Wiring Questions

[Dave Mac]

As some of you know I have a new to me 1979 Burro. I have been re-wiring the brakes from hub to the front of the trailer. Now I am making these connections and discovering other problems I will be addressing.
First question: pictured below is a wiring "Lug". I am planing on connecting the incoming white from the tow cable to this lug. I am then going to connect all or most other white wires to this. The whites from my brakes and the other whites that were originaly wired together when I started. Does anyone see any problem with using this lug?
I will include a couple pictures of my wiring progress also.

[Dave Mac]

An error prevented my last picture going through on this post. Here is the picture of where I am now. This photo does not show the brake wires I have run. You can see I need somewhere to connect more white wires though.
Dave

[Herb P]

As some of you know I have a new to me 1979 Burro. I have been re-wiring the brakes from hub to the front of the trailer. Now I am making these connections and discovering other problems I will be addressing.
First question: pictured below is a wiring "Lug". I am planing on connecting the incoming white from the tow cable to this lug. I am then going to connect all or most other white wires to this. The whites from my brakes and the other whites that were originaly wired together when I started. Does anyone see any problem with using this lug?
I will include a couple pictures of my wiring progress also.

So basically you're making a common ground-strap... That's perfectly acceptable.

I've done something similar with a copper bar pre-threaded with #6-24 screws...

http://www.beer.org/gallery/Boler17-refresh/IMG_5485

There's a big bolt clamp at the end (easiest to see in the picture) where the incoming ground gets secured.

[Pete Dumbleton]

Scamp used a buss like that, but much shorter, to connect the 120VAC (green) ground from my breaker box to the frame It's sort of hidden in the fender well behind the left wheel.

On my 91S13, the 120VAC wiring is 'stand-alone', with the converter just plugged into an outlet to get it's AC power. Later Scamps appear to have the 120VAC hardware inside the converter.

[Dave Mac]

So basically you're making a common ground-strap... That's perfectly acceptable.

I've done something similar with a copper bar pre-threaded with #6-24 screws...

http://www.beer.org/gallery/Boler17-refresh/IMG_5485

There's a big bolt clamp at the end (easiest to see in the picture) where the incoming ground gets secured.

I kept reviewing this picture but could not quite see this set up you have because of the camera angle. But I assumed this is what you did.

Thanks

[Dave Mac]

I also need to somehow get a 7 pin female rv connection on my 1993 Jeep Wrangler. I have not found any with a quick connect wire harness for my vehical. So I'm thinking I will need to splice and wire it some how. Right now my jeep has a 4 pin flat on it that I did not install. Ineed to look and see if it was installed with a quick connction type set up or a splice and wire install. I might be able to utilize some of it if it was a quick connect type.
Anyway any one know of a 7 pin product specificaly for my Jeep?

Dave

[Dave Mac]

Scamp used a buss like that, but much shorter, to connect the 120VAC (green) ground from my breaker box to the frame It's sort of hidden in the fender well behind the left wheel.

On my 91S13, the 120VAC wiring is 'stand-alone', with the converter just plugged into an outlet to get it's AC power. Later Scamps appear to have the 120VAC hardware inside the converter.

I'm looking at this for my 12 volt system for the wire harness connections not 110.

[Brian B-P]

I think that the bus bar is a great idea for the negative side of the 12 volt circuits. There are a lot of connections coming together in this case, and the bus bar gives each wire a secure connection to a common point. The bus bar idea is used both for grounds and for power circuits, in DC and AC, at low voltages and high - I think Pete was just giving one of these examples in support of the idea.

[Brian B-P]

My van has a dealer-installed wiring harness for the trailer lights which ends in a four-way flat connector. I used a 7-way socket which is designed for this situation, which is fed by a cable that plugs into the van's four-way connector for the light signals, plus separate wires which are connected to the brake, charge, and negative wires that I added.

If you don't want to do that, you can also just cut off the 4-way and replace it with a 7-way, if you can't find a complete harness to tap in the same way the 4-way does.

I would want to check how that 4-way is connected before deciding to use its wiring - hopefully there is an converter/isolator of some sort between the Jeep's light circuits and the trailer connector; a converter would be needed if the Jeep has separate brake and turn signals, but even if not, some isolation for circuit protection would be good.

[Herb P]

I kept reviewing this picture but could not quite see this set up you have because of the camera angle. But I assumed this is what you did.

Yeah. If it would help, I can take more detailed pictures...

[Dave Mac]

Yeah. If it would help, I can take more detailed pictures...

Not needed but thanks.

[Dave Mac]

My van has a dealer-installed wiring harness for the trailer lights which ends in a four-way flat connector. I used a 7-way socket which is designed for this situation, which is fed by a cable that plugs into the van's four-way connector for the light signals, plus separate wires which are connected to the brake, charge, and negative wires that I added.

If you don't want to do that, you can also just cut off the 4-way and replace it with a 7-way, if you can't find a complete harness to tap in the same way the 4-way does.

I would want to check how that 4-way is connected before deciding to use its wiring - hopefully there is an converter/isolator of some sort between the Jeep's light circuits and the trailer connector; a converter would be needed if the Jeep has separate brake and turn signals, but even if not, some isolation for circuit protection would be good.

I have a feeling I will be removing the 4 way flat and utilizing the wires in it to install onto the 7 pin. Then adding the 3 wires/circuits need to complete the 7 pins. If I find the existing 4 way is installed with quick connectors I will feel much better about just using the wires at the 4 way connector as is. If no quick connect then I will trace back to where they were installed and see what I need to do to make my new connections there.

Dave

[Herb P]

Not needed but thanks.

I had a quick panic when I saw a red wire hooked to that ground strip in your picture but then I remembered that my 1700's water pump also has 2 red wires... The red one is positive and the red one is negative. I almost hooked the red one to negative once but wisened up just in time and hooked the red one to negative instead.

[Dave Mac]

Ok you guys...view these pictures at your own risk all right? They may cause flash backs!

I just wanted you all to see what I am seeing as I have been sticking my head in and out of cabinet spaces doing the brake wires. Some clown realy made a mess of this. Some of the cheapest splice connectors you could find. I guess your supposed to be able to press them on a bingo your off to the mountains! I keep finding them laying in the corners of the cabinet floors. And then I see little slices in the wires where they used to be and now I see bare wire. Not to mention I would guess the splicers are meant for a solid wire not a strand wire!?

Oh The Humanity!

[Dave Mac]

I had a quick panic when I saw a red wire hooked to that ground strip in your picture but then I remembered that my 1700's water pump also has 2 red wires... The red one is positive and the red one is negative. I almost hooked the red one to negative once but wisened up just in time and hooked the red one to negative instead.

The only colors I could get for the brake wires were red and black. I'm looking for some blue tape to mark them with.

[Dave Mac]

I love the internet! Look what I found at www.trailerwiring.com .
Dave

[Brian B-P]

Look what I found at www.trailerwiring.com

That's pretty much what I use, expect that one is better than mine in a way because it has a piggyback 4-way - if you tow a simple trailer that needs the 4-way, you don't have to unplug this adapter from the original 4-way. That feature would be even more valuable if the 7-way were hardwired in.

I see that adapter seems to use all four wires of the 4-way, plus has four individual wires (one of which is white with a ring terminal. In this case, they seem to be connecting to the 4-way's negative ("ground") connection plus providing an additional wire for the same terminal. In my case, the adapter didn't connect to the 4-way's white wire at all, forcing me to make a separate connection. In both cases, the intent is to provide a negative connection with higher current capacity than the lightly wired 4-way, which is necessary to use the brakes and/or charge line.

[Brian B-P]

I'm looking for some blue tape to mark them with.

That works, and should save confusion later. Electrical tape does come in blue, but I think a bit of blue heat-shrink tubing would be even better, since it's tidier and more likely to still be in place years later.

[Herb P]

I love the internet! Look what I found at www.trailerwiring.com .

Hopkins makes one of those. I bought two of those, one for each TV and wired one up. I also have a small sailboat trailer that is a 4 wire...

Pricey little things though... But worth it in my opinion.

[Dave Mac]

That works, and should save confusion later. Electrical tape does come in blue, but I think a bit of blue heat-shrink tubing would be even better, since it's tidier and more likely to still be in place years later.

Ahh... good thought...