Bronco factory hitch wiring not working

[Neil E.]

2026 Heritage Edition with manual transmission. The Ford installed hitch wiring does not work. WTF? I ordered the factory hitch with the vehicle so it would be ready to use when I received the vehicle. But there is only power at the running light pin, no brake light or turn signal power. Did the dealer fail to install the hitch option properly? Why this had to be a dealer installed option on a factory order makes no sense. What is going on?

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[Nick72]

2026 Heritage Edition with manual transmission. The Ford installed hitch wiring does not work. WTF? I ordered the factory hitch with the vehicle so it would be ready to use when I received the vehicle. But there is only power at the running light pin, no brake light or turn signal power. Did the dealer fail to install the hitch option properly? Why this had to be a dealer installed option on a factory order makes no sense. What is going on?

Sounds like they did not program the trailer hitch module.
I would take it back to them, since they installed it, and have them check/program it. You can also go into the Features menu and see it the Towing menu is there. If not, then it was not programmed.

 

[Neil E.]

Thanks Nick, you nailed it. Shortly before seeing your post, I connected up an old incandescent tail light just to see if the led trailer lights had too low of a draw, but still got no function.

I hate going to the dealer with a manual transmission vehicle since almost no one knows how to drive one. I took my previous 09 F250 in and whatever idiot drove it crashed into something and put a huge dent in the back bumper. Needless to say they were out the cost of the complete bumper assembly.

 

[Southsounder]

Does your dealer offer mobile service? The local Ford dealer in my area programed the tow modules in my Bronco at my office parking lot. They also came and performed a software update/recall.

 

[Neil E.]

Would be nice but that is actual customer service. No such thing exists where I'm from (Canada).

 

[Neil E.]

So I have towed a small utility trailer a few times now and have working lights. Connecting the trailer turns off blind spot monitoring. I assume this is because the system would have no idea of the overall length of the combination or the sensors could not function with a trailer blocking them.

I like the blind spot monitoring since the factory mirrors are so poor. My previous vehicle had good mirrors, F250 with power extend, power fold, heated, wide angle view etc. As an experiment I attached an exterior small wide angle view mirror to the Bronco LH mirror. Worked ok on the left hand side, but was not possible on the right hand side. The RH mirror folds in much farther than the LH mirror, almost touching the glass/door when folded.. This leaves no room to mount the external wide angle mirror (mounted below the stock mirror).

Is there any sort of travel stop inside the stock mirrors? Can anyone provide any mirror arm disassembly info? I'd have a go at making a travel stop if I could take the arm apart easily.

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