2006 Honda hitch install

[MaxBeagleton]

This past week, I installed the Honda hitch and harness. I purchased it from an east-coast internet dealer, hoping to save some shipping costs. They had an excellent price for the hardware, but the shipping was $98. (A few days after ordering, I got a 15% parts discount certificate from my dealer!)

The harness kit had a few extra parts that I was not expecting: 1 relay and 1 7.5A fuse. Also one harness has an extra connector that the 2006 install instructions did not show.

Comparing the 2007 install instructions, the extra relay and fuse and connector are for backup lights. These same instructions indicate you should have the extra connectors on your truck harness for the backup lights if your Ridge was manufacturered before August 24, 2005. Since mine was built 12/05, I though I would have the backup curcuit, but I did not. I found out the minute I untaped the first connector from the dash harness and saw that I was missing the 4-pin connector. I just had the 10-pin. Oh well, no big deal, but it makes me wonder about the accuracy of the instructions. (BTW, my internet vendor never asked what year Ridige I was buying this for.)

The whole install took me just a little under 3 hours, not counting the garage clean-up. I did everything without a helper, just a plastic paint bucket to help prop up the heavy hitch. (Thanks to a suggestion on this forum from Rib.) All in all, the instructions were pretty good. Here are a couple of rough spots:

First, the 2006 instructions I downloaded from my internet vendor show the installation of one relay in step 6. It is not really clear from the drawing on which side of the socket the relay should the be installed. I had to look at later steps to figure it out. Other 2006 instructions from other internet vendors show that both relays shoud be plugged in. I'm pretty sure the second relay is for the backup curcuit, so I left it off. You could plug it in, since they give the relay to you, but without the extra 4-pin connector, it won't do anything useful.

Second, the rear connector that you must untape and pull down didn't seem to want to budge very far from its taped position. It looked like it might have been just long enough so I didn't try to pull harder(I was pulling pretty hard), fearing that I mught do some damage. There wasn't enough length to put on the cable tie as instructed. After bolting on the hitch and then attaching the trailer socket harness to the hitch, It was obvious that I didn't have enough length from the truck harness. That gave me enough courage to pull hard enough to release the truck harness from whatever was holding the extra length. Attaching the cable tie that I had skipped earlier was no problem. I just looped it around the connected cable losely, attached it to the frame and cinched it tight.

Everything checked out with a V-meter, except the backup light curcuit, of course. Now if I only had a boat, travel-trailer or some other toy...