Power to trailer

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Trailers are strange. There’s common colors for the 4 pin and 5 pin, unless someone “fixed” something, but there’s no industry standard colors for it. And 6 or 7 pin plugs can have different wire colors and different pin-outs depending on who did it. And most people who do trailer wiring should be strung up. No wonder so many people have so much trouble with trailer lights working. I’ve gone slash and burn on trailer wiring, only solder/heat shrink or weatherpack connectors and LED lighting. I want it to work right every time I hook up.

 

[DILLARD000]

Wisdom is spoken soft and slow, Most hear but fail to Listen.

Thats a qoutable bit of wisdom!

 

[4x4junkie]

I've gone through maybe 3 of those trailer light converters on mine, they apparently don't have very robust protections against short circuits in the trailer wiring, so it's not surprising to see you had a bad one.

I'd suggest clean up that trailer wiring best you can, and maybe run it through some split wiring loom tubing, then tape up the tubing with electrical tape. If you can stagger those crimped butt splices so they aren't all right next to each other should help protect against shorts as well (too often I see loose strands of wire start to poke out of those... soldering the wires and using shrink tubing to insulate is a much better deal, but does require a small bit of skill to do).

 

[snoranger]

I've gone through maybe 3 of those trailer light converters on mine, they apparently don't have very robust protections against short circuits in the trailer wiring, so it's not surprising to see you had a bad one.

I’ve had quite a few converters go bad over the years, so I just build my own from a few relays. Here’s a quote from my post detailing how I built it:

Parts needed: (total cost...$0.00, I had everything already.)
3 Bosch type 5 terminal relays
3 pigtails
1 fuse holder
assorted elec connectors

I have a schematic all drawn out, but no way to post it. Here's the pin outs for each relay:

R-1 (brake relay):
85- Input from vehicle stop lights
86- ground
30- fused power from battery
87- to terminals 87a on both R-2 and R-3
87a- to terminals 87 on both R-2 and R-3

R-2 (Left turn relay)
85- input from vehicle left turn signal
86- ground
30- output to trailer left turn bulb
87- from term 87a on R-1
87a- from term 87 on R-1

R-3 (Right turn relay)
85- input from vehicle right turn signal
86- ground
30- output to trailer right turn bulb
87- from term 87a on R-1
87a- from term 87 on R-1

I figure with the stop lights off the blinkers will flash in sequence with the tow vehicle. With the stop lights on, the blinkers will flash alternately of the tow vehicle. The trailer lights are all powered off the fused input on R-1, the only thing the vehicle wiring has to do is turn on the relays.

With a few sealed relays, this thing will handle way more amperage then any converter on the market and last forever.

 

[Uncle Gump]

I’ve had quite a few converters go bad over the years, so I just build my own from a few relays. Here’s a quote from my post detailing how I built it:



With a few sealed relays, this thing will handle way more amperage then any converter on the market and last forever.

I use to do the very same thing on street legal buggies to run turn signals from an ON-OFF-ON toggle switch. Works like a dream... I got the idea from working with some Mil Spec stuff.

Never once thought about replacing one of convertor gizmos with the set up.