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Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Today we're going to review and install the Bulldog universal wiring kit, part number BDW20026. To begin your install, you want to take the pre-attached ring terminals here at the end of our power cables, red being power and black being ground, that are going to ultimately get secured to the battery power supply. For this application, we're going to run our power and ground up between the wheel well and the firewall. To make it easier to route, we're going to use a pull wire, which can be a stiff piece of wire, or in this case a piece of air tubing. We're going to route it into position, down underneath the vehicle. Now that we have access to our pull wire here underneath the vehicle, we'll take our two cables and attach them to the pull wire. To attach them to the pull wire we're just going to use some black electrical tape. All right, now with the cables attached to our pull wire, pull them up here through the battery.
We have them up to the top of the end of your compartment we can go ahead and remove the pull wire. Now once we have our pull wire removed we'll go ahead and route the cable into the area where it will ultimately get attached to the battery. We will not make our connection at this time because we don't want our live wires to possibly arc or short out the vehicle. There's our ground side, and the power side. Now we'll move back underneath the vehicle and continue routing our power and ground down the frame rail and ultimately to the back of the vehicle where we'll mount our plug. Keep in mind when routing any of your wires stay away from moving components, steering or suspension, or excessive heat, such as exhaust.
We'll secure our wiring with zip ties as we route it. Now we've got the power and ground run here to the back, we need to create a mount that we can secure our plug to. For this application we're going to use the tow ready mounting bracket part number 18140. The mounting bracket will attach here to the hitch using the worm gear clamp provided. Once we have our mount in place we'll go ahead and tighten it down. Now that the mount's secure, I'm going to hold my plug in position, bring our cables to it, and we can mark the length on the cables that'll need to be trimmed. Now we've marked it, cut off the excess length, we need to strip the wire back so that we can install our pins that will go inside our connector.
I like to hold my pin right up next to the wire, get an idea of the length it'll need to be stripped. Mark it here with my utility knife. Now when stripping back the wire, I'm just going to use a utility knife to gently cut the outside sheathing, being careful not to cut the wires underneath. Then if we split the sheathing down the middle we'll just peel it off of the wire. Now with my power side done, go ahead and repeat the same process here for the ground side. Now to attach your terminals to the end of the cables you could use a crimp tool, or it's highly recommended that you solder the connectors on.
As we slide our terminal here onto our wire you can see we've cut back enough that we'll be able to get our solder in around the connector so it will adhere to our wire and the terminal itself. Now in soldering it's best to have a third hand to help hold the connector on nice and tight while you put you solder in around the wiring connector. Note, it's highly recommended that you'll use a pair of pliers or something to hold the terminal, as it will get hot while warming it up an putting the solder in. Now with one side done we can go ahead and repeat the same process on the other side. All right, now once we've got it soldered up I'm just going to use some electrical tape to cover up the last 3 or 4 inches. Help prevent any moisture from getting into the wiring harness. Once we have one done, we'll repeat the same process with the other one. Now our wires are ready to install into our connector. Two things we're going to look for when installing the wires, we've got a positive side for our red cable, and a negative side for the black cable. As we feed the terminal into the connector, the little notch there, in our terminal, will hook onto the metal blade inside the connector. Once we have them both locked into the connector, we can mount the connector to our bracket that we installed on the hitch. We'll use the pre-drilled hole here on our connector and a self tapping screw and attach it directly to our mount. Keep in mind before you permanently attach it to put your connector cover on. Now we've got a nice and secure mount for our connector, we can install our cap and go back to the front where we'll make our connections with the battery. I'm going to go ahead and cut the zip tie, make it a little easier to get my connection made. On a note for this application we're attaching to a breaker. Depending on the load for your application, whether it be a recovery winch or a snow plow, possibly even a salt spreader, will determine what size breakers will be needed so you protect not only your equipment, but the vehicles electrical system. Now we'll switch over to the ground side or our negative battery terminal, install the ring terminal and re-secure the nut on the stud. Now we'll go ahead and finish secure our wires as necessary and we'll just use some zip ties to secure the wire. And to clean up your install I recommend to cut off the excess from the zip ties, all 8 of them make for a cleaner installation, but it gets those pieces out of the way. And that'll do it for our review and install of the Bulldog universal wiring kit, part number BDW20026. .
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (9 Customer Reviews)
Outfitting a 2015 Frontier for 9000# winch and had to run power to the rear of the vehicle. 24 foot kit had enough wire to run to the rear and a little extra to play with. Plan to make a splice and put a 2nd plug in the bed.
Only thing that didn't work were the 24" plastic zip ties that were provided. They were white, indicating indoor/non UV rating. Most broke when trying to cinch up tight around the frame. Replaced with my own black exterior use ties.
Both wires came with 5/16" hole lug already attached to one end. Would have saved time & trouble if ends were raw, had to cut and attach larger lugs for my application.
Excellent products They were just as discribed the curt winch mount plate is the perfect way to mount a winch and the bulldog cables work great
Purchased these items to make a portable wench connection at the rear of my truck. Worked out like a charm giving me full access to exactly what I needed. Very durable, easy to install. Will do it again with any new truck I purchase. Highly recommend if you need power delivered to the right spot.
All three items that I ordered arrived sooner than anticipated and in perfect condition. Very seldom does an on-line purchase exceed my expectations like this order with etrailer.com! Thanks!
excellent service from christopher N. appears to be very well built and in excellent
condition however I have not used it yet. I will order future parts from etrailer
arrived on time
Just got my trailer wiring in today can't wait to put it in looks really well put together
Good quality fast delivery
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