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Has Anyone Installed 7 pin wiring harness and Aftermarket Brake Controller ?

Mike

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I ordered the Lariat AWD with 2" receiver and 4 pin as 90% of my towing is under 2k. Occasionally I need to tow more with a trailer that has electric brakes. I plan on using an F150 for most of this but would like the Mav equipped if necessary.

So has anyone wired up a 7 pin and an aftermarket trailer brake controller? to be honest, I didn't like the looks of the Ford integrated unit that comes with the 4k, the aftermarkets have better functionality.
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Mabcim

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When we added one to my friendā€™s F150 there were a couple things, so might you want to look into these:
- there was a separate fuse for it. Some F150s didnā€™t have the wiring within the fuse block, his did so we just added the fuse
- the cable/plug for it was already behind the panel; not sure that will be the case here, since you have to cut the Mavā€™s dash where it was a pop out panel on the F150
- then had to activate with Forscan
 

Naranjita

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In the past on other vehicles, I have just gone to Camping World or some other RV store with a good service dept. Would cost around $200-$300 for brake controller and 7-pin harness. Brake controller would usually mount under dash. May be higher now with inflation.
 

Old Ranchero

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I ordered the Lariat AWD with 2" receiver and 4 pin as 90% of my towing is under 2k. Occasionally I need to tow more with a trailer that has electric brakes. I plan on using an F150 for most of this but would like the Mav equipped if necessary.

So has anyone wired up a 7 pin and an aftermarket trailer brake controller? to be honest, I didn't like the looks of the Ford integrated unit that comes with the 4k, the aftermarkets have better functionality.
that's not all that comes with 4k though, you get oil cooler, bigger radiator and cooling fan + different rear end drive ratio to make towing easier on the truck.
 
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Mike

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that's not all that comes with 4k though, you get oil cooler, bigger radiator and cooling fan + different rear end drive ratio to make towing easier on the truck.

I don't need any of that. Any over 2k towing I do will be local, low speed, and short trips, no highway.

Most of the towing my Mav will do is under 2k on a 4 pin connection.

There's nothing structurally different with the tow package in terms of frame or suspension so the AWD non-tow will handle the over 2k fine for my needs.
 

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AzChrisW

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ā€œI ordered the Lariat AWD with 2" receiver and 4 pin as 90% of my towing is under 2k. Occasionally I need to tow more with a trailer that has electric brakes. I plan on using an F150 for most of this but would like the Mav equipped if necessary.ā€
I truly hope that other 10% of the time over 2k is only like 2500. šŸ¤¦. (In my best redneck voice)ā€”ā€”> ā€œI know Ford designed it and all. And they had to upgrade a whole list of crap just to bump the tow rate up 2k lbs and such, but Ford doesnā€™t know what theyā€™re talking about, I can tow anything I want with my car-truck ā€œ

ā€œto be honest, I didn't like the looks of the Ford integrated unit that comes with the 4k, the aftermarkets have better functionality.ā€
^^ wow, I hope your not actually serious? Looks are subjective, if you donā€™t like the almost completely unnoticeable factory brake controller slide switch and gain buttons, I no joke, honestly canā€™t not comprehend how you would rather have a big ugly box hanging down instead. But like I said looks are subjective.
As far as aftermarketā€™s have better ā€œfunctionalityā€, I would love for you to explain to me how you came up with that conclusion. The factory controller is fully integrated into the BCM and gets full inputs via CAN-bus to provide the absolute best braking at the exact time it needs it. Vs some cheap ass time delay controller that just delays the power output to the brakes based on a given time delay and power output voltage based on selected output power level. Shit even the fancy ā€œproportional ā€œ controllers just relay on an internal force potentiometer to vary the output voltage basic on what it feels the rate of deceleration is. And with these type of controllers, mounting them at a specific angle is critical to how they work. I seriously donā€™t know how you could even begin to suggest they are better then factory integrated units. šŸ˜
 
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Mike

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Youā€™re late to the party. I upgraded to 4K mostly because of the gearing

Aftermarket brake controllers are a simple install.
 

AzChrisW

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I don't need any of that. Any over 2k towing I do will be local, low speed, and short trips, no highway.

Most of the towing my Mav will do is under 2k on a 4 pin connection.

There's nothing structurally different with the tow package in terms of frame or suspension so the AWD non-tow will handle the over 2k fine for my needs.
I would definitely beg to differ. Iā€™d be willing to go out on a limb here and say that the Ford engineers know a little more about it then you and I. I think they realized that these little Car-Trucks are just glorified cars, and they know what really needed to be ā€œbeefed upā€ in order to tow over 2k lbs. The items included in the almost insignificant costing 4K tow package are not simply marketing Trinkets, they are legit upgraded components. Now Iā€™m not completely naive, and am saying that if you towed letā€™s say 2500lbs once or twice a mile of two, that the thing is going to blow apart, not at all. But, your statements have surly implied that towing over the 2k lbs will not be uncommon. I definitely going to say this though, tow 2500lb + without the 4k package once a weeks or so for a decent amount of mileage, and then in 15k miles when youā€™re on here complaining about how the diffs or the transmission is bad, I will definitely be here to say I told you sošŸ˜‰šŸ˜†
 

AzChrisW

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Youā€™re late to the party. I upgraded to 4K mostly because of the gearing

Aftermarket brake controllers are a simple install.
Iā€™m always late to the party šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚. And youā€™re definitely not wrong about the aftermarket units being simple to install. They definitely are easy nowadays with the OEMS pre wiring to under the dash, they have those plug and play harnesses.
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