Letter from GM

[DieselDixon]

Anyone else get a letter from GM about the 01/02 "breaker controller" harness not working on the 03's? Pretty funny if you ask me, they must be getting a lot of complaints to do something like this. lol

Guess they are regretting making the change in the first place...

[king D]

i just put mine in trSH CAN AND THEN READ YOUR POST smile.gif

[roegs]

Got mine also. Glad I'm not the guy at GM that made the decision to change cables in '03.

[Tsckey]

Definitely one of those times when the left hand didn't know what the right had was doing. Not only didn't they tell US they were making the switch, they didn't tell anyone. When I called my Prodigy dealer to ask why my trailer brakes wouldn't work with the pedal but would with the lights, he said he'd only just found out about it himself. This is one of those really terrific trailer supply stores with loads of experience that you can always rely on, too (and he told me how to fix it). It's not nice to fool the people you want to buy and promote your products. Oh, well, the letter suggests GM is coming around ... slowly.

[dmaxalliTech]

GM has had a tsb on this for quite some time now. Thats also why 03 trucks didnt include harness. Dont make sense I know. Gotta love the General :rolleyes:

[earniem]

I bought a wire harness from my RV dealer and have had no trouble. I was to say the least confused by the letter.

[DieselDixon]

I had no problems when I bought my harness and controller either. The website I bought it from was well informed.

[Trip]

FWIW - I picked my 03 aprx. 3 weeks ago, and stop by the parts dept. and bought the brake controller pigtail. In the box was a note that said it was not compatible with 01 and 02, and also gave the symptoms of what it could do if you tried.

By the way, I've been reading this forum for quite a while now, and have to say you guys have alot of valuable info and insight into this truck. Hope I can add a tid bit now and then.

Thanks to all.

[HD-Nate]

Yep, got the letter and glad I did. They didnt have to send it. If you put an incorrect harness into the block, you screwed up, not GM.

You cant knock GM for making a change. You buy an '03, you get stuff to fit an '03. Its up to the aftermarket people to keep up with GM not the other way around.

Almost $50,000 dollar truck and people want to save $5.00 on a harness :rolleyes:


OK...........I feel better now.....thanks :D

[Colorado Kid]

But in '01 and '02 the aftermarket didn't have to "keep up" because GM did include the harness, then for the early '03s the sticker said the harness was there, but it wasn't. . .you plug the harness from an '01 or '02 (which has exactly the plug you need, and fits right into the connector) and the trailer brakes lock up the first time the (fully automatic) headlights come on. . .and you don't think somebody at GM screwed up? Changing the pin sequence but using the same connector is a pretty basic SCREW UP.

[steve700edgex]

I agree colorado kid

[Tsckey]

HD-Nate,

All good points, of course. GM certainly has the right to make changes. If it hadn't we wouldn't have these wonderful trucks. My note might have made more sense if I'd mentioned that my truck was a very early '03. I picked it up in July of '02. The manual mentioned nothing about any changes to the wiring. The harness, which I expected to find in the truck wasn't there. When I called the selling dealer, they didn't know where it was and thought everything was where it should be. I called a local dealer. They were surprised the harness wasn't there and didn't have any replacements, nor did they indicate that anything new was afoot regarding changes to the wiring. My complaint has nothing to do with reluctance to pay a few bucks for a harness. It has everything to do with a company that markets a product to a particular group of people knowing they are likely to rely on certain reasonable assumptions, yet tell not even their own sales and service people when they make a change likely to affect the use of the product. Luckily, the inconvenience to me was relatively modest. My trailer supplies dealer was able to find out what was up and tell me how to rewire the after market harness for the '03 configuration. But in this day and age, service is critical to success, witness JK's remarkable reputation for great service, for example (no slight intended to Greg and others who are also stellar performers). GM could have avoided the necessity of the "oh, by the way" letter if it had just let us in on the secret. Remember, these trucks were made to pull things. It is highly foreseeable their owners are going to want to hook them up and go. Why place obstacles in their paths? That is a marketing screw up tacitly admitted by their letter.

TC

[saywhat]

When I ordered my Prodigy I also ordered an optional cable that plugs into Prodigy and into truck terminal,no connections to make.They sent a cable for the 2003 by mistake,mines a 2002.I called RJays Performance Center and told me how to fix it.There are six terminals lettered ABCDEF on the end that plugs into truck.The lite blue wire is for the stop signal from the truck stop switch to brake controller.On the 2001-2002 that wire is in terminal A.For a 2003 move that wire to terminal D after removing the brown wire which occupies it.The brown wire is for brake controller illumination which is not needed for the Prodigy.These wires are easily switched or removed by removing blue retainer clip then taking a sharp object and depressing lock next to terminal to be removed.