I just put a gooseneck hitch in my truck & now I need to put in a plug for the lights/brakes. How do I do this? Should I splice into the existing plug under the bumper or what?

 

I just run the cord over the tailgate and plug into the one on the bumper

 

Make sure you allow plenty of room for the cord to travel as you pivot and turn. Some folks put a plug closer to the hitch, others allow the cord to drape to an existing plug (like near the receiver). You can splice into the existing plug or harness - just make sure your connections are well water-proofed.

 

I'm getting ready to buy my first flatbed gooseneck trailer, so I don't know much about where the light/brake cord is usually located or length. Are they long enough to plug in under the bumper?

 

Ya they should be no reason to put another hole in your bed.

 

In fact they are so long on both my trailers I have to loop them over the superstructure so they don't drag.

 

Thanks for the info, it saved me an evening under the truck wiring up another plug. Tell me if you think I did a proper job putting my hitch in: its a flat plate with a welded gooseneck ball(from TSC). I put 6 bolts(3 on each side) thru the plate, thru the bed, and thru the frame & tightened them down with a big cheater pipe on my socket wrench. Does this sound adequate? The hitch is rated to 25,000.

 

I usually remove my tailgate while towing my goose, and use the factory plug in the bumper with no problems.

I do know that on other trucks we've had over the years that if the cord was too long and you were plugged into the bumper it could loop around and catch on the corner of the box, doing dammage to the wiring....

My setup works fine with no problems though.

 

if you don't want the brake cord draging over your tailgate and don't want to mess with wiring and splicing reese makes a kit that plugs in behind the one in the bumper and goes up to your bed to put a plug in it and you can still use the one on the bumper. the part # is 20111.

 

If you just drape it over the tailgate be prepared for a scratched up gate.

 

I like the wire harness close to the coupler so I don't tear it up... on the '05 I mounted a flush plug between the water/meth tank filler and the turnover ball:



That's the closest photo I have, but it's just a standard female 7-pin mounted through the B&W channel plate.

 

I'm going to pickup the trailer & see how much slack I have in the cord. I described how I installed my hitch above, do you guys think that's an adequate setup?

 

I use an old "T" shirt, zip tied at the top and bottom and wrapped ever so nicely around the cord. No scratches to the tailgate so far.

The most practical way of doing it is to buy one of the splice harnesses, clean and easy, safe and neat.
Look Here: http://www.etrailer.com/mm5/merchant...ory_Code=VWH5W

 

The bolting method sounds okay, I don't know if I would have went cheater bar on it, maybe more like 125-140 ft. lbs (don't want to stretch threads).

You should be fine, I would recheck everything after a short driving distance just to be on the safe side though.

 

I basically run and extension cord from the factory plug by the hitch up under the truck to a new plug I put on the inside of the bed. I did run (once) the GN wire harness over the tailgate and plug it into the factory harness but I didn’t like the fact it would occasionally drag across the top of the tailgate.