Mysterious lighting harness

[Daavman]

I started installing an aftermarket wiring harness for trailer lights and discovered my tail light connection looks nothing like the ones in the instructions or any of the many YouTube videos I've found.
This is what the Curt "T" shaped harness connectors look like.

The instructions say to disconnect the harness behind the rear passenger side wheel well and just plug these into their matching parts.
Problem is, this is the only harness I can find back there:

As you can see, it looks nothing like the "T" harness I bought.
Also, there was nothing connected to it. This is exactly what I saw when I crawled under and looked up!

All my lights work fine. Passed inspection with no problems and there's no warning lights on the dash.
And like I said, there's no other harnesses around that I can find on either the right or left sides.
Any thoughts on what might be going on here? Do you think this was modified by the previous owner? And if this isn't my tail light harness, then where is it?!

Dave

 

[JAPeterson]

Simple, you have the wrong harness for the plug.

I got mine from Etrailer and it fit perfectly.

 

[Daavman]

Simple, you have the wrong harness for the plug.

I got mine from Etrailer and it fit perfectly.

I bought mine from eTrailer based on the make, model and year.
Did yours look like mine?

 

[JAPeterson]

No it didn't. It was a perfect match for the lighting connector under the vehicle.

Both connectors under the vehicle have to be disconnected then the harness plugged in to T off of them. If it quits raining I'll get a picture.

 

[Michael Blackburn]

Here is a video that shows the wiring harness:



Fritz

 

[JAPeterson]

I guess that perhaps mine did look like the connector that you purchased. It has been 4 years since I installed mine.

 

[peterk9]

I bought mine from eTrailer based on the make, model and year.
Did yours look like mine?

After watching the video I would say that the plug you found is not the right one. There is no way that the connector shown in your first picture will fit the one you show in the 2nd one. The plugs in the video also resemble the ones shown in pic #1, not the one in pic #2. If that is the only harness you have, it won't work, as you've discovered. Have you checked the driver's side? You may have to see if there is an adapter kit for what you have.

Peter

 

[Daavman]

After watching the video I would say that the plug you found is not the right one. There is no way that the connector shown in your first picture will fit the one you show in the 2nd one. The plugs in the video also resemble the ones shown in pic #1, not the one in pic #2. If that is the only harness you have, it won't work, as you've discovered. Have you checked the driver's side? You may have to see if there is an adapter kit for what you have.

Peter

I've spent my day today crawling around underneath other people's Explorers! And I can confirm that everybody else's looks exactly like they're supposed to, according to the video and the rest of the internet. There's definitely something wrong with what I've got on my car.
And I did crawl around on the driver's side too and all I found there was what looks like fuel lines.
I'm absolutely stumped. What's weird of course, is that nothing seems to be malfunctioning.
I wonder if the mechanic who installed my hitch might know something about what's going on here...