What is this spare harness in my glovebox?

[BillB]

I had a Honda hitch installed at the dealer and I assume that for the $750 they have put in all the pieces including the most efficient harness and all the under dash parts. Well, when I picked up the truck, there was a 4 wire harness (about 6 inches long) loose in the glove box. Any ideas what this is?

[MikeT]

I had a Honda hitch installed at the dealer and I assume that for the $750 they have put in all the pieces including the most efficient harness and all the under dash parts. Well, when I picked up the truck, there was a 4 wire harness (about 6 inches long) loose in the glove box. Any ideas what this is?

I think it goes from the 7pin on the hitch to the four pin connector on the trailor....maybe...

[unobstreperous]

I had a hitch/harness installed today. They also gave me a trailer brake sub harness. It plugs into a connector under the dash on the the left hand side of the steering wheel. Some posts have reported it being covered with blue tape/and or taped to yellow wire harness. If the trailer you are towing has electric trailor brakes (that you want to control) you have to purchase a brake controller and connect it to this sub harness.

If you do a search for brake controllers you'll find quite a bit of info.

[BillB]

Here is a picture of the mystery harness. The code number is: 08L91-SJC-1000. I am trying to find out if the install is incomplete or what this is supposed to improve on the installed hitch as it is. Thanks.

[mmurphy50]

That is the trailer brake harness. It is for wiring an electric brake controller to the RL. It plugs in under the dash.

[BillB]

That is the trailer brake harness. It is for wiring an electric brake controller to the RL. It plugs in under the dash.

Would there be any reason this was not installed by the dealer when they did the hitch?

[csimo]

Would there be any reason this was not installed by the dealer when they did the hitch?

A trailer brake controller is not part of the towing package. Honda does not offer one. The harness is a "universal" adapter for whatever trailer brake controller, if any, you choose to install. The brand and positioning of the controller is up to you.

[djeaux]

Would there be any reason this was not installed by the dealer when they did the hitch?

Yes, there's a reason: the bare pigtails wire into your trailer brake controller & allow it to be plugged into the Ridgeline wiring. Obviously, if your trailer doesn't have brakes you don't need a controller & different trailer brake systems need different controllers, so Honda gives you the hook-up wiring & leaves the acquisition of the controller itself up to you.

[csimo]

You need an electronic trailer brake controller if the trailer weight is 1000 lbs. or greater (and the trailer must have its own brakes of course).

[BillB]

A trailer brake controller is not part of the towing package. Honda does not offer one. The harness is a "universal" adapter for whatever trailer brake controller, if any, you choose to install. The brand and positioning of the controller is up to you.

Thanks. What was ultimately confusing to me was that the RTX I owned for about 2 days did not have this spare harness included with the truck and when I saw it in the RTS glovebox, it looked like it was a forgotten part from the dealer installed RTS hitch.

[djeaux]

Thanks. What was ultimately confusing to me was that the RTX I owned for about 2 days did not have this spare harness included with the truck and when I saw it in the RTS glovebox, it looked like it was a forgotten part from the dealer installed RTS hitch.

My bet is that it was shoved up inside the hitch extender in the box that should've come with your RTX. I didn't notice mine for about a day after I got the truck. I've still had no need for it...

[BillB]

My bet is that it was shoved up inside the hitch extender in the box that should've come with your RTX. I didn't notice mine for about a day after I got the truck. I've still had no need for it...

I wouldn't bet against you. I did not look real carefully at the box contents after I saw the extender in there, I assumed that was all that was in there.

[ToyTruck]

Bill--perhaps you can have the dealer plug the harness in under your dash and just tape the wire ends for you. I had mine do that so that when I bought a brake controller, all I had to do was pull down the wires and hook 'em up. I hate lying upside down working under the dashboard.

[unobstreperous]

I installed a brake controller (Tekonsha P3) a couple of days ago and ended up ordering Tekonsha's Ridgeline specific harness. It cost $15 but the installation took all of about 5 minutes including finding the connector under the dash. No soddering or worring about connections coming loose... very slick. At any rate -- I did not end up needing or using Honda's "extra harness" at all.

The brake controller worked great too, once I figured out how to turn down the output...

[striperman1]

okay,i am also a bit confused. th harness plugs in under the dash and the 4 loose wires connect to the brake controller. i am with you so far, but where does the brake controller go? is it handheld like a power programmer, does it have wires to the trailer or does it work though the plug and into the vehicles hitch wiring to the plugs on the hitch? please enlighten me:confused:

[unobstreperous]

Yeah, if you search around you can find photos of where people have installed their brake controllers. I installed mine in front of my right knee. It does have to be hard mounted to work properly, although mine unclips when I'm not using it.

No other wiring is necessary, other than connecting it to the plug under the dash. This plug connects it to the battery/trailer.

[Nimbus1]

I wondered what that was and never thought to ask. Thanks!

[heintzra]

I purchased a Tekonsha P3 controller. it comes with a universal harness also.

However I think it is much better to order the Honda/Tekonsha harness (as I did) then you have OEM connectors on both ends. Otherwise you must splice the Honda universal to the Tekonsha universal .

The Honda end connects under the dash to a Honda factory OEM connector located well above the parking brake. at least thats where mine was.

The two connectors needed for the Honda controller supplied in their harness kit are found well well above the DTM trouble code connector. Again that's here mine where.

The dealer mechanic totally and completely botched my tow package electrical install and I had to do it over myself. Dealer was ticked that I fixed it myself but I was 300 miles away.

mechanic threw my universal harness away so I never got it. Also he threw away the bracket for the Honda supplied lights controller. At least it was still in the shop's "what's this for?" parts bin when I finally got back there about a month later

The Honda supplied install instructions are complete. If you follow them one , two, three on down the line I see no way to mess up... but he did.

[heintzra]

I meant DTC OBDII connector. not DTM connector