Anybody having trouble with aftermarket plugs into the stock 7 pin receptacle?

[PJereb]

I have two hoppy brand pigtails to adapt the 7 pin to the two different trailers I tow. Neither one will fit in the stock receptacle on my back bumper. They slide in, but stop once they hit the male spades inside the receptacle. The hoppy brand plugs seem to fit a little loose, with about 1/8” slop. Also, the diameter of the pattern of the spades in the Dodge receptacle seems to be a bit larger than the hoppy plugs. Anybody have any similar problems? Any better luck with a different brand?



Peter

 

[Casey Balvert]

The center looks like it has a plug in it. The center in the receptacle has an acorn nut contact for the back up lights. That plug may be preventing the thing from sliding in all the way when the plug hits the acorn nut. Hard to tell for sure from the photo. Any way to remove that center plug form the Hoppy adaptor?

 

[RCapehart]

That looks like a 6-pin to me. From the picture it has no center pin.



Ron

 

[Bartlett]

Definetly looks like a 6 pin to me also.

 

[Duluth Diesel]

Yep, you're missing the center pin, so you're holding a 6, and not a 7-pin adaptor.

 

[CChase]

It's a seven pin adapter, it doesn't have the center pin because he's probably adapting to a six round plug that doesn't have any reason to have a connection to that seventh pin.....



On a side note, my 7 to six round Hoppy adapter doesn't fit perfectly, but takes a little angling it to get all the pins to bypass one another..... might try taking a sharpie marker and color up the pins on the truck and see if you can tell where you're getting interference and then adjust the adapter or truck side pins accordingly.



On edit: As an afterthought, if one of the adapter is a four flat, you can forget about that one, there supposedly is a four flat connector up underneath the bed behind the bumper.....

 

[DPelletier]

I haven't had any problems with several trailers I have.



Dave

 

[Diesel Nut]

the 4 pin is hidden pretty well under the bumper, right on the tube for the reciever hitch. I tow a 5th wheel and got away from these problems by figuring out the color code (there are 8 wires going into a 7 pin connector) and cutting off the factory connector. Then I got a Hoppy connector from Wally World that was a 7 pin, but had a 4 pin mounted on the bezel next to the 7 pin. Real slick. The I ran some conductor wire up into the bed and mounted a regular 7 pin for the trailer. Works good. If you need the coor code:



Truck connector

Black (2) #1 Ground

Blue #2 Brakes

Blk/Org #3 Tail lights

Wt/Rd #4 Positive

Ylw/Pnk #5 L/H turn

Wt/Pnk #6 R/H turn

Blk/Pur #7 Reverse



Hope this helps

 

[CChase]

Anybody know what the draw is limited to on the reverse circuit or the positive power circuit? I am thinking about changing my trailer over to a seven pin to put a set of backup lamps on the trailer. I didn't find it in the Owner's manual, but may have missed it...

 

[Diesel Nut]

15 amps according to the fuse panel. If you want more light than that just wire the reverse lights to a relay (on the trailer) and have the relay draw it's power from the positive.

 

[CChase]

Thanx Diesel Nut. I can't imagine that a set of small sealed beam halogens would require more than 15A.

 

[PJereb]

Thanks for the replies!



Looks like I may remove my stock receptacle and replace it with a Hoppy, or another brand. I have tried fooling with the spades, I will pull it off the truck tonight and play with it on the workbench to see if I can get it to work right.



Peter

 

[PJereb]

I took some time and carefully removed the stock receptacle. DC is using a Pollak brand receptacle that is set up to receive the special DC plug in the back side of it.



If you wan to remove it you will need a T25 driver (for the torx head screws), and some dexterous fingers. On the factor harness plug you will see a red plastic clip, it needs to be pushed over towards the drivers side about 1/8” unlock the plug. After you move the red clip, you depress a little black finger on the top of the plug, then pull it out. It does not take much effort, if you are straining, you are doing something wrong.



I ended up bending all of the prongs towards the center about 1/16th” and now Hoppy brand plugs fit great. It was nice to do it on the bench, so I could do it carefully and not have to worry about screwing something up.



I assume that if you use Pollak brand plugs, they will work perfectly with the DC receptacle.

 

[PatrickCampbell]

That looks like a 6-7 adapter. or a RV plug that has no reverse lights.



6 plugs are small and round, not big and round.



I do also have problems with plugs. Sometimes they just don't fit, sometimes not all of the pins get good connections.



My solution is huge good trailer plug (READ PETERSON MANUFACTURING) and also some dialectric grease on each pin on the plug.