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Trailer Towing with Sierra/Silverado
Ok, I got my 2000 Sierra over the weekend and it
came with the towing package. It also came with a
separate harness for the electric trailer brake
controller but the manual says I need to take it to
the dealer to install. First the dealer is a half
hour away, second all it is a plug that plug in
somewhere and hooks up to controller. BUT WHERE
does it plug in ? I cant find it. Also, my
controller takes 4 wires, +/- and brake switch and
brakes, the harness only has 2 decent gauge wires
and 3 small gauge wires, why ?
My closest dealer is a half hour away and when I
called them they said they didn't know where it
plugs in and I should bring it in and they will
figure it out. Before I drive a half hour down
there, I will find a +/- connection and splice in
the 2 brakes wires I need. I does appear to be
wired the the trailer plug for brakes the wire is
there at least.
mike
came with the towing package. It also came with a
separate harness for the electric trailer brake
controller but the manual says I need to take it to
the dealer to install. First the dealer is a half
hour away, second all it is a plug that plug in
somewhere and hooks up to controller. BUT WHERE
does it plug in ? I cant find it. Also, my
controller takes 4 wires, +/- and brake switch and
brakes, the harness only has 2 decent gauge wires
and 3 small gauge wires, why ?
My closest dealer is a half hour away and when I
called them they said they didn't know where it
plugs in and I should bring it in and they will
figure it out. Before I drive a half hour down
there, I will find a +/- connection and splice in
the 2 brakes wires I need. I does appear to be
wired the the trailer plug for brakes the wire is
there at least.
mike
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Mike
Now look under your dash (drivers side) where your left foot would be. There should be a box there with a wing nut on it. Unscrew this nut and remove the cover. There will be a bunch of fuses there and some empty sockets. On the inside of the box cover is a diagram of what every thing is. It will pin point where the harness connects to.
It connects to the top, second socket from the left. If you look on the wires you will see that they are marked by a tag. They tell you what they are for. You must splice them to what your controler needs. One of those wires (brown I think) is for a night light to your controler. Mine, a Tekonska (sp?) does not have one so I taped it off.
Once you have this spiced in you should be ready to mount your controler. I mounted mine to base of the cross beam that is just below the dash board. You will see this beam. It runs right near the emergency brake peddle. I did not want the controler to clutter the dash and once it has been set up you pretty much can leave it alone.
As for the fuse, you will have to open your hood. On the drivers side there is a fuse box. Pull off the cover and on the inside all of the fuses are marked.
Where the fuse goes is not clearly marked.
The box looks like this.
!-------------------------!
_____! O F B O !_______
| U R !
! S A !
! E K !
! E !
! !
! !
!______________________________________!
Execuse my drawing, The fuse should be installed on the oposite side of the trailer brake fuse, one socket in.
Yup I went through the whole shabang. The dealer did not know too much and the trailer company wanted to rewire the entire truck? Chevy did it right however it is difficult to get anyone that knows anything about it. It is really very easy to install, it is just that everyone wants to charge $$$ to do it.
If your brake controler is brand new, it should have information on the Chevy wiring harness. And beware, the color scheme that the controler uses may not, and in my case was not the same as the harness. Good luck.
The only question I have left is whats the fuse for ? It appears to have power and be functional without the fuse. Is the fuse just to power accessories on the trailer if the trailer has 12V stuff on it ?
By the way I tried to order the Service Manuals today for the 2000 trucks using that number in the back of the owners manual and was told they are not ready yet.
Mike
mike
Really like the truck. LT Ext Cab. 5.3 engine.
T J
My controller is for one and two axel configurations. There is an LED on the controller that lights green when the trailer is connected to it. When the brakes are applied the LED turns orange/red.
The green LED indicates that a connection to the magnets have been made (current is running through the magnets at a low current).
The trailer connection harness also has 12 volts that run from the truck to an auxillary battery/power source. I do not know which color wire this is. GM supplies a fuse with your wiring harness that is just for this wire.
I mounted my controller so that it was out of the way of you knee. I have it mounted to the bottom cross brace that runs along the bottom of the dash board. You problably seen it when you connected your harness to the fuse box.
Love this truck!
Thanks to all that answered my questions on where to plug the thing in. I like this factory wiring stuff, it makes life easy.
Mike
This is full size truck, yeah only 1/2 ton truck but it sure should handle this right ? By the way it seemed to handle fine over the weekend, I am just concerned about long term damage, the load levelers were so nice for towing since they raised the back end of the Toy up almost to normal. I tried many variations this weekend and the Sierra is just too low to the ground, thats not a complaint by the way, the truck is still perfect.
mike
Setup like this the rear dropped 3" at the receiver. This puts the headlights at the top of the trees... not good.
I bought the 1500 because the older C20 w/heavy suspension just road too rough the 300 days of the year I was not towing. So I was wondering what you would recommend to solve the sagging issue. I don't want to make the ride any worse (its still a truck!) than it is now when the truck is empty. But I need more rear-axle capacity when towing.
Suggestions comments welcome. Any websites I should look at?
Overall the truck had plenty of power (w/3.73) and was very stable. The trailer is a 16' dual axle flatbed, total trailer weight (last weekend) about 3500lb. A few times a year I'll push this to 6500lb. But 500-800 on the tongue is consistent.
-Jim
I have a Kelsey trailer brake controller. Kelsey states in it's manual that the black power wire is to be mounted directly to the positive side of the battery via a 12 gauge wire through a 20A self resetting circuit breaker. It says a Fuse is not acceptable.
Did GMC take this into account in the furnished wire bundle?
Fred
Obviously some electrical protection is required, if a short develops the fuse will be a one-shot. Once tripped, no more brakes! Where the resetable CB will try to re-engage (assuming the short went away...)
I'm using the fuse as GM designed.
Don't know anything about them, but I will be going to my dealer this afternoon to order one.
- Tim
Someone mentioned a problem mounting similar air bags because the frame is boxed in that area. Is that true in your case? How did you handle it? Are those bolts self tapping or do they have a nut on the back?
Bolts are not self tapping. There is a locknut on the back. The metal frame rails are soft. You can drill easily right through a weld bead, which I had to do to properly locate the bracket. The back side of the boxed frame rails are open. You have to slide your hand in there. It's tight, hardest part of job. At least there are no fuel or hydraulic lines in your way on the Silverado. I didn't believe it could be done so I called the AirLift 800 number. They told me that, yes...you can get your hand in there so quit whining. And I found out, it is possible, but I was battling doubt, until the last nut was tight. But I think the whole job took about 3.5 hours, without hurrying. Did you see my shrader filling valve in the fender lip? I didn't want on-board compressor, wiring, long hoses etc. Just felt it was something to go wrong. I carry a bicycle pump. By the way, don't link the two air bladders to each other. Keep them separate, so when you are cornering, you don't get extra lean caused by air in the outside bag transferring to the inside bag.
You start by measuring what "level" is. The distance from the axle center to the fender lip. On my truck it was 23.0 inches. After the bags are installed, you have to maintain a minimum pressure of 10 psi. That ends up raising the bed up another 1/4 inch above level. You can raise the bed up exactly how high, I am not sure. Quite a bit. The instructions say that is a mis-use. You are supposed to level your load to the stock height (+ 1/4) at all times.
When I level my camper with wheel ramps I usually need around 4" of lift. I doubt I'll get that much from the bags alone but they should help.
With 3000 lbs in the back...my 3/4 only went down a few inches. Not sure how much travel it will give you. it's one stiff puppy!
- Tim
I am less skeptical that you can get enough to level it from the bags alone. I think those 5000 lb bags will level your camper EASILY.
A friend of mine has them on his Powerstroke Dually, and easily levels his ponderous 5th wheel camper. Let me know if I'm wrong.
First I appreciate all of the responses to my question. I was surprised to see so many. And all helpful.
To stay within what Kelsey and GMC wants, I followed up on mikey42's note. I went to my GM dealer and he had the fuse replacement breaker (30amp), and installed it.
Again thanks
There is not so much stretch to the bag as you would think. It sort of folds back onto itself like a bellows on the 2500 pound bags. This gives it enough travel without stretching the rubber excessively. On the 5000 pound bags, I know. They look different. You'll have to tell me.
I looked over the manual today and it says to only
have 5psi in them when lifting the truck on a
frame lift so the bags don't exert too much force
on the suspension components! From this I infer
that the bag can take the full travel of the
suspension in tension plus more. I'm surprised by
that because the primary force is normally
compression. No mention of any straps. I'll know
more in a month or so when I have the truck and
the time to do the deed.
Also, in the Winter months, when not towing, does a cooler keep the transmission from getting to normal operating temp?
jkania, if the trans does have a lockup mode it still spends quite a bit of time out of lockup when towing. Since heat is enemy #1 the addition of a cooler is always a good idea for a tow vehicle. It's a matter of trans life over the long term. If you don't tow much then it's probably fine without. I think they do cool in the winter, I'm not aware of any bypass valve. But running cold doesn't seem to be a problem for a transmission.
this topic is being "frozen." It will be archived or deleted in the next 10 days or so.
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