Hi All,
As my camper trailer has electric brakes (Aussie requirement for trailers over a certain weight), I needed to fit a brake controller to my T6.1. To solve this, I made a custom loom that plugs in to the exisiting OEM plugs, so no factory wiring had to be cut or spliced!
Here is how I did it.
.
As my camper trailer has electric brakes (Aussie requirement for trailers over a certain weight), I needed to fit a brake controller to my T6.1. To solve this, I made a custom loom that plugs in to the exisiting OEM plugs, so no factory wiring had to be cut or spliced!
Here is how I did it.
- This guide assumes you have the factory-fitted towing "preparation" and the OEM tow control module installed.
- Under the front passenger seat, there is a green plug/socket connection (which is part of the trailer wiring loom). We will connect into this, to integrate the brake controller.
- I used a 30A circuit breaker and a 6A diode, as recommended in the TowPro installation manual. My loom complies with the RedArc recommendations for vehicles with CAN Bus System.
- Brake signal is sourced from the OEM loom, and is essentially the brake signal at the trailer plug.
- Parts I used:
- This is the loom I made to fit into the green plug/sockets. The loom also passes through all light signals as required:
- The schematic representation of the loom:
- As you can see from the schematic, we will be utilising the +12V Ignition wire (I don't need it in my application) for the brake output, instead of running an additional wire to the trailer socket at the back of the car. To make this work (depending on how your camper is wired), we need to relocate the wire from pin 10 to pin 12 in towbar socket. Pin 12 is the standard output for electric brakes on a EURO style plug in Australia. Your country or camper may be different, so check and adjust this as necessary.
- The RedArc Tow Pro requires constant 12V (otherwise the calibration is lost/reset when power is lost). As we want power from the OEM tow module's +12V Constant, we need to reprogram the tow module using VCDS or OBD11 to enable this. The OEM tow module is module 69, and the coding required is byte 3 set to hex 01. The coding will look similar to this:
- VCDS:
- OR OBD11:
- VCDS:
- While you are coding, might as well disable the power output to Pin 10 (12v+ Ignition), as it is disconnected / we are not using it. The coding is similar to the above, but set Byte 4 to Hex 00.
- Finally, plug it all in, connect the Ground, mount the TowPro controller securely (make sure it doesn't move around, otherwise it will not work properly as it will not detect acceleration/deceleration correctly!), mount the TowPro remote in the dash, and then go test!
- I will add some more photos here of the final installed product when I get a chance.
.
Last edited:
