Date:         Wed, 24 Mar 1999 23:26:00 EST
Reply-To:     SBate82659@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Sam Bateman <SBate82659@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: trailer lights?
Comments: cc: jseitz@facstaff.wisc.edu
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

In a message dated 99-03-24 09:01:30 EST, you write:

<< Any suggestions as to where to hook into the wiring for trailer lights?

 Joe
 '84 Westy >>

I hooked mine in the left (driver's-side) area just to the left of the coolant
expansion tank.
Used a multi-conductor wire that I tied into the lighting harness up by the
relay box which lives on the left of the engine bay.
I was too cheap then to buy one of those solid-state converters to use dual
filament trailer lights with the single filament system that the Vanagon uses
so I built a switching unit out of salvaged relays that I housed in a project
box from Radio Shack.
It's a hell of a thing that looks like it would be more at home on a Soviet
submarine than in the back of a Vanagon.
By the time the thing was completed I had spent enough time to have bought
several of the Lite-Mates - oh well, we all have lessons left to learn.
My point is, go buy yourself a solid-state converter for about $20.00, wire it
into the rear harness, tye-wrap it to the left rear bulkhead and run your
(somewhat extended) pig-tail for the trailer out of the access hatch behind
the license-plate.
I just tuck my pig-tail up into the inside of the rear bumper when I'm not
towing.

HTH

Sam Bateman
Fork Union, VA
'87 Vanagon GL
'85 Audi 5000S Avant