I need to pull trailer with my 88 e150 which has no trailer connector/ harness. I know on older cars they just used to tap into the existing wiring at the rear of the van.. Can that be done on a 88 van?

My trailer has incandescent taillights right now and i have to add some amber side markers and rewire the trailer as the old wiring does not look too good.
Should I replace the old tail lights with LED lights or will the existing circuit on the van itself handle the extra incandescent taillights?

I looked at Etrailer and they do not show a plug in T harness for the 88 like they do for newer vans. Their kit has to be spliced in to the existing wiring.

The trailer is a 5x8 but total with tongue is 14' so according to what I have read I will need a amber side marker with reflector at the front and red side marker with reflector at the rear.. The light kits I have seen have the rear read side marker with reflector built into the tail light.

HF wants $44 for a led kit that includes the wiring but complaints are that the wire included in the kit is way too small of a gauge..
Home depot has a complete kit of incandescent lights with the side markers and wire for $26.
If incandescent will work I could just find the amber side markers...

thanks!

 

That can be done on any vehicle, any year. It's just electricity. The principles are all the same. You just have to know which wires to tap, which is not hard to figure out.


I would use LEDs on the trailer, so as to not overload the van's wiring. I would not change the van's bulbs.

That's not surprising on older vehicles. Not a problem, though. Use good quality splices, and use plenty of dielectric grease on them.


Do you know what gauge the wiring is? LEDs don't draw much current, and it might be just fine. But then, HF electrical stuff is often pretty flaky.

Really, you don't need a kit, though. Buy the lights as needed, and buy some wiring from e-Trailer.com or your local Lowe's.


It will work, but you risk overloading your existing wiring. I would not do it with an older vehicle.

It's getting late, and I'm hitting the sack, but I'll try to remember to post back with some pointers on good connectors and crimpers. Lousy connectors and cheap tools cause lots of grief.

 

 

SHORT ANSWER: That's exactly what it's made for. Some folks use it for other things, too, but dielectric grease was invented to protect electrical connections from corrosion, and it works very well. You should use it freely on all DC electrical connections except the contact surface of your battery terminals, and that's only because they are tapered and you don't want a lube in there because they might work loose with vibration. Feel free to smear it on after you have connected and tightened them.

LONG ANSWER: Nothing is a perfect insulator, except hard vacuum. Everything that we call an "insulator" is merely less conductive than some other things, and everything we call a conductor is merely more conductive than some other things. The two most important factors in determining if a material is a conductor or an insulator are the material properties and the thickness of it. Rubber is usually thought of as an insulator, and rightly so. It does not conduct electricity very well at all. But given enough voltage, it will conduct, or at least, it will not prevent the passage of electricity. To fight this, we use more rubber. That's why insulators are thicker for use with higher voltages. Higher voltage, thicker insulator.

Conversely, get it thin enough, and even a good insulator will allow electricity to pass. A film of rubber one micron thick isn't going to stop much current at all.

Turns out that all electrical contacts touch each other. "Well, duh!", you say? Yeah, that's obvious, but sometimes it helps to point out the obvious. Where they actually touch turns out to be less area than what seems to the eye. Also, they are pressing against each other. Not a lot of force, but there is force there. Now, concentrate that force (a few grams, usually) into a very small contact patch (like a tire has a small contact patch with the road), and it turns out the "contact pressure" can be pretty impressive. This contact pressure squeezes out the dielectric grease from the actual contact patch into a pretty thin film. I don't recall the actual numbers off the top of my head, but I'm thinking it's a few microns. This is even more so with contacts that slide into place.

This very thin film of grease does not impede the flow of electrons, but it does keep water and oxygen out of the connector, which protects them from corrosion. Mission accomplished.

For more detailed reading on the topic, including a discussion of the merits (or lack thereof) of using so-called, "conductive greases" (they aren't, BTW), please see here.

 

Thanks for the very interesting and informative article! I was a bit worried about my PCM because when i changed the AC evaporator I had to disconnect the PCM connector and put a little bit of dialectic grease on the female connector before I put it back together...

Well I had to get a police officer out to write up a report of a lost tag. I bought the trailer 2 years and bought license plate of it but did not install it because I didn't have a hitch on the van yet, I lost the plate. To get another plate I had to have a police report that the plate was missing before they would sell me another... Anyway, while the officer was out I ask some questions abut the lighting. He said everything was legal as far as he could see. I told him that according to E-Trailer I needed to have two amber side markers in the front of the trailer. He said this is an old trailer and didn't come with them so don't worry about it... I hope that works for other officers....I did buy 2 stick on amber reflectors to stick on the front for now though. i am running out of time and need to have the trailer ready by Sunday morning. My neighbor has 2 small trailers and they are set up the same as mine with only the 2 rear tail lights with side reflector/park lights built into them.

I stripped the decking off the trailer, removed the wheels, and flipped the trailer upside down to make it easier to replace the axle bearings and work on the wiring.. I was surprised that the wiring looked pretty good under the trailer and has about 15' of extra wire tie wrapped up sticking inside the tongue under the trailer. The insulation on the wire under the trailer is in really good shape and is pliable and can be bent double without cracking. With that said, it looks like I really do not need to do anything except pull out some of the extra wire, cut off the bad part near the tongue connector and replace the 4 prong plug. (until a officer from another county stops me to tell me I need different lights)!

Anyway, what do you think about my just using the 2 existing incandescent lights?
1157 bulb
27 watts for brake light
8 watts for park light

194 side marker bulb
3.8 watts

round that off to a total for the trailer lights and we get:
running light watts 24 watts = 2 amps added to existing system
brake light watts 55 watts = 4.58 amps added to existing system

The manual says for the van itself, the Stop, turn, and hazard lamps are on a 15 amp fuse
So that's 4 bulbs at 27 watts. total 108 watts. that is 9 amps if the hazard hazard lights are flashing (intermittent load)
If we add the trailer lamps it is a total of 13.58 watts to a 15 amp circuit if the flashers were on. Again a intermittent load only when the hazard light are on..

With just the brake lights on (front turn light load not included for braking ) there are only 2 at the rear of the van and adding the two for the trailer gives a load of 9 amps on a 15 amp circuit.

The manual says:
Instrument panel, running lights, and radio are on a 15 amp fuse
4x1157 park lamps at 8 watts = total 24 watts = 2 amps
4x 194 ,marker lamps at 3.8 watts = total 15.2 watts = about 1.25 amps
10 x instrument 194 lamps at 3.8 watts = total 38 watts = 3.16 amps
Radio watts?? i don't use it right now as it needs replaced.
So minus the radio there is a total of 77.2 watts = 6.43 amps pulled on the 15 amp park lamp circuit.

Add the the trailer lights running and park lights to that and we have a total of 23.6 for the trailer and 77.2 van = 100.8 watts = 8.4 amps minus the radio..

The only problem i see is if the hazard lights were flashing but again that is a intermittent load. it would be maxed out..


For connectors I bought some butt connectors with heat shrink on them. I will have to splice 2 wires into one end of the connector when splicing into the van harness. Can you heat shrink with dialectic grease in the connector?
The problem I have with the Schotch Lock quick connectors is that I have seen them cut strands within fine stranded wire. They are much easier to use though in this application as it is a tight working space. I think cutting the wire and using the butt splices would eliminate the chances of cutting the strands.
What are your thoughts?

If you think i should go a head and invest in the LED's I will...

 

Hi. I tow a 14' trailer made from a 1970 IH Travelall frame and has the IH tail lights. The only change I made to my 94 was installing a heavy duty flarastat for the turn signals. With the added bulbs they blinked faster.
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Take a look at this (especially #15).

 

Yep, sounds good.


Maxed out with your calculations using 12v, but it's really more like 13.5 or a bit more. You are over the top.

The best way to deal with that is to use a converter that powers the trailer. Now you are putting ZERO extra load on the vehicle's woring. The only downside is that you need to run a power wire, but that's no big deal.


The correct size Scotchlocks will not cut the strands. That happens when people cheap out and get a size too small. I dunno about using dielectric grease inside a heat shrink. Never tried it. If you get the heat shrink that has the adhesive built in, I don't see a need for the grease.

Another thought - I only use Scotchlocks on something that is very low current draw. If you get the powered converter, Scotchlocks will make the connections for you very nicely.

Either some LED bulbs for your existing lights, or get the powered converter. Either way will work out for you.

Did I mention that a powered converter is the best solution?

 

Might I ask what #fifteen has to do with replying to this post? She wants to know if she Needs to change anything. My trailer sounds similar to hers and the only change I Needed was a heavier turn signal relay.

 

She's doing a lot more than just plugging in a trailer, so your post looked completely irrelevant, like someone hijacking a thread just because it talked about trailer lights.

 

There is no need to over complicate things and worry about the electrical when it comes to towing. Millions of Ford trucks and vans have been towing trailers for decades. If your turn signals and flashers flash quicker. Then get a HD flasher unit and you'll be fine.

LED trailer lights are brighter so they add to the visibility/safety of the trailer. Otherwise there's not a whole lot of difference. They are brighter and are less of load. Right now I've got two trailers. They both have the standard old style incandescent lights on them. I've pulled trailers with many different kinds/ages of Ford vans( 1976, 78, 79, 81, 87, 88, 89, 96 ) and trucks ( 1970,72, 76,77, 78,79, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91, 95 ) and have never had any issue of over loading the vehicle lighting systems/wiring. This includes sitting on the side of the highway at night with the hazzards on while changing blown trailer tires. Or sitting on the highway stopped with the brakes applied in stop and go traffic ( more stop then go ) . The only time I've had any vehicle light wiring issue from towing is when a rental trailer I was pulling had a wire rub thru and short on the frame. That popped my fuse. I found the issue, taped up the wire and replaced the fuse, all was fine.

On my bigger trailer I'm going to be completely going thru it, rewiring it and be replacing all the lights. I'm going to upgrade it to LED lights just because I'm going to be buying new lights and the LED's are brighter, so why not. But the standard trailer lights are fine and won't cause your van any problems.

I wouldn't worry so much about the van's electrical. If it's in good working condition now, the trailer isn't going to change that.


For adding the trailer light connector on the van. The Scotchlocks are the simple solution. I'm not a big fan of cutting a wire just to tap another wire into it. If I'm going to cut them I would find some of the connectors off a newer one for the T-style trailer hook up adapter.

 

Agreed. If you want the simple approach, just use LED bulbs in your existing sockets.



Agreed. Trying to use butt connectors to splice wires is not a good plan.

 

Can you explain more how the powered converter helps with this type of situation? Do you have to run a wire up to the battery for this?