Cusser

Mrs. Cusser had expressed desire to get an electric trailer jack for her bumper pull horse trailer, which she pulls with a 2014 Yukon Denali. She said manual cranking of the existing trailer jack was hurting her back.

Anyway, the electric trailer jack cost $175, no problem. The existing mounting holes lined up and the new bolts provided were the correct thread and length, no problem.

However, and quoting from a website "Even though 2007-2014 Chevrolet Suburbans come with a trailer tow package, the manufacturer has neglected to connect the wire that enables the 12-volt auxiliary pin on the 7 pin connector. It will also power any other appliances that may be in the trailer such as refrigerators or microwaves. This is an easy fix that may cost $75-100 for a professional to execute. Locate the wiring harness bundle, which exits the firewall underneath the brake booster." At least this was an easy find of the red/black wire (which already had a "ring terminal" on it, GM cheaped out again and didn't even supply the 6mm x 1.0mm nut !!!). OK, this was easy, and then I got auxiliary power back at the trailer jack.




Then the color code for the trailer wiring was different than in the manufacturer's manual, but I could solder a new power wire on where the black wire (12V+) was soldered to an orange wire in the connection box; not a huge deal.

Then I found out that the height of the electric jack prevented the full hatch to open, as it contacted the jack. After talking to a trailer expert and finding that an extension piece halved the tow capacity, and that a $200 extended length drop hitch might work, Mrs. Cusser agreed to use the smaller window hatch and would disconnect trailer if full hatch needed opening.

So everything finally did work. I believe same issue would exist for typical pickup truck tailgates as well....

Cusser

The 8mm terminal/stud on the left in above photo is for the electric brake controller. Mrs. Cusser reports that the trailer electric brakes DO work, so the "other" red/black bundled/unconnected wire at the extreme driver side remains unconnected. Since the vehicle has an integrated brake controller from factory, I wonder if such unconnected wire is just a "straight through" through to the brake controller prong on the Yukon jack (like the power/auxiliary wire I connected yesterday) ???

Anybody know?

Cusser

Update: Mrs. Cusser loves the electric trailer jack.

But I must've shorted out the blue wire connection in the junction box while doing the wiring, blew the 30-amp pink rectangular fuse at he front of the fuse box in the engine compartment. That protects the circuit to the bigger stud on the front side of the fuse box. She says the electric brakes had been working (this Yukon was acquired Nov. 12), so I need to explore this. But I believe I'm on the right track.

intheburbs

The unconnected wire/stud is there in case an owner wants to install an external brake controller. I had to connect both studs on my two trucks in order to have power to the trailer plug.

I've seen mixed results with the IBC. If I had to acquire a new (to me) truck and it had the IBC, I'd be hard-pressed to trust it as much as my Tekonsha controllers.

Cusser

Thank you.


I connected the driver side wire to the other stud to get auxiliary 12 volt back to the trailer plug to use for the electric jack. Since then, she blew the fuse for the electric brake controller (it's a pink 30-amp Maxi fuse) so if the replacement fuse blows I'll be needing to check if I shorted the blue electric brake wire back when I hooked up the electric jack wire.