Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2005 13:19:59 -0700
Reply-To: TJ Hannink <tjhannink@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: TJ Hannink <tjhannink@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: trailer and lights
In-Reply-To: 6667
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
I tapped into the wiring inside the tail-light connectors by soldering the new wiring to the existing spade terminals. You need to run to both taillights to pick up each turn signal. You'll also need a 3 to 2 light converter in order to use a 4-wire connector which is the most common on smaller trailers. Mine sits in front of the rear license plate, you can access it when you pull the plate down.
The 6 & 7 wire terminals are for larger vehicles with braking circuits and a battery charging circuit. I am installing a 7-wire one on front of the Vanagon so I can plug it into my coach and use all of the stock Vanagon lights when its being towed while keeping the battery charged. I plan on removing 4 fuses and plugging in the wiring from the connector directly into the fuse block. The auxiliary wire in the 7-wire set-up will be used as a brake-light monitor to gauge the performance of my Toad braking system.
Good luck,
Tim
Karl Ploessl <ploessl@SUNMAC.SPECT.UPENN.EDU> wrote:
thanks Greg and to the others who answered. Still questions:
Did you tap into the single lines (brakes, taillight, signal)? Are
you using relays, directly from battery? I looked into some
commercial solutions and in the moment I am confused as I don't know
how all these different plugs physically look (just looking at
pictures is unfortunately is not a big help to me). And I found round
ones (6 connections, 7 connections, flat 4...)
Karl.
At 3:12 PM -0400 04/06/2005, Greg Potts wrote:
>Hi Karl,
>
>When I built the westrailer I used a bus tail-light housing but
>wired it to a standard 4-wire trailer harness. (Red lights only)
>That harness was connected to the bus' wiring with a $20 U-haul
>5-to-4 wire conversion harness. Unfortunately the quality of those
>harnesses is pretty questionable... they were failing annually on
>me. So last spring I added turn signal lights to the westrailer and
>an additional 2 wires to the harness, and that works fine. The bonus
>to that system is that when someone with a standard harness uses the
>trailer the "normal" lighting circuits still work as usual.
>
>www.pottsfamily.ca/westfakia/Westrailer
>
>Happy trails,
>
>Greg Potts
>Toronto, Ontario, Canada
>
>1973/74/79 Westfakia Conversion **Bob the Tomato** LY3H
>1977 Sunroof Automatic L63H/L90D
>1988 Vanagon GL 8-passenger Automatic
>http://www.pottsfamily.ca/westfakia
>http://www.busesofthecorn.com
>
>
>On 6-Apr-05, at 8:07 AM, Karl Ploessl wrote:
>
>>how do people with trailers hook up the lights to the trailer? Are
>>the connections (plug-outlet) standardized?
>>I am thinking to get a small trailer (already got the hitch)...
>>--
>>Karl
>>'81 Westy "Jenny"
>>Wilmington, DE
TJ Hannink
Goldibox - 1987 Vanagon Camper, Wolfsburg Edition
1981 Bluebird Wanderlodge, FC-33
Winter Park, Florida
http://home.earthlink.net/~tjhannink/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wolfsburg_campers
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wanderlodge
FAVOR website: http://home.earthlink.net/~clubvanagon
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
| 
