2005 Minnie Winnine Six-Way Connector Power

[spaceboy_13]

Hi, my 2005 Minnie Winnie might be wired wrong. I flat tow a 2011 Honda Fit with the RVi battery charger. Trouble is the center pin only has power in reverse, like a seven way plug. The Ford E-450 manuals don’t mention a six way round plug so guessing this was put in by Winnebago.

I’ve been scouring the Ford schematics to see if there’s an easy way to swap the 12v power line for the backup lights, which we’d never use while towing.

Anyone else have this issue and if so, any advice? I’ll keep studying the Ford documentation but if it was modified I might never find it.

[spaceboy_13]

To help clarify, the toad was wired with a six-way plug assuming it was the standard pin-out with 12v constant power at the center pin. The receptacle on the Minnie has the center pin only powered while in reverse. This is the standard for a seven-pin connector, not (that I can see) for a six-pin. So, thinking the Ford cutaway chassis came with a seven-pin and somebody put a six-pin in wrong. Could have also been aftermarket, not blaming Winnebago. Just wondering if anyone else has seen this. Thanks!

[Morich]

Okay, not getting the same info as you have. Maybe we need to look at what we each have and compare as I see the center pin being the backup light power but also full time power on pin 4 for charging use?
Problem is that I have no idea where I found this diagram as it has been one I've had stored for years and several RV.
when we first had the RVI brake, etc. we went with the expensive little box they sold. But that got broken/crushed at one point so that I looked inside and found almost nothing there! all I found was power in and out with an LED to tell me it was powered. No magic of any sort, so I went out on a limb and wired from the number 4 pin to keep the battery charged on the TOAD and stopped using the LED box as I was okay with thinking I could tell if it was plugged in or not!



Looking at parts info, I see an outlet but no info for 6 or 7 wires? picture in the old catalog is not good enough to tell! Would a good long search for that part number drag up more info? No chance of finding a spare wire at the outlet that is just taped off?
OEM part number seems to be this:
113589-02-000

I'm thinking it may have been 6 on the OEM, but that is pretty close to pure guess!

[spaceboy_13]

Thanks Richard!
Yep, that's the diagram I am familiar with for the 7-pin connector, power in the middle. My rig has a six-pin connector. Most of the diagrams I've seen look like this
(sorry just joined so am not sure how to post pics without a server).

Anyway my center pin is not hot all the time as the diagram suggests, but only hot when in reverse like a 7-pin. So as far as I know i have no constant 12V power.

We always run with the parking lights on, so I could possibly jumper the parking pin (Pin 3) over to the center pin and get power for my charger. I'll also look inside the charging box on the toad and see if there is something simple in there.

Thanks again!
pete

[wahoonc]

From what I can find the 6-pin did not have a constant 12v feed. I would check in the wire bundle and see if they taped the feed up. I have never had a trailer plug wired for reverse lights, from the factory. We have cobbled them up before.

Aaron

[l1v3fr33ord1]

Pete-

Trailer wiring diagrams I like best: etrailer

They confirm that "standard" 6-pin center would be trailer charge line.

Winnebago wiring diagrams for your coach are available via this tree:

Winnebago Owner Resources
Guides and Diagrams
2005
Minnie Winnie 27P

While you're at the 2005 link snag a copy of the "Wiring Identification Guide" (secret decoder ring)

On the 2005 Minnie Winne 27P wiring diagram Table of Contents, open the "Body, 12 Volt Wiring Diagram." Sheet 1, Zone A-10 shows the center pin is fed by Winnebago circuit AAE. Sheet 1, Zone A-8 says AAE is fed from Ford wire, colors black/light green. Secret decoder ring says AAE is "FORD CHASSIS TRAILER BACKUP LAMP CIRCUIT (BLK/LT GRN)." The backup circuit.

What does the 2005 Minnie Winnie operator's guide say? Page 15-4 (112 of the PDF file) says the center pin is the backup circuit.

Over to the Ford side.

Ford 2005 Body Builder Layout Book (tree is: "Publications," click "Body Builder Layout Book," click "Show More," scroll down to 2005 BBLB), page 169 (which is page 166 of the PDF file- don't get confused!) shows the E-series trailer wiring. Except for an error there, the diagrams and tables confirm that black/light green, Ford circuit 963, is the trailer backup lamp circuit.

So, we have three confirmations that Winnebago wired the center pin to the backup circuit. In their defense, I seem to vaguely remember that was an early "standard." I could be incorrect!

What to do?

Look again at the BBLB page, the middle illustration. Inside the left frame of the coach, about three or four feet from the rear of the coach, are three Ford connectors. The round one feeds the coach lights. The two half-round connectors feed the trailer. One of these two has three wires, the other four. The three-wire connector has these wires:

Trailer backup lights: black/light green
Trailer electric brakes: blue
Battery: orange

The last is the trailer charge line.

Your assignment, Mr. Phelps ("should you choose to accept it"), is to wire the orange wire to the center pin of the coach hitch connector.

Follow the wiring forward of the coach hitch connector until you find the Ford connectors. In both you will find pigtails (provided by Ford to Winnebago) connected to the two half-round connectors that are attached to the frame. Carefully unwrap the electrical tape on the pigtail attached to the three-wire connector. Inside you will see the black/light green, blue and orange wires. The first two should be connected to Winnebago wiring and go to the 6-pin hitch connector. The third, orange wire should be unterminated.

Butt-splice a 10 or 12 AWG wire onto the orange wire and extend it to the coach 6-pin connector. At the connector, remove the black/light green wire on the center pin and install the orange wire in its place. Insulate the black/light green wire, tuck it out of the way, re-tape the pigtail and you're done.

Use an exterior-rated butt splice or cover an interior-rated splice with heat-shrink tubing. Despite the electrical tape those splices can attract moisture and dirt and fail "silently" later on. Please don't use ScotchLock (a.k.a. "suitcase") connectors and please don't splice into the Ford wiring upstream of the frame-attached connector- use the pigtail.

<edit>I took a second look- It appears there's a disagreement on wiring between the diagram and the operator's guide re: the trailer electric brake wire. That got me second-guessing myself. So, you may be best off tracing the wires to the connectors first, and letting us know what you find, rather than diving in with the confident instructions I gave above, wire and splice tools. It has to do with the "X" wire in the diagram... and, if you find the trailer electric brake connector wire missing at the hitch connector... Anyway, let us know what you find.</edit>

[spaceboy_13]

OMG Mark, thank you, thank you! You are a Godsend. And thanks to everyone else, what a tremendous asset this forum is (wish I'd found it sooner). Thank you SO MUCH for the work you put in to help me.

I had seen the Winnie documents but for some reason missed the little six-way diagram at the end of the operators' manual. I had never seen the Ford cutaway / body builders guide. That's going to be an amazing resource for me!

I have actually tried to fix this years ago and ended up under the coach looking for that connector on the left-hand side. Later, the ford documentation led me to an upstream connector in the B-pillar but I didn't want to wrestle that out of the coach. This new resource will help me immensely!

Just have to wait for it to stop raining and I'll make my way out there and have a look. And thanks for the tips about splicing. The Ford Wiring Diagrams book has a whole section on "Connector Repair Procedures" and has some tips for splicing and even swapping pins on connectors... but I like your idea better.

I will get out there when I can and report back! Thanks again Mark, and everyone else for such a great help!
-pete