Heads Up -- F150 TT Pkg -- Missing Fuses for Trailer Power

[66coupe]

I'm a very new Airstream owner, with an also-new 2014 F150 with the 6.2L and the trailer towing pkg. The Mrs. and I made the 30 mile drive to the trailer storage lot to hitch up and practice backing up - about 2 weeks after picking up our 2015 Airstream International Serenity 27. To our surprise, no power when we plugged in the 7 pin connector from the trailer to the truck. Batteries were down, no power from the truck to the trailer, particularly the power jack on the trailer, tho the running lights all worked.

A few intense phone calls with my son-in-law, who's owned a 27 for several years, and a friend of his who tows something different with an F150. His friend noted that his F150 with the TT package came with several of the TT package fuses not installed, but in the glove box. Sure enough, we checked the schematic in the F150 owners manual, and both fuses for truck-to-trailer battery charging, one a 30 amp cartridge fuse and the other a relay, were missing, and not in the glove box either. lLuckily, they were clearly labeled on the schematic. A trip to the nearby Ford dealer whose parts shop was open all day Saturday, and we had our fuses, all the power back up, and everything working.

After the several-hour diagnosis and parts runs, we packed it in for the day. The Airstream was fine. Ford let us down. Heads up new F150 owner/trailer towers. Check those fuses! My son-in-law's quick thinking saved us a 50-mile trip to the Airstream dealer, where they would have told me their trailer was fine, followed by another trip to the Ford dealer to MAYBE discover that 2 fuses were missing. Last note -- the $30 relay fuse didn't solve the problem. The $2.00 cartridge fuse did. Lesson learned.

66coupe

[AWCHIEF]

My 2011 F-150 came with the fuse and relay in the glove box. I think this is the common shipment method. The dealership may or not install them during delivery prep. Mine did not, took one phone call to the service manager to find out. I installed them myself. 30 sec job.

I should add that the brake control was also not factory installed. Found it in the rear seat compartment. That took about 20 minutes to install and I had to take the truck back to the dealership for them to flash the computer before it would work. That took about an hour.

[wahoonc]

Ford has been doing it for years... The fuse and relay were in the glove compartment on our 1998 Explorer, 2003 F-150 and I happened to notice they were in the glove compartment on a 2015 F-150 I was driving the other day. Not sure why they do it, or why the dealer doesn't install them as a matter of course. But it has been going on for many, many years.

Aaron