Hey y'all! I've just installed the MniDoMore / OutMotoring hidden hitch in my Clubman (well, I've done 2 previously, but my brother did this one). It's completely under the bumper, and you cut a hole in the black bottom border of the car's bumper.

I've never needed more the a 4 pin tow plug before, but I'm about to buy a tiny trailer which has electric brakes. So I need a 7 pin plug. The dealer will install one, but I'd like a good suggestion of WHERE they should put this plug?

My 4 pin plug is stored inside the car, and sticks out under the door when in use. Can I do the same with a bigger 7 pin plug? I'd prefer this option. The hitch, that it's normally mounted to, is completely covered by bumper.



P.S. If anybody recalls that I previously installed a Curt hitch from eTrailer, well, those were recalled. They were tearing holes in the bottom of cars. Including in mine. :( I had to remove the hitch even before I learned they were recalling it, and would refund its price. (They did refund it.)

 

My suggestion, if you want to hang the wiring out the back (totally fine with appropriate wire protection), is to replace both ends with one of these:



You can also use a 6-pin trailer connector (adds brakes and battery charger to the standard 4-pin), or a 7-pin RV connector (much larger, adds reverse lights), but you won't find the male (tow vehicle side) in hang-it-out-the-back-friendly ends -- they are meant to be mounted more permanently.

 

Thanks! I'm glad to see that there *might* be options. I'll ask them if they can use a 6 pin connector like this.

 

Interesting about the Curt recall. I don't like running the wire through the door. I ran mine through an existing grommet in right side rear corner below the carpet. My wires are completely hidden and tucked into the bumper and zip tied to the tow bar. When in use, I just pull out the free end of the wire with the connector on it. Works like a charm.

 

Oh, I store my wires inside the car, all the time. So I was running from inside, looking for a way to reach the battery for power to the controller. To use the 4-pin connector, I run it out underneath the back "barn" door. I guess I said that already, in post 1.

Further thinking, about getting brake control power & signal: I've apparently always had this 4-pin to 7-pin adapter, on the trailer. I forgot I had it. So I can continue to use my 4-pin wiring from the MINI, to the 4 pin end of this, on my trailer. This works as is, but gives no brakes and no charge power.

What I may decide to add is just 2 wires to get power and brake signal to the dangling spare wires already on my trailer. I could use another 4-pin connector from the car and attached to those dangling ends (color coding them so they're not mixed up) and thus have flatter wires going out the back door. I'd need this brake controller, near the dash of the MINI. I need to study it more, but I think I can just run the power and the brake wires from here, thru car, out the back door .... and attach to the dangling wires mentioned above.

Anybody see drawbacks or flaws in that plan?

 

You could obviously do that, but I would just "do it right". I speak as someone who has towed trailers for many many years, hundreds of thousands of miles probably, from tiny trailers with tiny cars to big 16K-lb trailers with super-duty dually trucks.

First of all: don't use two connectors ... especially not two of the same connector. At some point, you will either plug the wrong one into the wrong place, or forget one of them, or that one time, someone else will be connecting stuff for you and won't know what to do.

So you need to consolidate to a single connector. If you don't want to permanently mount a trailer socket to the rear, then don't ... but then use one of those 6-pin ones I mentioned before. Those other receivers are not meant to be dangling.

I would consider hiding the wiring loom with the connector under the bumper somewhere rather than inside the trunk, but if you want to do it inside the trunk (and I've done that!), then just make sure you have some proper reinforcement around the wiring loom so it doesn't get chafed and short something out or fail.

I am not familiar with that Curt trailer brake controller, but my advice is, don't cheap out. Tekonsha Prodigy is the easy-button standard.

 

Well, there's really no place to attache a 7-pin connector, unless I use metal rods to hang it 6-8" lower than the tow bar. The tow bar is not visible, and not reachable for a connector. The tow drawbar sticks out through a hole cut into the car's plastic shell.

I'm glad to do a 6-pin connector, but I don't want to RE do the work already done for the 4-pin connector. It's an inductive connection (wraps around the wires) so that MINI cannot complain that I've caused problems by splicing into their wires.
So, if I go 6-pin connector, I would have 4 wires going to a 4-pin connector, to attach to the existing one inside the car. Then another 2-pin connector for the new brake & power wires. Then 6-pin out the door to the trailer.
It seemed simpler to remove the 6-pin layer, and just USE the existing 4-pin connector, and a new connector (any flavor) for the 2 new wires.

The connectors are not dangling, outside at the trailer front. The 7-pin adapter to "4-pin plus spare wires", is zip tied to the vertical jack, so it does not move at all. It has a stiff 8" hose to the "4-pin plus spare wires". It was set up for me 4 years ago, and has worked well, so we recreated that setup on this new trailer.
Since it is fixed, and has a stiff 8" hose, the 4-pin connectors (once mated) still don't move much. I was just proposing to use the existing spare wires on that adapter.

Fair enough, as far as the Curt vs Tekonsha. I hadn't seen a Tekonsha unit yet, but I'll keep looking now that I know it exists.

 

Obviously, that'll all work. But all of these connectors and adapters are future failure points (dust, corrosion, vibration, etc), all because you don't want to spend 30 minutes simplifying the world.

I would have only one detachable connector -- between the car and the trailer. Everything on the trailer and everything on the car should have a good permanent positive connection.

But you've got the right idea of what you need to do. How you do it at this point is up to you, there's no right or wrong.

 

I wonder if THIS is what the RV people were talking about. They said something about putting the brake controller on the trailer's tongue. With this the control sits on the tongue, with only an RF unit in the car.

Per one of the questions on Amazon, my existing 4-pin plug only needs to be augmented by a power wire. No brake wire. And I actually DO have a power wire at the back door of the car, which I ran to power the Tekonsha inductive 4-pin unit.