We may have mentioned before but our new RALIVAN is of such basic specification that we don’t believe it has any factory provision for wiring in a hitch or brake controller so we purchased the works from eTrailer.

Surprisingly, despite the hitch living outside the van, obviously, the instructions called for running all the wiring inside the vehicle and were very specific. We forged ahead fueled by curiosity and spent way too long removing the plastic cladding from the rear, left corner. This is where we were asked to take a 2” hole saw to our new van so the wiring could exit on its way to the hitch. Needless to say we re-read this part numerous time and very, very carefully before breaking out the drill.

Next we were asked to pass the bulk of the forward harness through the vent hole and up into the cargo area and then up further towards the roof. The void in the lower are would ultimately house the electronic brain.

Next we ran the hitch part of the harness to the hitch using the included grommet (after painting the raw hole) and connected it to the socket.

Back inside the van we connected some of the harness to the tail lamp and Center High Mount Stop Lamp or CHMSL as we discovered it is known, using the supplied adapter leads….

Before starting on the front of the harness which was heading towards the battery. On this model of Sprinter the battery sits under the floor just forward of the driver’s seat so the harness had to travel along the top of the van’s left wall and down the b-pillar, Fortunately this was already hanging off on our van so was pretty easy to access. It then went behind the driver’s seat before turning left between the seats and into the battery box.

Here we were instructed to connect various wires to ground and power with the supplied fuses which we dutifully did.

Surprisingly, once we had buttoned everything back up, it all seemed to work, at least according to our volt meter. Perhaps we should hook it up to the trailer one day for the ultimate test? Once the weather warms up eh? It’s a bit too nippy out today.