[cnold]

The Toyota factory trailer brake controller plug on my 2005 Tundra has five wires but the brake controller uses only four of them and to make things difficult, none of the colors match up. Only Toyota would think of using a red wire for the output to the trailer brakes, when the industry standard calls for a blue wire. The printed instructions that were packaged with the wire harness shows that the unused green wire is from the “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 Japanese joke? The use of a green wire to the tail lights makes more sense but I can’t think of any use for a wire to the trailer brake controller from the headlight switch. What am I missing?

 

[Only Toyota for me]

The Toyota factory trailer brake controller plug on my 2005 Tundra has five wires but the brake controller uses only four of them and to make things difficult, none of the colors match up. Only Toyota would think of using a red wire for the output to the trailer brakes, when the industry standard calls for a blue wire. The printed instructions that were packaged with the wire harness shows that the unused green wire is from the “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 Japanese joke? The use of a green wire to the tail lights makes more sense but I can’t think of any use for a wire to the trailer brake controller from the headlight switch. What am I missing?

Some controllers have a backlight on them, yours don't.

Just wire nut the end of that wire & don't use it. That's what i did & all works great.

 

[Justang]

Do all the Tundra's with the towing package come with a brake controller?

 

[HotRod8]

Do all the Tundra's with the towing package come with a brake controller?

No. None thus far come with the brake controller
All Tundras 2003 and newer, with the towing package, have complete wiring provisions for the electric trailer brakes and trailer battery charging, as well as the turn signals and running lights and I believe back-up lights as well. From what I understand '02 and earlier Tundra's do not have the additional wiring.
What does this mean?
You take the factory (Toyota) supplied brake control harness which mates with the connector in the driver's side kick-panel area (at least on my '03) connect the wires to your brake controller, plug it in and it works. All of the wiring from the cab to the 7 pin round RV style connector at the hitch is done for you.

 

[mountainlady318]

So, please help. I lost the diagram for the wiring diagram for the toyota supplied harness. What wire goes where???

 

[HotRod8]

See attached "pdf" file. It is a scan of the actual diagram that came with the Toyota supplied harness for my Tundra. I have never seen a trailer brake controller that had "backlighting", therefore you probably won't need to hook up the "Green" wire.
I just noticed that you have an '06, it may be different than what I posted, probably not.

 

[Sean Tex]

I have an '04 Tundra with towing package and have briefly looked under the drivers side kick panel but cannot see the connector - where EXACTLY is it?

 

[HotRod8]

I just PMed you. I will try to post a picture, it's a bit tough to get a good shot of it.

 

[jt2ga65]

I am wondering where it is as well. I just traded my '03 4Runner for my '05 DC, and I had the trailer brakes wired in the 4Runner, but did not see the same connector in the kick panel of the DC. Is it the same connector, or something different?

 

[cnold]

I was able to see the white connector in the crack between the top of the driver side kick panel and the lower left corner of the dash but was not able to fish it out without removing the kick panel. When installing the 3040-P, the kick panel must be removed in order to attach the separate body ground wire. There are several small bolts under the kick panel suitable for that purpose. If mounting the brake controller in that flat spot under the ignition switch, it is also a good idea to remove the bottom screws that hold the lower edge of the dash to route the wire harness above the AC duct. That prevents any possibility of the wire harness getting tangled in pedals or feet.

 

[ryanp99]

I am getting a tekonsha prodigy to put in 2002 Tundra TRD Ivan Stewart edition. I sent an email to the dealer where I purchased my truck this past November. My salesman was nice enough to send me the wiring harness I need. At the tekonsha site the wiring harness for the 2002 has connectors at each end. The one the salesman sent me has a connector at one end and cut wires at the other. Is hooking up the prodigy to my truck as easy as plugging the harness with connectors at each end into the connector under/behind the kick panel or will have to connect the cut wires to the prodigy and then plug it into the adapter behind the kick plate?

 

[RockyMtnRay]

I am getting a tekonsha prodigy to put in 2002 Tundra TRD Ivan Stewart edition. I sent an email to the dealer where I purchased my truck this past November. My salesman was nice enough to send me the wiring harness I need. At the tekonsha site the wiring harness for the 2002 has connectors at each end. The one the salesman sent me has a connector at one end and cut wires at the other. Is hooking up the prodigy to my truck as easy as plugging the harness with connectors at each end into the connector under/behind the kick panel or will have to connect the cut wires to the prodigy and then plug it into the adapter behind the kick plate?

Hate to tell ya', but you don't have have the OEM plug behind the kick panel on your '02. Toyota didn't start wiring Tundras for brake controllers until the '03 model year. The OEM pigtail harness the salesman sent you is for the '03s and newer...there's nothing for it to plug into on your truck.

There's a slight possibility you got real lucky and the truck's previous owner did the wiring...check the plug by the hitch. If it's a 7 pin round plug and has 7 functional wires, then somewhere under the dash is likely to be the harness for a brake controller.

But if there's not, then what you'll have to do is run all your own wiring to and from the Prodigy's harness (i.e. the power wire from the battery, the brake switch activation wire, the ground wire, and the wire back to the connector at the hitch. Although it takes quite a bit of time to do correctly, there are several recent posts with photos on this forum that will guide you.

 

[ryanp99]

The dealer installed a 7 way connector for me before I bought it. I guess I will just have to look under the kick panel to see if the plug in was installed at the same time. It seems like it makes sense that if they put the 7 way in knowing I needed to tow using electric brakes, that they would have installed the plug-in for the controller as well. Thanks for your help.

Hate to tell ya', but you don't have have the OEM plug behind the kick panel on your '02. Toyota didn't start wiring Tundras for brake controllers until the '03 model year. The OEM pigtail harness the salesman sent you is for the '03s and newer...there's nothing for it to plug into on your truck.

There's a slight possibility you got real lucky and the truck's previous owner did the wiring...check the plug by the hitch. If it's a 7 pin round plug and has 7 functional wires, then somewhere under the dash is likely to be the harness for a brake controller.

But if there's not, then what you'll have to do is run all your own wiring to and from the Prodigy's harness (i.e. the power wire from the battery, the brake switch activation wire, the ground wire, and the wire back to the connector at the hitch. Although it takes quite a bit of time to do correctly, there are several recent posts with photos on this forum that will guide you.

 

[Justang]

With the tow package it's so easy to install a brake controller. I did mine tonight in less than 1hr. It's plug and play. The hardest part is mounting it and finding a ground... which was really easy!

 

[jt2ga65]

The hardest part was finding the connector. The confusing part of finding it was that it was plugged into an empty socket, and taped to the wire loom. I overlooked it at least the first dozen times because of that. Once I found it, it's just easy to plug it in.

Now to fix the brakes on the trailer...

-jt2