Could you rebuild your unbilical cord while parked on the side of the interstate?

[rweis]

On a 3 week vacation cruising down the interstate at 60 mph in the middle of nowhere south of Indianapolis IN and the BrakeSmart controller announces "the trailer is disconnected".



Say What? It better NOT be!



I gently slow down thanking GOD I am not in the mountains where I will be in a couple of hours (Chattanooga TN).



My unbillical cord is (was) longer than most (about 10' long). I coil the extra when I plug it in and put the coil in the bed of the truck with a bungee cord around it so it will not unwrap and get through the net tail gate.



Well somehow the bungee came undone and allowed the unbillical cord to get under the net tail gate and drag on the road surface. Got stopped and yep, the unbillical was literally cut in two pieces. The part that plugs into the truck was still securely plugged into the truck but only about 3 feet long.



The trailer relay in the PDC was fried, but that was the only electrical consequence. I just put the fuel heater relay into the trailer relay slot. AutoZone has them $9. 50.



Now the part as to why I am writting this.



I carry a 400 watt inverter in the truck so we can cook in a crock pot while traveling on the way to the next camp ground (crock pot uses 2 amps (240 watts) dinner (chilli, stew, pot roast, soup) is ready when you get there and it smells WONDERFUL as you are traveling. Well, the 250 watt soldering gun is less than the 400 watt max of the inverter. Never thought of using the solering gun on the side of the road. So got the solder, flux, wire strippers, screw driver, and eyelet connectors and took the 7 pin connector apart and rebuilt it. The new cord is about 3 feet shorter than the old and even if it should trail again it will not touch the road surface.



You just never know, something to think about. It is nice to have the unbillical cord for brakes and lights.



Bob Weis

 

[B.G. Smith]

Glad to hear you have the situation well in hand. I pulled mine out of the trailer one time unhooking when the connector cought on the receiver trailer hitch when I pulled up, fortunately the wires were connected with wire nuts and didn't do much damage and I was able to get it back together. Hope you have a great trip. bg

 

[AggieJustin]

My box of electrical goodies is the most useful thing I have in my toolbox. I've got fuses, connectors, tools and enough wire to wrap the truck up a couple of times. You never know when you or someone else might run into wiring problems. I've also got a soldering iron with a DC power plug on it so it can be run off of the cigarette lighter, as usually when I need it there isn't a power plug handy.

 

[DieselTweaker]

Best tool in my eletrical arsenal

Being a Mechanic I put this tool to work all the time and has never let me down enless I run out of butane, It's made by power probe and it's a butane powered soldering torch, can use it anywhere, heat's up fast and NO CORD! For anyone that dose any eletrical work I recommend picking one up.



POWER PROBE SOLDERING TORCH

 

[MacHaggis]

I'm not set up to solder on the roadside but, like Partsman, I do keep a pretty good stock of 'lectricical stuff on board. Much as it might shame me to admit it, I even keep a few scotchloks rollin around. Don't trust 'em for quality work but I've got enough of 'em to get me safely to a place to where I can fix it right. Makes me wonder, though, if that Cool Heat rig I got fer Christmas might find its best home under the front seat.



My first rule of trailer electrics is to keep a cool head and approach any problem methodically. They can be more maddenin' than a nineteen-year-old girlfriend.

 

[AggieJustin]

Have you ever gotten that ColdHeat iron to work? A friend of mine got one for Christmas last year. He had some trouble with it superheating and melting down parts on the tool itself. When he called the company they had him send it in, but I'm not sure he ever got it back. Around the same time I stopped seeing commercials for ColdHeat. They told him it was a known problem and were working on a solution for it.

 

[Ron Bissett]

on the road fix.

I think I would just cut the wires back to good clean wire bare the ends (this is after turning off the truck and trailer battery ground wire . ) of both the part attached to the plug and the part attached to the trailer, twisted the wires one at a time matching the color using tape and then goop to seal the tapes on each wire then rap wired with paper then tape over the paper and then take a stick or dowel stick or small branch long enough to go from one side of the splice to the other and at least four inches on each side tape it in place on each end with several wraps of the tape then cover with tape this should keep the splice from pulling apart . Later when in camp or home I would just cut the temporary splice out and re splice and side and shrink tube all the wires and the outer cover too. Ron Bissett in Metro Louisville KY :-laf

 

[jwduke]

Wonder how one of those coiled cords from a semi would work?

 

[BillGotthelf]

The coiled cords work good but you still have to secure the with a bungee in the middle. The coiled cord can still bounce up and down alot. My tow vehicle behind my motorhome has a 10' 6 wire coiled connector cord. It works very good but I added 2 bungy cords half way down the cord back to the door cover on the rear engine Cummins.

 

[sarj]

I'm late to chime in on this one. but I wouldn't be caught dead without a butane soldering iron. I use it all the time for work, and I'd never travel without one. A good one is $25-40 at any good electronics store (no... radio shack in not on the list). Solder any place, any position. Add it to your traveling tools.

 

[jwduke]

(no... radio shack in not on the list). .

Hehe, glad to see I'm not the only person who thinks Radio Shack is way overly impressed with their junk!

 

[LaxCummins]

Had a similar experience (friend did) - Chebby dually and she yanked the trailer wiring out of the trailer side plug. Believe it or not, the color codes of the trailer wiring did not match reality (wasted half my time doing that). Spent about 2 hours in the dark trying to go home from a horse show before we got everything hooked up the way we needed. Made a circuit tester out of a cell phone charger. Macguyver eat your heart out.



At one point, we had everything but the brakes working and one of the guys we show with is like, 'she's got a dually, she should be fine without brakes for the trip home... ' - riiiiight... I said I wouldn't do it - 3 horse trailer (non lq) fully loaded up for a three hour trip over hills. Would you have done this?



Got her running and made it home without incident.



LAXCummins

 

[Ron Bissett]

Seven pin connector

Most at least the ones I have ever looked at have a screw to hold the wires in the inside of both the male or female part ,no need to solder just twist to keep the wires tight to push in or around the screw as the case may be. By cutting the wire outside the plug ,and replacing the wires one at a time you can not go wrong remove White ,replace white , remove red ,replace red ,etc when in hurry do not open plug just splice the cable buy cutting out the bad scraped bare wires . Then splice the same color wires together as stated in previous post on this subject. Ron Bissett in metro Louisville KY :-{} Oo.

 

[Willys]

Partsman, I'm thinking about buying one of those torches, but in looking at the site noticed different models. Would you recommend the pencil style over the stand-up style torch listed on this page?



http://www.powerprobe.com/ppmtkit.html



I have an electric 100W gun, it won't do anything... and the propane torch I've been using is overkill- it melts the insulation.



Thanks.

 

[DieselTweaker]

Willys,



I have both, I use the pencil style for all my soldering, You don't have to worry about melting the insulation and the only time I use the "CRACK TORCH" :-laf , Is if I have alot of heat shrink or some very large cable.

 

[Willys]

Thanks Partsman, I'm looking around for a good price on the penciltorch now. I have a good bit of soldering to do... .

 

[sarj]

This is a sturdy little unit I used to use for years that handled everything up to 12 gauge just fine. I still have it as a spare in the garage.



http://www.specialized.net/ecommerce/shop/layout.asp?product_id=720X150