Tow Hitch and Light Wiring? | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Tow Hitch and Light Wiring?

5ohhoe

New Member
Joined
August 21, 2018
Messages
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City, State
Kent, OH
Year, Model & Trim Level
1998 Mountaineer AWD
My 97 Mountaineer AWD has pretty much every option except the tow package (go figure). I have a ball installed on the bumper, but obviously there is no hitch assembly and unless it's well hidden, there is no lighting hookups. How should I go about wiring up a wiring harness? At the very least I want to be able to pull a small trailer legally lol. Haven't had my Merc long but I'm happy to be a member of the club!
 



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If your vehicle is not equipped with external trailer wire harness from the factory, there are after market companies that make a wires harness to tap into the stock brake/turn harness (plug and play, vehicle specific)
39675808_1110521749104004_5122469226057039872_o.jpg


This is the factory trailer wire plug on my 97 Sport looks like, other years may be different

trailer wire (2).JPG
 






Have any idea where the receptacle would be located? I've look around where a hitch could be installed and don't see anything hanging or tucked away.
 






If you dont have a factory wire "pigtail", you can get a harness that come off the brake/tail lights to hook up trailer lights, lots of places carry them, boat and trailer dealers for example, or a U-HAUL place should carry them.
 












Remove the driver side tail light assembly, and you should see a connector that looks like above toward the bottom of the cavity close to the bumper.
 






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