Flat towing with Ready Brute Elite - brake light question.

[Mike5]

2023 - Got the Hopkins wiring harness with diodes. (RV powers the tail lights when being towed). Anything else to unhook? Concerned the surge brake activation will cause the vehicle to activate the Jeep's system causing the brake lights to come on. I've searched for several hours and don't really have an answer. I'm not sure what re-activates the tail/brake lights once they've went to sleep? It appears, from my testing, that the key must be turned on, if not started. However, after going to sleep the other day, the system woke back up without the ignition being turned on. I have turned the "proximity lights" activation feature off since then. Hoping somebody knows the answer.......no offense, but I can do without the guesses. Thanks.

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[bborc]

I JUST INSTALED THE HOPKIN KIT IN MY 2023 JEEP. i FOUND THAT WHEN THE JEEP GOES TO SLEEP EVERYTHING WORKS FINE. BUT EVEN OPENING THE DOOR BRINGS THE ELEC SYSTEM BACK ON. i DONT KNOW HOW LONG IT TAKES TO GO TO SLEEP AGAIN. . i THINK IF YOU HAVE LED TAIL LIGHTS its a diffent ball game. Sorry about the caps

 

[Mike5]

I do have LED lights but I haven’t really found an answer yet.

 

[GAJeff]

I flat tow with the ready brute elite with surge brake built in along with the cool tech wire harness. This is a harness that you have to splice (the supplied I instructions are very detailed and make the job easy) into the wires on the passenger side where all the wires run under the kick panel along side. Once installed you have a switch to enable the lights from your RV towing lights, the. When done flip back to jeep. I have towed thousands of miles and never had a battery dead.

https://www.cooltechllc.com/2018-jeep-wrangler-jl/107-jl-tow-harness-kit.html

 

[Andy29847]

I am not so sure the diode harness does anything for you with a 2023 JT. I tow my 2020 Wrangler (with LED taillights) and my 2020 Gladiator (not LED) using the Ready Brute Elite system and a Curt wiring harness. The Curt harness has 2 plugs on one end - one goes to the taillight harness and the other to the taillight. The front part of the harness is standard 4-way trailer connector. I've towed thousands of miles with no problems. There are things that could contribute to "my Jeep won't start" at the end of a trip. Most likely the problem will be weak batteries. Another contributor is a multi-day trip with a lot of stop and go driving and the Jeep is not unhooked and driven during the trip.

Jeep LED lights have a sensor connected to the wiring harness that would initiate an alarm if the taillight quit working. This sensor also "wakes up" the Jeep when the brake lights come on. The "wake up" last ~5 minutes. It is the power drain of repeated "wake ups" that causes the batteries to go dead.

The big problem with the Jeep battery system is that it gives few subtle hints when the batteries get weak. "Stop/start not working - Battery charging is one of them." "Aux switches not working" is another. Once you realize that you have a battery problem. it is difficult to determine which battery is bad. There are many reports of Jeep owners having to make multiple visits to the dealer when the batteries are getting weak. The answer for me was to delete the Aux battery and install a more powerful main battery - one that is equal to the 2 Mopar batteries together. All the systems work as designed on one battery. The reading of the voltmeter on the dash gives a true indication of battery operation when using just one battery. My Jeep now works just like all the cars and trucks I have had for the last 50 years. Some Jeep owners maintain that you should disable the Start/Stop system if you switch to one battery. I did that because disabling the Stop/Start was one of my goals. No member that I can find has ever reported repair problems that were the result of using just one battery.

Peace of mind at last! Replaced main battery with a premium H7/Group 94 battery | Jeep Gladiator (JT) News, Forum, Community - JeepGladiatorForum.com

 

[Mike5]

I flat tow with the ready brute elite with surge brake built in along with the cool tech wire harness. This is a harness that you have to splice (the supplied I instructions are very detailed and make the job easy) into the wires on the passenger side where all the wires run under the kick panel along side. Once installed you have a switch to enable the lights from your RV towing lights, the. When done flip back to jeep. I have towed thousands of miles and never had a battery dead.

https://www.cooltechllc.com/2018-jeep-wrangler-jl/107-jl-tow-harness-kit.html

I talked to cooltech. He said all I needed was the switch since I already had the harness. I don't know which two wires to run thru the switch. I just got back off a 1300 mile trip. As far as I know, everything worked okay. I will install the switch if I can figure out which wires to run through it. It would be cool if a copy of the directions for the switch install showed up in PM box..............

 

[Mike5]

I am not so sure the diode harness does anything for you with a 2023 JT. I tow my 2020 Wrangler (with LED taillights) and my 2020 Gladiator (not LED) using the Ready Brute Elite system and a Curt wiring harness. The Curt harness has 2 plugs on one end - one goes to the taillight harness and the other to the taillight. The front part of the harness is standard 4-way trailer connector. I've towed thousands of miles with no problems. There are things that could contribute to "my Jeep won't start" at the end of a trip. Most likely the problem will be weak batteries. Another contributor is a multi-day trip with a lot of stop and go driving and the Jeep is not unhooked and driven during the trip.

Jeep LED lights have a sensor connected to the wiring harness that would initiate an alarm if the taillight quit working. This sensor also "wakes up" the Jeep when the brake lights come on. The "wake up" last ~5 minutes. It is the power drain of repeated "wake ups" that causes the batteries to go dead.

The big problem with the Jeep battery system is that it gives few subtle hints when the batteries get weak. "Stop/start not working - Battery charging is one of them." "Aux switches not working" is another. Once you realize that you have a battery problem. it is difficult to determine which battery is bad. There are many reports of Jeep owners having to make multiple visits to the dealer when the batteries are getting weak. The answer for me was to delete the Aux battery and install a more powerful main battery - one that is equal to the 2 Mopar batteries together. All the systems work as designed on one battery. The reading of the voltmeter on the dash gives a true indication of battery operation when using just one battery. My Jeep now works just like all the cars and trucks I have had for the last 50 years. Some Jeep owners maintain that you should disable the Start/Stop system if you switch to one battery. I did that because disabling the Stop/Start was one of my goals. No member that I can find has ever reported repair problems that were the result of using just one battery.

Peace of mind at last! Replaced main battery with a premium H7/Group 94 battery | Jeep Gladiator (JT) News, Forum, Community - JeepGladiatorForum.com

I don't know about the diodes. etrailer said that harness was for my year model Gladiator and it does work. Mine is a 23 with only 4000 miles (bought it used) so I didn't notice any battery issues this trip. I will probably do the batteries as you did when it comes time. I don't like the stop/start either. I need to put a switch in those sensor wires and that should solve that problem.

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