer models, look for 4 wires taped together in a bunch on the far left side under the dash. They should have white labels to indicate what each wire was for. The 12 volt wire was RED on 2004 Trailblazers but looked more like ORANGE on the 2005. Test this wire for 12 volts. Some owners have said that the wire was dead. It may be fused or running off of another circuit that is sometimes off. Check your owner’s manual fuse charts and install the correct fuse if necessary.

Wire Colors are as follows:

Vehicle **************** Brake Controller

ORANGE or RED --12 VOLT+ -------- BLACK
BLACK ----------- -GROUND ---------- WHITE
LT. BLUE ---- STOP LIGHT SWITCH ---- RED
DRK. BLUE ------ TRAILER BRK. ------ BLUE
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Old 04-01-2007, 08:11 AM   #4
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Go to an RV dealer who also installs if you are not sure. Better safe than sorry. I have had a number of trucks where I had to make my own connections. It is not hard but takes experience to do it right. Good luck.
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Old 04-01-2007, 08:59 AM   #5
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Thanks Guys, I had found the four wires Craig noted and it does have a label. I also emailed tech support at Tekonsha. The confusing bit on the lable is that it notes the following:

Drk Blue (heavey gauge, actually light blue) = "Aux"
Orange = "Batt"
black = "Grn"
Light Blue (light gauge wire) = "CHMSL"

and of course it does not say anywhere "brake..."

my next step was to start metering the thing out and see if "aux" is infact the brake line to the rear plug and "CHMSL" is the cold stop light and Orange is live.

I also noted in the car manual that there is a dead line under the hood that has to be connected to enable a power line to the rear plug.

Thanks for your help. Once i figure it out i will post for future users.
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Old 04-01-2007, 12:50 PM   #6
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Quote:
...Drk Blue (heavey gauge, actually light blue) = "Aux"
Orange = "Batt"
black = "Grn"
Light Blue (light gauge wire) = "CHMSL"

and of course it does not say anywhere "brake..."

my next step was to start metering the thing out and see if "aux" is infact the brake line to the rear plug and "CHMSL" is the cold stop light and Orange is live...
I don't know about this truck specifically, but for the rest of the auto industry "[b]CHMSL" means "Center High-Mounted Stop Light"; that is, a brake light. It may be provided and labeled this way to connect to the brake light on a canopy or other add-on body which obstructs the brake light on the cab over the rear window.

My guess is that the
"CHMSL" wire is power for the brake lights (usable as the signal to the brake controller),
"Grn" is ground,
"Batt" is power, and
"Aux" is the brake controller output
- all of which would agree with Craig's listing - but I would get out a meter and long test wires to check out each connection.

Doesn't GM have a customer service phone line where someone would provide this information?
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Old 04-01-2007, 03:49 PM   #7
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Quote:
Doesn't GM have a customer service phone line where someone would provide this information?
Normally, I'd go to the auto manf (GM in this case) for general wiring info, but for the brake controllers, I'd trust Tekonsha's info because they live or die if the controllers can be connected properly or not...

They were able to tell me all the wire colors to tap into or run on my '98 Ranger (which did not have factory wiring set up for a brake controller) before I got the CD with the Ford service manual on it -- My Ranger is a sort of transition model, having a place to plug in a device to provide a Flat-Four basic trailer light connector in the rear (and relays to isolate them from the truck's lights), but no provision for a brake controller or battery recharge or back-up light.

Brian, thanks for the CHMSL definition -- I hadn't seen it before and certainly couldn't figure it out!
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Old 04-01-2007, 08:05 PM   #8
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try the following URL for information about connecting a brake controller to an Envoy/Trailblazer.

http://envoystuff.com/index.php?showtopic=...0&#entry471

-- Dan Meyer
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Old 04-03-2007, 05:30 AM   #9
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Ford and GM don’t have a lock on confusion. When it comes to making things difficult, Toyota is at the top of the list. Not to be outdone, the Toyota factory trailer brake controller plug has five wires but the Prodigy uses only four of them and none of the colors match up. Only Toyota would think of using a red wire for the output to the trailer brakes. The printed instructions indicate that the unused green wire is for “headlamp switch to vehicle TRAIL lamps.” Yes, I checked the spelling twice. What exactly are “trail” lamps or is it the printer’s idea of a bad Japanese joke?

Chevrolet marking the larger of the blue wires as “Aux”, just adds one more bit of confusion to the mix. If Chevrolet is using the industry standard trailer wire colors, that wire would certainly be blue but to mark it as an auxiliary circuit is to confuse it with auxiliary/back up Pin #7 on the Bargman plug. Pin #7 is the center terminal and currently is most commonly used for backup lights. Even Toyota got that right! The trailer brakes use Pin # 2.

http://www.marksrv.com/wiring.htm
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Old 04-03-2007, 01:11 PM   #10
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I don't fault any of the manufacturers for using colour codes on internal wiring which differ from the trailer standard. Their colours are chosen to uniquely identify every single wire in every harness, in conjunction with the wiring diagram. Reserving a particular colour for a trailer-related purpose just doesn't make sense in their much more complex context.

I do expect them to document the wires which they provide for connection to external devices. In the case of my tug - like most passenger vehicles - there are no wires provided for trailer (or brake controller) connections, so there is nothing for them to document.
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