Wiring up the toad…

Well as you may remember when we started this journey over a month ago we were not able to tow our Honda CRV since we were missing some parts. We finally got the parts needed to finish being able to hook up the toad. Yes!!!! So I got up early one morning to get all the parts out and make sure we would be able to tow the CRV the next time we are ready to leave.

   

I had previously installed the Roadmaster base plate on our new Honda CR-V. That task takes about 3.5 hours and requires minimal cutting on the front fascia of the CRV. The parts I was initially missing were the quick disconnects that we had to order from Roadmaster . Once these parts arrived we finally had everything we needed to mechanically tow the CRV, or did we?. Because now we had to hook of the electrical side of the equation.

                    

To install the Roadmaster Universal Light Kit we were going to need to run the lighting wires underneath the car and along the brake lines and support beams on the driver’s side until we could run the wires up into the rear quarter panel to the rear lights. I couldn’t find an easy way into the interior via the firewall so I chose the outside and under approach. Snaking the wire under the car was best done by feeding in through the hollow support steel from below where possible and feeding the wire rear wards making sure to avoid any possible areas that might compress the wires or put them too near the exhaust system (don’t want them melted).

                       

Snaking the wires from front to back will take a good hour if you are meticulous and have to redo parts of it like I did ; ) … But once this part was done I was able to determine which lights lit up when the turn signal, brakes and lights were used. I used a sharpie to mark inside the plastic what each light did. Now the universal kit didn’t have everything I needed so I had to order two additional diodes (which I had ordered after ordering the light kit).  The additional diodes are necessary for me since both my CRV and motorhome have separate lights for turn signals, breaks and lights. Wiring the diodes in place wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

After splicing in all six of the diodes I had my wife watch the lights as I retested everything and all seemed to work like they was supposed to. Looks like I didn’t screw anything up :) !!! So all I need to do is attach the 4 flat-to-4 round adapter I bought to the 4 round-to-7 round pigtail I have for the motorhome attachment point and we can test the motorhome. But alas, I still need another part as both of my 4 round adapters are female… so even thought I thought I had ordered all the parts I will still need at least one more…

The rest of this story will have to wait till I find the additional part…