Don't Buy a Wiring Harness Until You Watch This

We're going to talk about the part where a lot of trucks almost died. This guy, he's been trying to get his wiring done for a long time. It's not the paint. It's not the engine. It's this right here. It's electrical wiring. We're going to break down and do a review on three different wiring companies from the low $600 all the way up to near $3,000. And you might think that's a broad range. Well, there's a lot of broad applications in order to make this work. We're going to help you decide which wiring harness works best for you. Stock, restomod. You'll have to make some decisions. It might be the cheapest one, or maybe you're doing something a little bit more unique. But by the end of this video, you'll understand clearly what it is you need. All right. We are here with three different companies, Coupe 23, American Autowire, and we've got the Fat Friend of Garage. You're going to start off at the least expensive, which is still a great value, in my opinion, right around about $600, give or take. And then you're going to have the American Autowire, which is going to the classic update is going to start right around $1,200 for it. They also have the Highway 22, which is closer to that $800 range. And then you've got the Fat Friend of Garage one, which starts at about $1,300. And depending upon how many things you need can get up close to that $3,000 range. So everything you put in your vehicle is going to require some form of a circuit. You can have wiring to it. And so you need to make sure that what you're putting in it, there's enough circus there for you to accomplish it. And so a lot of times each wiring harness has limitations, of course, but it also has advantages. We want to make sure that it's crystal clear you understand what those limitations are and when you're going to want to upgrade. By the end of this video, if you hang in here with me, you'll understand what you need. All right, so we're going to get right in to the Coupe 23 and we're going to open this up and we'll get right into this one. All right, so we've cleared the table so we can open this up and set some stuff out. And we have the Coupe 23. You can see how it comes. It shows up like this. We'll open this up. I'll probably cut some wiring. I wish I hadn't. Just joking. All right. So one thing you'll notice they've got in here and it's kind of tucked actually down inside, so I won't pull it out right now. But this is going to come with a bunch of loose wiring. And so all of this stuff is labeled. If you take a look at it, they've got some wire connectors in there. These are not waterproof, but they're going to accomplish the task and get it done. And so they've kind of got all these broke down. And again, Coupe 23, because they're going to give you 23 circuits that you're going to be using. And then you have to decide how you want to route all your circuits. You might decide to have these wires be to something different than what they have them labeled. That's OK. A wire is a wire and a color is a color. And what they have labeled on it doesn't always commit you to use it. But the most important thing is they use the right gauge wire for whatever it is you are doing. So make sure you understand that if you're connecting wires. Otherwise, you're going to have a fire. So you're going to get tons of tons of wire in here. So this is your power feed. They give you some fuses in here so that you have a nice fuse to it. A lot of stuff, power and ground there. Again, some heavy gauge red wire. That's going to run to your alternator. If you take a look at that, they're very helpful. It's great to see that they're labeling it in the wires. And it looks like they've got a bunch of zip ties, some heat shrink so you can get all your wires ran. So this is going to be a little bit different style. So what you're going to do is you're going to get this this coach controls Coupe 23 power distribution block. OK, so what you're going to do is you're going to mount this inside your cab somewhere and you're going to find a spot because you're going to have to access it. You'll have to take this cover off right here. And I guess we could take that off. I don't know why we can't just show you what it is you're getting here. And so you're going to get all these little ring terminals right here. So if I just take this off real quick and show you what's underneath this panel. And so you're going to want to make sure that you put this in a location that you can easily access it. All right. So I pull this off here. All the fuses. You got the relays, your flasher relay. Everything's built in here. Then you've got all these ring terminals. Now, this is pretty cool. A ring terminal makes a very good connection. So by the time you get that crimped and you loosen this up and you put this on here, you're going to get a very solid connection. This is a really robust power block. We've had a great success with it. It's a little bit larger than others, but it does give you a good opportunity to have a bunch of circuits and relays built in here. Again, if you're wondering, how do I connect to it? What do I do? Well, they they did a really good job. So they have given you every schematic that you might need to your gauges, to your dimmer switch, to a radio engine. Like they they give you all the components you need. And then they also have it for your fans, your starter, your battery. Like they've they've given you a breakdown on everything that you need. Very good kit. Like this is this is definitely one that I would say if you're pretty smart and you can follow schematics, this is going to make it very easy for you. And honestly, for having full schematics and having all the components you need for the price, this is really great kit. And one thing I like about it is allows you to kind of run the wires to it. And so this lets you kind of route everything nice and clean, zip, tie it up, and it looks really good under the dash. So a very good kit. We'll put this back together, box it back up, and then we'll get into the American AutoWire. All right. So the American AutoWire Classic Update really is you have a classic. Wiring's bad. You just need to update it. Hence the name Classic Update. They also have something called Highway 22. It's like the Coupe 23, but it's got 22 circuits instead of 23. Well, let's open up Classic Update. Again, this is going to start right around 1200 bucks. So very nice box. They've got nice marketing on it. It's very cool. It folds up. You got a little handle on it. I love it. It's great. They've got the same thing. They've given you a big wiring diagram. A lot of information here. This Classic Update is for a 6772 F100. It's very specific. And so when you're purchasing a Classic Update, it's not general. It's going to be for your each year make and model. So whatever truck you have, you're going to purchase a Classic Update. You got instructions. And what's kind of cool is they give you relays. They give you, you know, your little wiring kits. You also get some of the components that you need. So you got a new dimmer switch. They're giving you a new wiper switch. All the little switches that your old truck has. They've gone out and they found some. They give you a bag of connectors. Again, you got to crimp them yourself. None of them are waterproof connectors. So you may need to heat shrink those and do what you can to protect it. And then all these little separate circuits, you've got headlights and they've already got the pigtails all put on for you, which is kind of cool. And you've got a really nice power block with a nice big bus fuse in here. The longer you're running your power for wherever your battery is, the heavier gauge that needs to be. And then you've got a headlight switch. So 6772, a lot of little dash things you got to connect. They give you all new components. That's why it costs more money. It's because you're getting all that stuff. All right. Now we'll open this up here. Let's see if we can find a good spot to open this. So. All right. So we'll pull this out. Now, if you take a look at this, they've got all the connections put on here. They've even got it terminated. It's literally like plug and play. If you look at these here, they've already got the connectors. You put this under your dash. You connect it here. You run it to where it goes. It's ready to go. You need very little crimping to do on your end. And then you got to find a spot. They're trying to get this in more of an original spot for this to bolt right through here and mount. And then you got your flasher relay. The problem that we've had with this in the past, it's kind of hard to work with all these wires and it can be a little challenging. And now you notice that none of it's loomed, which underneath the dash. It's not necessarily ideal to loom all this up. We like to keep it open ourselves because if you have to access something, it's nice to just have all the wires available. You can read on all the wires what it is. You can trace all the wires and it makes it simple. I wouldn't buy this if I was doing a coyote motor. And the reason why, if I'm doing a coyote or Godzilla, this is going to make a predetermined circuit and a predetermined outcome that is not going to be what I'm doing in a restomod with a coyote or Godzilla. So if you've purchased this and you're doing a coyote swap, this is actually going to make your job harder. They do run them a little longer. So you end up having a little bit more wiring you got to deal with. But it's pretty close and we like it. We just don't do a lot of 67, 72, 302s. But if I have like a 1956 Ford and I still got my Y block in it or a 302 in it, this can be useful. As you notice, all the circuits are already connected on the back. And as long as these are all in nice and tight, you're good to go. But as you can tell, it's going to be hard to add circuits here. There's not a lot of available space. You're pretty well committed to using what's here. And if you need extra power, you're going to have to run and create a separate power box and add a little bit more circuitry. So, again, it's not designed for coyotes, not designed for Godzillas. If you're purchasing this for that, you're buying the wrong harness. But this is great for a guy who's got something factory. It's more money, a little bit more idiot proof. But at the end of the day, you're going to get it done. You're going to spend about twelve hundred dollars to purchase this. And you could probably wire it up in about a week. Now, we also know this is a lot of information and you probably don't want to watch this video and me more than once. So we're going to have this available on our website. You will be able to download a document, help explain this to you so that it makes it a little bit more clear and kind of a cheat sheet where you can just say, hey, this is my truck and this is makes the most sense. So don't worry about trying to memorize prices, memorize all the data. Hopefully this is helpful for you. All right. We're going to package this up because we've got a bunch more boxes to still open. All right. So we finished up the Coupe 23, the American Auto Wire. And now we're going to move into the Fat Fender Garage Wire and Harness. OK, so I've got that right here. I'm going to bring it up. Oh, they're heavy. All right. So each box is labeled, as you can see. And right here we've got the rear harness. We'll open this up right out of the gate. You're going to get full schematics of the rear harness, everything there that you need to understand what it does, the diagram of it and tells you what color the wires are. And then here you got heat shrink. So we send you a lot of extra heat shrink labels in case you want to cut and trim the wires and do something a little bit different. But we still wanted to label it at the beginning and end of each circuit. So you're going to get those. And then you've got this bag here and right here, then you've got the rear harness. Now, it's loomed and all these little pigtails go to different things. And so on the wiring diagram here, you've got exhaust cutouts. We got left and right license plate light connects to the bulkhead right here. We've got gear shifter split. All this is going to go back to the rear harness. And what's really cool is this this plugs into the bulkhead at the firewall. Now, what's ideal about this is rather than cutting a big hole and trying to fish a bunch of things through, we've actually made it to where you drill a round hole, which is pretty easy. And then you've got this bulkhead connector. It's going to connect right in with the cap harness, which I'm getting ready to show you in a minute. Makes a nice, easy, solid connection. All right. So I'm going to set this over here. Now, you'll notice that the front and rear harness both have loom on it. Here you go. More instructions, more heat shrink labels. And then, of course, we've got the front harness. It's got a lot more going on with it. All the things you need. Headlights, auxiliary lights. Maybe you want to have like a supercharger. So you got the wire for an intercooler pump. All that's kind of put in here. We wanted to make sure that you didn't feel like how to add more circuits later. Pretty much everything you would probably do. And so this is, again, the same bulkhead connector, high quality kind of factory OEM loom on here. And we wanted to make sure that the front and rear harnesses, they're ready to go. It's kind of a hassle to, you know, open it up, split it, get the loom in there, tape it all up. We want to make sure we took care of all that for you. And it looks nice and clean. All you have to do is just run it through your frame rails or you just got to attach it to your frame rails. However you're doing your wiring. So very modular. Plug it right in. Connect it to those accessories and you're going to be good to go. All right. Now, the one that's the biggest here is the cap harness. Now, in this box here, we've got a little bit more information. You've got the wiring diagram. And then we also send you a couple other little things, a little tiny brochure called Harness and More. It'll actually show you a lot of different components that you can purchase for this wiring harness. A nice thank you card for purchasing from us. A sticker read before you install. We give you some kind of do's and don'ts and things to kind of be careful of when you're putting this together. You also get more in-depth harness guide. And this one, this is kind of more the technical side of things. And you can see there's a lot of information here. But hopefully we can provide as much information up front that you feel comfortable like, yeah, that makes sense. Now, again, more heat shrink labels if you need them. And then these are the nuts that lock in the bulkhead connectors. All right. So this one, this one's a little bit different. You got your bulkhead connectors here, but this one is not fully loomed. It just has some tape around kind of holding it together. That way, you can kind of visibly look at your wires and see it keeps it a little bit more accessible under the dash. It's so easy, like it's super easy. But the easy part is easy if you follow the instructions and you do it like we say, and you have a coyote motor and a Godzilla. If you're going to try to use this harness in anything other than a 6772 for that application, it won't work well for you. I'm going to kind of set this off to the side over here. But we have some more boxes. This is what starts to bring the cost up on the kit. Not everyone wants more. Everybody has the has stuff at home that they like. And so we're going to show you more. Now, if you have this power distribution block and I want to use it instead. Great. Now, the one that we like to use and we highly recommend for the kit, this right here, power distribution block and this power center right here. And so you can purchase this and it mates real nicely up with the wiring harness. I think most everyone is just purchasing that for simplicity. The next thing we want to show you, the wiring harness connector kit. The wiring harness connector kit has every connector, heat shrink, all the little components that you're going to need. And it's broke down by like an item number. And as you're going through the manual, that will tell you this item number goes to this connector right here. And it'll help explain where all that goes. So MetroPak connectors. And so these are waterproof in a lot of the areas where they need to be waterproof, like your taillights and headlights and all those types of connections. So a lot of this stuff is designed for, you know, if you have like a pigtail that's already on something, but it's kind of a cheap plastic pigtail that came with the kit. We want you to cut it off and put a nice connector on it for you. So. All right. What do we got here? We got the harness switch kit. So a lot of this stuff, you've got your harness and they're like, well, I need all new switches in my wiper switch, my ignition switch. You know, so we have a switch kit here. Now, some of you, whether it went to Dennis Carpenter, you went to LMC. You actually bought all that stuff already. This switch kit isn't for you. You wouldn't want to buy it again. So again, that's why it's all a cart. But at the same time, if you haven't bought it, we actually have hand selected a lot of the components that you get with it. So it's just the switch. We're not supplying like all the bezels brand new. If you want something a little bit different, you might need to order those up. The next thing we have is wiring harness mounting kit. Every time we go to install all these modules, there's a lot that goes in it. And so it could be, you might be running an E-stop parking brake, Dakota digital gauges, different things to make all the coyote work and connect with the Godzilla and this, that, and the other and vintage air and you name it. Well, our wiring harness takes care of all that stuff. But then you have to mount all that stuff in your truck. Where are you going to mount it? How are you going to mount it? Where's all that stuff going to go? And so in order for our harnesses to be successful, we had to come up with a way to install all that stuff. So you're going to get these brackets. And if you watch in the video, we're going to show you how to install it. Hey guys, I'm Parker. I work here at Fat Fender. I have never installed one of these harnesses before. So it's going to be a honest install. We're going to throw it up in here and see how she goes. And let's get this thing going. All right. So we just finished mocking up our wiring harness into our cab. It took me about, I'd say 45 minutes to do it. It might take you a little longer because our cab, as you can see, is a little more accessible than most. It's kind of half a cab, pretty clean. Obviously you'll trim your wires to what you see necessary. All this, trim that, trim that, trim that, clean it up as you go. Mounting bracket here, everything's all in place. Obviously these are little mock-up modules. So we have our wires placed where they would be. But then over here, we got e-brake module, our Coupe 23. Everything's where it should be. Everything looks great. I don't have much wiring experience and this was a breeze for me. So if I can do it, anybody can do it. So Fat Fender wiring harness, good to go. Very simple, kind of mounts to the firewall and the dash. And you start installing all these things. Then we got these studs on here. Your piece will go right here, tie it on. And then your pigtails will just start falling in line. And you're just putting crimp it, connect it, and you're done. Once you have everything connected to the bulkhead and you got all your modules installed and everything's there and you've got everything around, you can probably spend two to three days putting connections on and you're ready to fire up your engine. All right. So those are the main things that I would say if I was ordering doing a Coyote swap and I hadn't bought my switches yet for ease, I would probably buy this whole kit here. Now, if you're a builder and you're saying, I don't know what I need to crimp all those connectors. All right, you're in luck. So we've got a wire crimping kit. Please don't be mad at me. This isn't very cheap because we're using, you know, Delphi wire crimpers, some Klein tools. And so you get five crimpers here. This will allow you to do all the wire crimping and all the connections and do a really good job for you. Now in our instruction manual, we tell you how to use these tools, how to strip the wire correctly. We're not really making any money on this. We're stocking it. We brought it in, but at the end of the day, we're just trying to like, Hey, how do we help you out? All right. So we've gone over this. It's a lot to take in. We're going to move all this stuff out of the way. We're going to bring over all the harnesses. We're going to lay them all out, get a bird's eye view, let you take a look at it for everything that comes in all these kits in one shot. We've taken the time to lay this all out so you can see it in one fell swoop, because obviously when I'm unpacking the boxes and showing you a little bit, it's kind of hard to see visually what it all looks like. So let's take a look at this. So we've got all the harnesses all laid out. We put it on a white background. It's a little easy for you to see. So here is our, our coop 23, very simple, very restrained. All your wires curled up. You just connect all your ends and you run it how you want it. Great product works. Well, great company. We're very excited about it. Again, you can see there's a fair amount of work you're going to have to do. There's a lot of routing and planning and strategizing with how you're going to accessorize your truck. And then not to mention Dakota digital gauges. If you're doing a coyote swap or any of that kind of stuff, you've got a little bit more work to plan and strategize that out that this might not have all those details for you. If we go take a look over here and we look at the classic update kit for very standard features, some of that planning has been done for you a little bit, plug and play, but again, very basic truck, not recommended for a coyote swap, not recommended for Godzilla swap. Again, you can buy this on the website and then you can see the fat fender garage harness a lot more. You can take a look at all these pigtails. All these are designed to go to, you know, different things under your dash and different switches. They're all ready to go. You just come down to the end, cut these off. You put your terminals on it and then connect it right to the switch and get it installed. And then eventually you'll connect to the firewall and you'll have these connectors right here where you'll pull those apart and you can connect it and make that solid connection. So, so now that we've unboxed everything and everything's nice and clean and laid out here, and you've had a good visibility, you might wonder what does it look like installed? And so we're going to work on that, but we wanted to make sure that you understood that we won't be installing both these. We do a lot of Coyote swaps and Godzilla swaps. So this wouldn't be a great fit for us. And so we're going to show you how easy this is to install. We've got a white cab that's ready to go. It'll be very clear and easy. And we're going to move into that next. So hopefully you have enough confidence in yourself to say, Hey, I can do that. Welcome back. And so we just finished talking about all this stuff. And then a lot of people wonder like, Hey, well, how long does this really take to install? So on the fat fender garage harness, it's probably 30 minutes. You'll spend more time getting all the modules out of the boxes and attaching them to the plate and getting the plate installed. Then you will be getting the wiring harness and laying it up in there, pulling all these leads out. And so they're very simple. You'll have wiper switches and power switches and just labeled. And you're just going to connect them right in there. You already got a little tape on there. Nice and clean for you. The biggest thing is you're going to have to decide is where do you want to run and connect it to your bulkheads. For visibility purposes, we put it right here. This may not be the spot because you're going to have air conditioning here. Some people may choose to put it, you know, right here or right here. Some people may choose like, Hey, I want to hide the wires. And so I might want to run those and build a plate here and put them right here and then take, take and hide the wire. So I don't see any wiring. So there's a lot of options for you, but you have to decide where you're going to drill a hole. Then from there, you're going to connect the rear harness and then that's going to come along the frame rail and you're going to unroll this out and you're going to run this to the back. And this is long enough to do a crew cab and it's long enough for a super cab. And so it's got plenty of room there for you. So, and you can kind of come see on this side, if you want how this connects right here. And then from here, you've got the front harness and pretty straightforward and connects to the front. So what we like to do at this point, once we have all this labeled and ran, then we like to come up here and then we'll put another loom over this and then we'll kind of tape that up. So this is extra protective. Okay. But initially it's nice to see, understand the wires, which goes where. Very easy to install. And for the most part, if you're doing a Coyote or a Godzilla, this is the harness that you're going to choose. The simplest way to do it. It covers all your Dakota digital. It's got all the wiring for your AC kit and your controls and everything's already pre-integrated for you. You don't have to figure out how, how am I going to connect this? Does this need power? The instructions are going to make it real simple for you. So, all right. So with all that said, the question becomes which harness do I use? And so, like I said, if you're doing a Godzilla or a Coyote swap, we highly recommend it, which is what we got over here. So this is a 1970 Ford F-100, Coyote swapped, got all the bells and whistles, everything. And so this is exactly what you would use a Fat Fender garage harness for. Makes it super simple. It's nice and clean. It's got all the wiring you need. And of course, if you had an electrical question, we've got full-time engineers that work here as they get better and, and ask us more questions. We'll keep making the instructions better and better and better for you. So we're always looking to improve here at Fat Fender garage. Then the next question is, is what about a stock truck? So you might have a, an old original factory truck. And so the Fat Fender garage harness is not your choice. That's not what you're going to pick. It's going to be too much money and it's not going to work for that application. You could buy a Highway 22, you could buy Classic Update Kit, or you can buy the Coach Controls Coupe 23. All three of those work. You just have to decide which one you like best and which one you think you're going to be the most comfortable with using. And so on a classic truck like this, very original and like we talked about where most projects die. Well, this guy, he's been trying to get his wiring done for a long time and it hasn't gotten very well. If you have an original truck like this and you're just wanting to like get it done, definitely you're going to be looking at the Coupe 23 or Classic Update. Keep it simple. And for the most part, a lot of the original wiring at this point is kind of old and frayed and, uh, it had some corrosion and, and you want to make sure that everything's working correctly. So pretty easy. I always find wiring scary, but once you understand how it works, it's not too hard. We can sell you those on our website. You can buy a Coupe 23 or a Classic Update. All right. So in conclusion, stock, restomod, you'll have to make some decisions. Then we got the Coupe 23 and it's kind of the same do it yourself kit where you've got to control every circuit. Then you've got the Classic Update and that is basically as simple as it could possibly be for you. You mount the fuse block in the exact location and run your wires to all the terminating ends and use it exactly how they tell you to use it. There's not a lot of fudging or adding or controlling anything. It is what it is. It's strictly just for a stock truck. Like you can see behind me. Then the Fat Fender Garage. Basically, if you're putting a Coyote or a Godzilla in it and you've watched our channels and you see that we do a lot of that stuff, this is the hardest to purchase. Hands down. No questions. Go straight to this one and make your life a little bit simpler when it comes to putting a Coyote and a Godzilla in it. Hopefully this has been helpful for you. Wiring is a little challenging and it definitely shouldn't be. Well, hopefully this has simplified it and you understand which harness to purchase for your truck and what it is you're looking for so that you make the best decision on your classic truck. And hopefully this was helpful. You understand which one to get. We'll see you next time.