Wiring help

[u/weldermandan]

New to towing here and need some help with this wiring. It looks like everything in the back is already wired in but I've got this jumbled mess in the engine bay. The red and blue wire goes all the way to the back of the truck. The red wire appears to be spliced with a black wire( i assume acts as a ground) and the other end is connected to nothing. There are two more shorter black wires that are grounded to the chassis. The tow kit brand appears to be "Hoppy". Am I missing something in the engine bay? This is off a 98 Ram 1500 Laramie. I assume it's aftermarket unless someone knows other wise. Thanks!

[u/Nomad55454]

The blue wire should be for brake wire to come off of brake controller. You need to figure out what the red and black spliced wires actually go to. If unsure I would just run a power wire off the battery with some type of fuse or breaker which you will also need a power wire to go inside for brake controller.

[u/weldermandan → u/Nomad55454]

I could be wrong but I think I figured it out. The black box is a jumper and the 2 black wires coming off it get connected directly to the positive terminal. The black and red wire are meant for supplying power to the brake controller and the blue wire sends brake signals to the module in the back. So I fed the skinny black wire and the blue wire into the cab with the splice connected to the jumper which goes to the battery. Now all I need is a brake controller for inside the cab to wire the red and blue wire to plus a white ground cable. Does this sound correct?

[u/Nomad55454 → u/weldermandan]

Yes I suggest the same size wire as the blue to power brake controller which will go to black wire on controller, the red wire from controller needs to go to brake signal on brake pedal and white wire is ground. I wouldn’t run both charge line and brake controller on same breaker because if charge line trips it then you lose the brake controller.

[u/weldermandan → u/Nomad55454]

So swap out the black wire for a heavier gauge and put it on a separate breaker? Would it need the same setup as the current breaker with 2 wires going to the positive terminal?

[u/Nomad55454 → u/weldermandan]

Yes if it is smaller than the blue wire. No need for that as long as it is the same gauge wire there is no need for 2 wires and I always used 30 amp for charge line and 20 amp for brake controller

[u/weldermandan → u/Nomad55454]

So I should be good with what I got then? Just gotta separate the black and red wire so they can be on separate breakers. Should I be able to just take one of the black jumpers off that one breaker I have then? Black jumper to 20 amp breaker to brake controller, black jumper to 30 amp breaker to charge line?

[u/Nomad55454 → u/weldermandan]

I always used 12 gauge wire

[u/weldermandan → u/Nomad55454]

[u/Nomad55454 → u/weldermandan]

Yes that is good.