Trailering 101
Part IV: Electrical Plugs and...
Disclaimer: Please refer to the manuals of tow
vehicle, trailer and hitch for recommended operating procedures and limitations before use
and/or purchase.
This is the fourth article in a series related to educating our readers
on vehicles, hitches and trailer compatibility. Part I: What Can My Vehicle Tow? ,
Part II: And Now The Hitch., and PART III: A Word About Goosenecks are still
on line for your convenience.
One of the last pieces we need to cover is the electrical hook up.
Most horse trailers require wires for the following elements, left stop & turn, right
stop & turn, running lights, ground and the majority of horse trailers also require a
hot lead tied into a brake controller in order to operate the electric brakes on the
trailer and...? The reason we ended the statement that way is because beyond those
listed items we find that most horse trailers vary. For example, some have back up
lights, auxiliary hot leads to operate interior lights separate from your car running
lights, trickle chargers for brake away batteries,etc... Most horse trailer come
with a wiring diagram for purposes of installing the electrical connections. What
we are going to go through this month is not so much the actual wiring aspect of trailers
but the physical connectors. And, keep in mind this is just a sampling.
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1)Known as a flat four this type of connector is
generally used for boat trailers,and small utility trailers which do not use electric
brakes. The name comes fromthe fact that they only have a 4 wire limitation. Because
of this, they are not capable of handling most horse trailers,except those with
inertia or surge brakes. |
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2) 6-Pin Round. This type of connector is the
matching endfound on most horse trailers due to its ability to handle 6 wires or
connections. Depending on how your trailer is wired it may employee 5 or all 6 of the pins
available. One application which may use up all 6 pins is if your trailer has
back up lights. |
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3) 6-Pin Round trailer connector. This is
the matching or trailer end to item #2
above. |
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4) 7-Pin Round connector. Again this is the
end which would be installed on the vehicle. This connector even though it can be
used for bumper pulls is more commonly found on goosenecks. The extra pins allow
more wires and therefore more flexibility in the way lights and other auxiliary equipment
can be operated. |
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5) 7 to 6 Adapter. The pictures
to the left show both ends of this adapter. We have found that many
vehicleswhich come with factory installed plugs have the connectors typically associated
with travel trailers and not horse trailers.We apologize for not having a picture of the
matching end but it would plug into the picture on the right and convert it so that you
could plug it into the a trailer with a connector as in item#3. There are many
adapters available on the market so that you may not need more than one electrical hook up
on the back of your vehicle. We must admit however, we have had 50/50 luck with these
adapters, it all depends on how the initial wiring was accomplished and how many items
your trailer has. |
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6) Electrical Converter. Even though most
folks will never see this
box installed in their vehicle, except maybe on the bill, this is required for vehicles
which have separate Amber turn and Red stop indicators. It combines these two
electrical pulses, if you will, and combines them on the same line so that the trailer
stop & turn lights will function properly. |
7) Brake Controller, or Black box.
This is required for all trailers which have electric braking systems.
Even if your vehicle is factory "pre-wired" for a trailer usually this item
has to be added. It is the box which ties in your vehicle braking
system to the brake system on the trailer allowing them to work in unison.
Well that's it for this month. Look for future articles on informative trailering
websites. We are going to try and search out some of the best, if you have ideas for
this we would like to see them. After all "trailering education" really is
our goal.
Happy Trailering... See you Next Month.
If you have any comments, suggestions or topics for a "Trailering 101"
article we'd be happy to take them. Trailering education is our goal.
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