Anyone venture into putting on a tow hitch and 4 prong wire harness on the new 2021 rogue? I have a very light job boat I’d like to pull around rather than use a truck. I have an awd S model.

The hitch is the easy part. More looking for wiring how to.

I did not find anything in the search so I thought I would post to see if anyone had done this quite yet.

Thanks!

Towing capacity is 1350 lbs, but be prepared to change your CVT fluid frequently (I recommend 20K to folks who tow regularly or tow on very rough roads or hilly conditions). Because of the "back and forth" load represented by a trailer, towing puts shear stresses on the fluid unlike anything else you can do to it. Once your drivetrain warranty expires, I highly recommend adding an aftermarket CVT cooler as well.

Lazeronu wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 17, 2021 11:30 am

Anyone venture into putting on a tow hitch and 4 prong wire harness on the new 2021 rogue? I have a very light job boat I’d like to pull around rather than use a truck. I have an awd S model.

The hitch is the easy part. More looking for wiring how to.

I did not find anything in the search so I thought I would post to see if anyone had done this quite yet.

Thanks!

Good news, it looks like you'll be the first 3rd gen owner to undertake this project!

You can probably use the info from the 1st & 2nd gen Rogues as a guide. And as others can attest, VStar650CL's suggestion of adding an aftermarket CVT cooler is strongly recommended.

Rogue One wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 17, 2021 5:05 pm

You can probably use the info from the 1st & 2nd gen Rogues as a guide. And as others can attest, VStar650CL's suggestion of adding an aftermarket CVT cooler is strongly recommended.

The only problem is, I don't think Nissan has an official cooler kit for the '21 yet, and the OP can't do aftermarket until the drivetrain warranty runs out. Otherwise he may void it. I had one Murano customer who got around that by mounting an aftermarket cooler in an easy location with wing nuts, then using hydraulic QDA's in the cooler lines with a 1-way valve on the male fitting. Whenever it went in the shop, he could pop it out and loop the lines in about 15 seconds without losing a drop.

I installed one in the 2014, I can't see them having changed the process much.

I went with the curt wiring harness, it's pretty easy in the trunk, undo the venter cover and the two side covers, then it plugs in-line with the lights. I left my 4-pin in the trunk and run it outside when I need it, trunk closes just fine.
Also ended up needing a 7 pin with power for trailer brakes, turns out the extra wire in the left side of the trunk is a 20 amp power supply, just need to add a fuse to the engine fuse block in the 'dealer accessory - 20 A'.

For more than the occasional utility trailer, consider adding a transmission cooler, they wire pretty easy inline with the radiator based cooler, I put up a how-to a while ago.

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Will start my venture and see what I can uncover.

I am also interested in a trailer hitch for my 2021 rogue. I contacted the dealer and Nissan customer service they have no idea when a hitch and wiring kit will be available. This seems unbelievable to me they advertise a towing capacity but don't offer a hitch? Curt has a hitch but so far nobody has the wiring kit.

computerguy wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 02, 2021 5:38 am

This seems unbelievable to me they advertise a towing capacity but don't offer a hitch? Curt has a hitch but so far nobody has the wiring kit.

Towing capacity is a standard metric for anything bigger than a go-cart, Nissan publishes it as a matter of course but I haven't exactly seen it "advertised" except for the Titan and Frontier. Tow hitches and harnesses for the '14 Rogues didn't come out until almost 9 months after the first ones hit showrooms, that's just the pattern for new models. You'll probably only want a 4-wire hookup anyway, so if you use the Curt receiver, any 4-wire converter from U-Haul, Curt, etc, can be T-tapped on and will work fine.

You are wrong about the 2008 rogue and a 2014 rogue within a month of them hitting the market and both were delivered with a NISSAN trailer hitch and wiring harness. Yes you can wire up a convertor but that means tapping into the wiring harness and voiding any warranty for the wiring harness etc. not something I am willing to do a proper t tap adapter is required. I have approched 2 trailer hitch installers and they won't touch the wiring.

You are wrong about the 2008 rogue and a 2014 rogue not having a trailer hitch available, I purchased both within a month of them hitting the market and both were delivered with a NISSAN trailer hitch and wiring harness. Yes you can wire up a convertor but that means tapping into the wiring harness and voiding any warranty for the wiring harness etc. not something I am willing to do a proper t tap adapter is required. I have approched 2 trailer hitch installers and they won't touch the wiring.

computerguy wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 02, 2021 9:01 am

You are wrong about the 2008 rogue and a 2014 rogue not having a trailer hitch available, I purchased both within a month of them hitting the market and both were delivered with a NISSAN trailer hitch and wiring harness. Yes you can wire up a convertor but that means tapping into the wiring harness and voiding any warranty for the wiring harness etc. not something I am willing to do a proper t tap adapter is required. I have approched 2 trailer hitch installers and they won't touch the wiring.

Dunno about the '08's, but maybe your '14 was port-installed. We couldn't get hitches or kits for quite awhile, although I don't recall if that was a matter of availability or back-ordering. There is trailer pre-wiring on the '21's and tapping those will void nothing, but I doubt most installers have documentation for it yet. So I'm unsurprised if they don't want to touch it.

My 14 Rogue had a dealer installed hitch and it was a Nissan hitch you can tell. So how do you find out more about the prewiring?

I can get you info from the EWD, I'll post something on Tues when I go back to the shop. It may be descriptive and not digital, the new HTML EWD's don't lend themselves to easy reproduction.

You got lucky on that '14 then, we had people waiting in line. One funny thing about the early kits, I guarantee you there was a teed kluje-wire running across the back of your car underneath the rear sill panel. Nissan screwed up on the first-production pigtails and left no access for the RH blinker. We had to fix all of them the U-Haul way, with a tee or scotchlok and a wire to the LH side.

PS - I can probably get you the right pigtails too, if you want to dig the prewires out and post pics. We have a huge pigtail collection because I strip all our old harnesses, and Nissan hasn't changed the taillamp and trailer jacks much in ages. I have to pay the dealership for them so they won't be free, but I can get you most anything common if you can't find it in a JY.

Lmao, I just checked and even Identifix has no info on the '21 yet. Zero, it's not even listed. I think it'll be awhile before any installer wants to touch it for any reason, not just for trailer converters.

And here I was ready to order my trailer hitch. We are close to the 6 month mark of the launch so maybe Nissan will have it in soon

Have a local hitch company here in Kennesaw GA who is going to wire me up next week. He knows there is no wiring harness, but is extremely confident he can do it. I will report back. By the way, I installed the Curt hitch from e-trailer yesterday. Took all of 15 minutes. 4 bolts. I will be pulling a lightweight kayak trailer.

Okay, I finally got the skinny on this. There is a prewire connection near the left outboard taillamp, but it isn't a complete set of connections like, say, a Titan. I mentioned above that the '14 Rogue kits had no righthand directional access and Nissan had to kluje the later kits with two breakout harnesses instead of one. The supposed "prewire" on the '21's is actually a "pre-fix" for that problem, it's only 2 pins containing RH directional and battery. It looks like Nissan plans to tap the lefthand taillamp connector with a breakout just like the '14's, but with an additional tail going to that prewire connector instead of clear across the car.

OK will the old kit fit the LH wire assembly

I doubt it, the WD's show a different type taillamp connector on the '21 than on the gen2's.

PS - It may be simple enough to make your own T-harness with JY connectors depending on what the connectors are, but I can't just "take a look" because they're located behind the LH luggage room panel. Those don't just "pop loose", so I can't go tear one loose on a brand new lot car. Next time one comes in on a UVI or service ticket that I can work on, I'll try to get some pics and see if the connectors are common ones.

That would be great lets hope you get one in soon

Blue Light Special in the "Things That Make you Go Hmmm" Department. Now I know why the kits aren't out there. Sometimes the way engineers do smart and dumb stuff in the same paragraph makes me scratch the skin right off my head.

In this case, they put in that very smart prewire connector for the RH blinker, then neglected to include a wire-to-wire junction to the LH taillamp for the rest of the connections. The Body Harness runs straight out a grommet to the taillamp with no intervening connector, and that complicates hell out of constructing a tee-harness that doesn't need spliced wires. It can be done, but this is about to turn into a lengthy how-to. I'm sure Nissan is working on something similar to address the screwup, but frankly it's a major screwup.

First, the problem. Here's a pic of the LH taillamp pigtail with the lamp removed. As mentioned, it's part of the Body Harness, so the only way to tee off it is to pull it inside the car grommet and all, then put a replacement grommet on the T-harness with a matching connector.
The connector is a very-standard type and the females can be found all over almost any JY Nissan, but the males are harder to find. Fortunately, there's an eBay vendor who sells pre-wired male and female shells for $10 apiece:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Connector-Fog- ... SwjZVav732

The grommets aren't a usual Nissan type, but it's easy to make your own with "bung" or "sealing" type grommets that come without a hole. You poke your own hole, then seal both sides with Gray Death when all the wiring is done. You can get an assortment for under $15 and just pick the size that fits:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/170-Rubber-Gro ... Sw8zNeoung

Reaching the back side of the tailamp and the trailer prewire connector isn't difficult, the cargo room trim just needs to be pulled back a few inches and not removed. There's one 10mm screw, then peel up the lefthand edge of the hatch gasket. The upper and lower trim panels then just "pop" loose and the prewire connector is visible inside:
The prewire uses spade connectors of the "quick connect" or "faston" type that you can get from any parts store, you'll need one of the male type. To construct the T-harness, you'll wire one male and one female connector back-to-back and pin-for-pin to connect to the taillamp on one end and the existing taillamp connector on the other, maintaining the existing connections. Then you'll tee another wire off each one that will go to the trailer converter. Here's how it will wire. Don't forget to put the grommet on the wires before splicing them together or you'll be taking it apart again.
Happy to answer Q's if anything isn't clear, and happy trailering!

Thanks for all your help looks like eBay guy doesn't ship to Canada. Guess I'll just have to wait for Nissan to come out with a harness. Just a thought does the 2020 rogue harness have the same connector on it for the LF taillight or is it a different beast? Engineers sure don't try and make it easy do they you would think it was the first time someone wanted to put a trailer on a car.

LF would be part of the headlight connector and wouldn't have the brake signal, but if you mean RR then I'm pretty sure it's identical. If you want to PM me your name/address and a PayPal addy, I'd be happy to buy and cross-ship the connectors. First Class to Canada is about $14 these days. Here's a guy for the grommets who does ship to Canada:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/170pcs-Rubber- ... 3199977011

Oh, I didn't catch the 2020. No, the '14~'20 Rogues use a completely different setup, the connectors are wire-to-wire and are inside the bulkhead, not outside.

These guys are in China but they do ship to Canada. Backshells only, but pins should be easy to find in any JY.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Pin-Sumitomo ... 3254635269

Or the pins from these will work. The backshells probably won't, the polarizers are different, but the pins look right:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/4-PIN-ELECTRIC ... 4512114207

OK there is now a choice of 2 trailer hitches and wiring harness, I ordered mine today from local trailer store
Got a Curt hitch and DrawTite wiring harness Part# 118833from Draw tite or TEKONSHA. Thanks for all your input Vstar650CL

Yep, that Tekonsha kit looks right. They're running the righthand turn signal across the car instead of using the prewire, but that'll just make the install identical to a '14~'20.