WARNING! Trailer plug reducers!

[CSnyder]

WARNING! Trailer plug reducers!



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I am posting this to forewarn other members of a possible electrical fire. I just woke up fifteen minutes ago and for some reason I decided to look out my window and I happen to notice a red glow coming from my shop about 100 yards from the house... first instinct is someone has broken in it so I grabbed my 38 and headed out the door. I first looked thru the window facing my house to see if there is movement before I enter and see my brake lights are on. So now I'm thinking my damn brake stop switch is shot and I walk into the garage and smell a horrible burning electrical stench. I wiggled the brake pedal a few times and then pulled my brake light fuse under the hood and it is still on so I continue pulling every fuse until I jerk my trailer fuse and the lights go dark. In my sleepy stuper I look behind my truck to reassure myself I unhooked the gooseneck before I drove in (which wouldn't be possible unless I did some MAJOR remodeling with a chainsaw) and no surprise it's not there. I walk behind the truck with torx bit in hand to pull my tail lights to see if my in-bed plug maybe shorted in the boxside behind the tail light but I happened to notice the stench worse when I had to set the torx bit on the ground to get my sticky tailgate down and I notice that my big 7 to 6 plug reducer is still in the factory plug from last week when I pulled my bumper hitch trailer. I grabbed ahold of it and it's hotter than a skilet after frying eggs so I get some gloves quick and jerk it out and the whole inside of the plug is melted and stinks to high hell. I'm no expert on electrical fires but I feel God was looking after my baby out there by waking me up and telling me to look out the window because I think with the heat that plug put out when I grabbed it could have very soon burned my truck and shop up in flames. The reducer plug was one that my local dealer gave me when I bought the truck from him last year so beware about leaving them plugged in when not in use! I can only hope this warning prevents a family loss among us... I could have very well had it in the attached garage and never noticed it until it was too late!



Good Night, Chris

 

[HeavyHauler]

Whew! I'm glad everything turned out ok. I wonder what caused the problem with the adapter?

 

[MacHaggis]

That is scary! Glad thigs didn't get worse.



I'd be awfully curious about what was going on, that something could get that hot witout blowing a fuse. Which fuse did you pull to cut the juice? Since it involved the brake lights, I'd have a look at the brake controller, too, if it was mine, both to see if it was part of the problem and to make sure it wasn't damaged. Any way you can get into the the remains adapter to see if that's where the problem was?



Whew!

 

[CSnyder]

The fuse that shut the lights off was my trailer fuse (40 amp) in the control block under the hood. The problem was definately in the plug reducer itself because it was melted in the outer part for the 6 way plug.

 

[MacHaggis]

The fuse that shut the lights off was my trailer fuse (40 amp) in the control block under the hood. The problem was definately in the plug reducer itself because it was melted in the outer part for the 6 way plug.

You obviously towed succesfully with this adapter, but is it possible you had one of the old, no-longer-standard adapters? I've looked around but can't find the thread or article I recall about having to swap the brake and hot-aux wires in some of them.

 

[CSnyder]

yes occasionally I plug my gooseneck into the bumper plug too when I haul equipment that requires parts put in my truck box to prevent a severed whip. I have all my trailers wired exactly the same way and like I said earlier I used the plug just a few days ago to pull a bumper hitch trailer. I alos had the rubber plug shoved into the adapter to prevent something from getting in it.

 

[MacHaggis]

Bummer!



I hope nothing got toasted on the truck end.



And thanks, again, for the heads up!

 

[tractorseller]

WARNING! Trailer plug reducers!



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... first instinct is someone has broken in it so I grabbed my 38 and headed out the door.

Send me your address and I'll send you a real gun . Those little . 38 pea shooters don't pack much stopping power.



I'm glad you caught this before the shop burned down. I run a 7 to 6 adaptor on all my equipment trailers too and never had a problem. I have a buddy here though that installs both the 7-way plugs and the 6-way plugs by the bumper hitch and in the bed for goosenecks because he doesn't trust those adaptors. I always thought he was crazy but maybe he's smarter than he looks.

 

[CSnyder]

I have bigger and better guns but in Iowa here we have what is called snow and I would hate to ruin a good gun by an accidental dropping in the crap since I was chilled very well being we have 10 inches of powder and it was about 0 degrees out and all I had on was a pair of boxers and some slippers so I would be able to catch the culprits if indeed it was a break in. The 38 is in my night stand drawer for the little pricks who like to blow up mail boxes in the warmer seasons... . really makes them run fast when the 38 blows tree branches off above their heads. :-laf

 

[Turboman]

Tractorseller, if your giving out guns, I'll email you an address. CM

 

[tractorseller]

Well... ... . I... ..... uhhh... ... yeah... ... I mean... ... . I would, but you know... ..... the BATF wouldn't like it.



Do I sound like a politician? :-laf

 

[Mtngoat]

Good thing you had the urge to look outside, or else your story may have been a lot worse!!

Robin

 

[jwduke]

WOW!!! Thanks for the heads up!!!

 

[JStrader]

I also had a problem with a 7 to 6 adapter.

Mine was a NAPA brand.

The way I found the froblem was when I went to pull my 18 ft flat bed. I headed out at night and as I went to leave I turned on the lights. I came to an abrupt halt!

With the lights on the brake wire nearly melted in two.

It ended up ther 7 to 6 was a 6 with 1 hole blank. I took a test light and found the problem.

My trailer now has a 7 pin plug as do all my other trailers.

I'm just glad I wasn't rolling down the interstate and turned on the lights,setting the brakes at 70+.

 

[tractorseller]

I'm just glad I wasn't rolling down the interstate and turned on the lights,setting the brakes at 70+.

That happened to me once. Had a bonehead at the U-Haul place put in a brake controller. I was hauling a load to Yuma, started getting dark, my Chev's headlights came on automatically, felt what I thought was a big loss of power, thought I'd smoked my Duramax, looked in the mirror, and saw a lot of smoke behind me. But it wasn't from the engine, it was coming off my trailer axles.



I figured it out pretty quick and got off the road, but it wasn't any fun. I called the guy the next morning and he says "Oh yeah, I probably put one of the wires in the wrong place. "

 

[Texas Diesel]

Thanks for the heads up... I usually leave my adapter installed :--)





Any idea of the exact failure mode?

 

[Texas Diesel]

Thanks for the heads up... I usually leave my adapter installed :--)





Any idea of the exact failure mode?



I'm glad God doesnt sleep... . Once he woke me up and gave me the unction to grab my SKS and go for a walk at 1AM. Still cant explain why I did it but it seemed like a natural thing to do. Found some thieves trying to cut the lock off my gate. A few choice words and some chinese explosions and they left - in a big hurry. And never came back. To this day I KNOW it was a divine interuption of my sleep. Why I dont know.



Glad it worked out ok for you!