Truck-to-trailer wiring...

[steved]

Well, decided since I had the harness for the trailer for almost 6 months now, that I should install it...



The original wiring looked like it had taken a ride under the tires, and then had been replaced by one with road rash. The junction box was plastic, broken, and not really pretty by any means.



I took a 4x4 electrical box and some Romex connectors... the harness to the truck now hangs straight down (not bent coming out of the box) and the wiring from the trailer is fed into the box with a nice radius bend... both are held with romex connectors.



I soldered 1/4" ring terminals to both ends and used short 1/4" SS bolts with nyloc nuts to connect the trailer wires to the harness. Some might think that's butch, but I can easily disconnect them and replace the harness in a pinch very easily.



The only thing I have left to do is install a fuse holder between the harness and the battery 12+ lead, I didn't like the glass fuse hold that was there... going for a 30 amp blade tonight.



I also need to hook up the harness to the truck and ensure it does actually work (although I traced each wire to the connector to make sure it was the same)...



One more thing from the list...

 

[steved]

Just visited Radio Shack for the fuse holder...

For those looking for a slightly more HD fuse holder than you can get most places, they have a 30A ATC blade fuse holder with 10ga wire... the wire on most is 12 or smaller.

So with this, I should be done later tonight. I'll post some pictures of the finished project.

 

[jelag]

I just did this to chase down a bad ground on my 5er... I used un-insulated butt connectors to join the wires and used shrink tubing that is filled with a heat melt adhesive so that once the tube shrinks its a 100% waterproof connection... .

I was looking for the reason why the trailer didn't charge correctly and found it with 2 ground connections where the factory wire wiggled in the connector where it was attached to the frame... it did take me close to 5 hours to clean up the wiring in the battery box and the junction box at the 5th wheel before I found the bad grounds... along the way, every connection that I found that used the twist connectors and tape from the factory was replaced with butt connectors and shrink tube... .

The shrink tube we use... is the same style of tube used by well installers for pumps that function under water... . it makes a very good water proof connection...

 

[steved]

The battery box is my next project... at some point the PO replaced the access hatch... they used the moldings to permanently close the hatch, so you have to remove a dozen screws to get access to the battery...



The rest of the trailer looks relatively unmolested... I might see if I can trace the yellow wire to the rear of the camper and install backup lights...