I appreciate the kind words!

Yes, pull out the small tray, unplug wiring harness from back of tray, attach to OEM Trailer Brake Controller and push the Brake Controller back into the hole in dash, no need to remove anything except the small tray.

You're welcome!

Nice!

did u have to have the brake controller flashed in by the dealer?

Thats great man! Enjoy the new trailer!

ironflange did you have a Ford controller or aftermarket? I have an aftermarket module from my last truck and was thinking the same thing. When I bought the truck it came with an adapter coupler in a bag in the glove compartment. Just wondering if we have the same setup so I can mod my installation after yours?

+jrg123 Your welcome! Glad to know it helped someone out!

Thanks for the video followed your video and got my trailer controller installed within less than half hour on my 2017 F150 sport and saved myself $200. Only thing I did different was I did not had to remove the metal plate was holding with 4 13mm screws. I was able to slide the cubby out and slide in the break controller without removing the metal plate. I would say to anyone doing this to be very patience as you will be installing while all trims you removed are hanging around and if you rush you could end up scratching the trims. If you watch this video and do it with patient its fairly quick and easy to install. I used below linked video to activate kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hZuXeMuFxpfGpHU.html

Nice! Glad the video was useful!

Glad it helped!

Brian Blackburn was it easy to program? Can you list what i'll need? Doing it on my 2016. Thanks

+Dan Hoffmann Cool, glad it worked out for ya

That is correct, dealer will have to activate it

forscan app will activate it

Take your time and be gentle. Don't break any clips or leave out any screws and you should be fine. The dash was designed to be taken apart and put back together. I don't have any rattling due to this install.

I guess so...but it is kinda a poor design. My 2014 gmc had a wire harnesses that plugged a aftermarket controller into the wireing buss above the brake pedal. It was a 15 minute job. Why they bury that cable is a pain it the ass.....I would have just ordered it from the factory but had to go with a truck that was on the lot and does not have it.

Its only the oem that needs activated. Aftermarket controllers do not require activation because they do not need to be synchronized with the truck PCM.

+GlockNinja Technically it is possible, but it would be cheaper to trade your truck for a 4x4 than it would be to convert a 2wd to a 4x4.

+aj06bolt12r craps..thanks. I'll just have to live with it. By the way...mine is the same color as the one in your video. race red.

Nice, yeah it wasn't my first color choice, but the truck had everything else I wanted. I usually go for silver or brown or black. But the bright red is growing on me.

+aj06bolt12r yeah. it grew on me too. Actually the color fits my truck because of the sportiness of the 3.5 ecoboost. The color stands out and I've had women and men give me compliments. I am thinking of finding a shop that can put black Shelby Mustang dual stripes down the middle. People may think it's funny dressing a pickup like a race car but they haven't driven a 3.5 ecoboost if they did...they would swear it's a muscle car. lol

I think the biggest benefits over aftermarket are the fact that there is a nice place where it flush mounts into the dash and looks like it belongs there. Also it will communicate with you via the gauge cluster showing how high you have the controller turned up and whatnot. I don't think it matters how many axles you have on your trailer. When I bought my truck if you got the towing package it came with a class 4 receiver bolted to the frame as well as a 7pin and 4pin connector combo. Kind of sounds like you didn't get the towing package.

there are 4 tow packagaes max being the top and basic being mine, 5,000lb bumper with stabilizer system, and a 4 pin connector with heavier leaf springs. (payload package). But I wanna put a tranny cooler, oil catch can, class 4 hitch (i already have the 3.73 gear and with a tune more than the 3.5 eco boost numbers over 400), 7pin and keep or have an all in one unit 4/7, and a brake controller. the only thing i would be missing is the upgraded bumper, sway bar, smart reverse, and integrated in my hud. and a brake controller only controlls so many axles. i wanted to know what the factory is because if I pull 12 w/sway bar 3 axle and factory does 2 then im selling myselfshort when i can get an aftermart for less and control more axle brakes

+christopher waller It would appear that you are better educated on this subject than I am. Sorry I couldn't help. Maybe post your question on an F150 forum in the towing section?

im just wondering bc if i have the same hardware minus the the engine (2.7 instead of the 3.5) with 420trq and 350-370hp and the same tranny with the same 3.73 gear, same weight and wheel base, why should i be limited to 8,500lb and 10,000 with a sawy bar connector

Well I would say you can probably tow anything a 3.5 can. Power is not the limiting factor with these trucks in my experience. Legally you need to abide by what the door says. Potentially you can tow whatever a 3.5 can safely tow. I would not want to tow much over 8 or 9k on the regular with one of these trucks anyway. Regardless of engine. They just don't have the suspension for it. I know they are rated for more but..., no. That's 3/4 ton territory in my book if its going to be happening very often.

No you do not. But you do have to take it to the dealer and have the body control module reprogrammed to recognize the brake controller.

+GlockNinja I guess the dealer would charge about $200 in labor for this job.... Your truck would still not have the complete official max tow package. Max Tow includes some kind or reinforced rear bumper, towing mirrors, 3.55 gears as well. The HD tow package that many XLTs come with already include the upgraded sway bars and transmission/ coolers so if your truck has that than it would almost be the same.

+aj06bolt12r thanks for the reply. I doubt it has all that. I don't remember reading on the sticker if it had a transmission cooler. All it said was it had a tow package and trailer sway control. Far as the gear ratio goes...I'm not sure. It does have a rear locking differential.

+GlockNinja You still have your window sticker?

+aj06bolt12r yeah. I just looked at it. good news..it has a 3.55 rear electronic locking axle.

+aj06bolt12r it doesn't say anything about transmission cooler but it says "fail safe cooling system" under functional options.

This was installed in a 2015 xlt... I don' t know if your truck is different or not

Yeah you can unplug the wiring connector without disassembling the dash. But you cant get the little cubby out and install the controller in its place without removing the trim piece because it covers the mounting flange and it will only come out the front. If you have a bench seat instead of buckets then it is significantly easier, but still requires some disassembly. I'm assuming you didn't install a factory Ford trailer brake controller?

I will give it a try. Depends on hand size!?

An aftermarket trailer brake controller would probably be easier to use in that case. You would remove the wires from your 4 pin and attach them to the appropriate terminals on the 7 pin connector. Then you would run a new wire from the blue wire on the brake controller and attach it to the appropriate terminal on the 7 way. You would also need to run power and ground wires to the controller as well as a signal wire from the brake lights or brake pedal. All that said, I believe that the trucks that only came with the 4 pin connectors only had very low tow ratings, a weaker trailer hitch and no transmission or oil coolers. So you may want to look into that before you go to the trouble.

I was looking under the hood today and found a small cooler in front of the AC condenser located in front of the radiator. There is a line out of this cooler to the bottom to a "stack cooler". The stack cooler has 6 hoses so I expect 2 hoses are for the transmission cooler. You are correct, the truck only came with a bumper hitch so I added a heavy duty hitch, I think it was class IV. Based on the specs I have read, my 2.7 ecoboost can do tow about 12,000 lbs. I'll tow a 8,500 lbs trailer and keep track of the transmission temperature and see what it does. Here is a video I think answer my question about the wiring, www.etrailer.com/tv-install-tekonsha-prodigy-p2-trailer-brake-controller-2017-ford-f-150-90885.aspx. When you get a chance, please watch it and let me know your thought. My thought is the aftermarket controller in this video is pretty much functioning the same as the OEM on in your video. My plan is to install the OEM controller and wire the 7 pin per the video from etrailer. If I'm missing anything, please let me know. Thanks.

@@ThanhTran-ew3du That trailer brake control set up should work nicely. Its nice that you can still use factory wiring for much of the install. However I highly doubt your particular truck is rated to tow 12ooo lbs. The max tow rating with any F-150 with the 2.7 eco is 8500lbs and that is only when properly equipt. Considering the fact that your truck came with the 4pin and a bumper hitch the factory tow rating would be 5000 lbs max trailer weight. I know you installed a class IV but in the eyes of the law you cannot increase the tow rating of a vehicle by making modifications. The rating it had when it left the factory is the end all be all from a legal and liability standpoint if you were ever involved in an accident while towing. I would say that if your truck had come with the class IV hitch from the factory and had the factory towing package it would be rated to tow about 7500-7600lbs. So you would still be overloaded either way. Plus since your truck didn't have the towing package from the factory I am still not convinced that you have the engine oil and or transmission cooling capacity needed to haul that kind of load, especially in hilly terrain on a hot day. Ford simply did not intend the trucks optioned like yours to tow anything over 5000lbs. I suggest you get a different truck to haul an 8500lb trailer. An F-150 with the 3.5 eco and the factory towing package with 3.55 or 3.73 gears would do nicely. If your going to tow for super long distance or many times a year you would probably be happier overall with an F-250. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. www.ford.com/cmslibs/content/dam/brand_ford/en_us/brand/resources/general/pdf/guides/19Towing_Ford_F150_Oct25.pdf GCWR in the column to the far left with numbers in the 12,000's is the weight of the truck and the trailer you are pulling added together. Not the weight of the trailer you can tow. It stands for Gross Combined Weight Rating.

I've double checked and I actually have 3.5 ecoboost, 4x4, supercrew. I'm sorry I don't know why I told you 2.7L. That's a good news, but unfortunately my axle gear is 3.31 and GCWR is at 16,200. GVWR is 7,000. So let's say I have 6 people weight 650 lbs, and other gears about 1,000 lbs. What is left over for me is the 7550 so this should be good for the tongue weight of my trailer. From the data sheet, I can tow up to 10,700 lbs. My GVWR for the trailer is 7,500 lbs plus about another 1,000 lbs water and supplies. I think I should be ok. Thanks for your help sir.

Yes it does need to be programmed

If you want to install the OEM controller you need to disassemble like I show in the video. No other way to get it in there. If you go aftermarket you can do whatever you want.

Seemed like it was in the way to me at the time.. I didn't make the video for the seasoned flat rate mechanic to be able to shave 30 seconds off of his time getting this job done.. I made it so the non mechanic truck owner would be able to follow the steps and accomplish the task. Feel free to not remove the tray.

@@aj06bolt12r it was a genuine question after watching 3 or 4 of these videos. One guy actually stuck his hand back there through that opening to unplug the connector from the storage tray to connect an aftermarket controller. Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, trailer breaks attached to a controller that's now positioned to nail your legs into constantly, especially if you're a larger person, which I've done repeatedly.

So did my 2010 Expedition, that connection took all of about 10 minutes.

Yes, dealer needs to activate it. Should take them about 15 minutes.

+aj06bolt12r Thanks, I'll be installing today then visiting the dealer. any idea the cost?

+Jkreuter That depends on your particular service department. Some will charge you a full hour of labor. ($100 ish) Some will give you a break when they realize how little time it takes and charge less.