Thanks for your help & advice 77 & 79.


Dennis

 

The local U-Haul place is going to wire it up for me tomorrow (Friday). They actually had the #14488 wiring kit on the shelf but I decided to let them wire it up and I'll then rent the trailer from them instead of another place (hardware store).


Dennis

 

Sounds like a good plan. With trailer lights on the dent harness you will need a HD turn signal flasher. You may already have one... if not they are about $10 at your local AP store. Or maybe UHaul has one if needed.

This is a little electrical device the size of a film can that plugs in under the dash. The "HD" version simply flashes correctly with the added load of trailer lights.

 

It seems I learn something new everyday. I'd never heard of an HD flasher. I guess I'll find one though.


Thanks B&W.

 

Most replacement flashers are HD anymore - now, we get to fight the other way, LED's that don't draw enough to make em work right.

If you're going through the trouble of wiring trailer lights, the most "common" for car/truck/SUV wiring is a 7-round blade (not a 7-round pin, like a semi) - I'd go that way, then grab an adapter to drop to a 4-flat. If you rent/buy/borrow a trailer from anybody other than UHaul, it's likely to have a 7-round Blade, camper-style plug. I don't necessarily think they're the best (plastic), but they're the most common, what OE puts on them at least.

You won't have electric brakes without adding a brake controller, and you will need to add wiring to the back for that, as well as wiring for a hot line if you were going to pull a camper - but you don't really NEED those circuits unless you are pulling an equipped trailer, I've put a ton in for people with just running lights, 2 signals, and a ground hooked up.

 

^ I agree.

I run a 7 blade plug, with only 5 functions. I left out the charge wire and the one for reverse lights.

 

I just installed these and solder repaired my factory harness after it had been hacked up. My intentions were to have less stress on original wiring and better power to trailer. I hooked up a charge wire and brake controller as well. No reverse lights hooked up.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/cht-55301
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/cht-59236

 

Haha, have you EVER seen a trailer that had reverse lights? I've never hooked that one up either. Now, I had a guy tell me that some of the really high-end, BIG boat trailers used the reverse light circuit to power a solenoid lockout for the surge brakes (common on boat trailers, magnets and water aren't so good), but I've never seen one.

I do usually add the wiring for the trailer hot line, had a service trailer that used it for a trickle charge on a welder battery at one point, and had the dome lights in my horse trailer tack room hooked up as well. But it's not really necessary unless you have a camper or a weird scenario like that - and by the time you get to a trailer that size, you really should have trailer brakes anyhow, and if you have to run 1 wire..... Depends on what the future holds for the pickup. You can always add it later if you want.

I just tapped into an old Ford about 2 weeks ago for a guy, used that Curt adapter to get into the factory wiring (which was all in really nice shape), cut the 4-flat off, and added in a run of 2-wire for the trailer brakes and hotline straight to a RV 7-round spade, then back out of it with all 6 to another plug inside the box for his gooseneck. Most of those RV plugs I've seen use a screw attachment with a U-plate over the top so you can put 2 wires on each spade, they make a fairly nice junction point for doing that. That, and the wiring on these is all above the fuel tanks, so it's not all that easy to splice into the circuit midship.

If your wiring is in rough shape, though, or has already been hacked, you could skip the adapter and just splice into the taillight wires, but that takes a little more time and patience.

 

I guess I got lucky and the lights all worked perfectly. Here's a couple pics of the tremendously heavy shed I moved to a friends house.

 

One seater or two?

 

More than 40 years ago 3 of my uncles bought a hunting cabin in the Upper Peninsula. It's a very nice cabin still in the family but it had a two-holer (still does). I couldn't imagine sitting elbow to elbow with someone while having a sitdown. Summertime sitdowns were brutal with the aroma. Wintertime was better except for the morning frost on the seat.


Dennis