Tongue & 12V changes

[Rudy_Z24]

Hi all,

Since I just posted a 'help me' post here is a bit of an idea and help post.

I'm sure most of you know of this but here is how I retro-fitted LEDs into my origional lenses. I prefered this to a new 7" light. Just use a slim 4" trailer light and I had to hack the rear connector off so it was flush. I then took the raw wires that went to that connector and wired them into the raw wired that fed the old 12V bulb that I hacked off the origional. Here is a photo without lense:





I have also modified my tongue quite a bit. I have a new propane bracket that located the propane bottle to one side on the original tray. I did that so I could add the battery to the tongue. To mount the battery I used a 3/4" piece of plywood secured with U-bolts and painted with marine enamel. From there I screwed on the battery box.
Also part of the tongue re-do was the addition of a junction box. I cut a hole into the back of it to so that the wires would enter it from the frame. I sealed around that hole and screwed the box onto the frame. A 4-pin connector then exits the junction box with a gland. This mod eliminates the stress caused on the wires where they exit the frame. It also looks a hell of alot better!





I also did some load/draw testing. I turned on one item at a time to see the draw on the 12V system.
12V lights on either side of overhead: 0.92A ea.
12V two speed fan on overhead: 0.55/0.80A
Batt voltage gauge (I added): 0.06A ( I was shocked!)
Fridge on 12V: 3.90A

I also made a .pdf of my '73 12VDC and 110VAC wiring and will post shortly. (I am an electronics tech and had to perfect it)

[Gina D.]

Nice clean install. Good job!

[David Swinnard]

Rudy, how does the brightness of the new LED lamps compare to the old 12V bulb? Did you source the new LED assemblies locally? (This is a new game for me, trailering - I've been wondering about doing a change-over to LED based lighting but it's still farther down the list of things to do...)

Dave

[Rudy_Z24]

The easiest thing to do is to go down to Princess Auto near Ikea and buy the 7" LED lights. They are direct screw in replacements and have many more LEDs (ie: better/brighter) than the 4" ones I fitted in behind my lens. Princess auto has great selection and pricing. My 4" are like $15 each and the 7" were about the same on sale. The brightness is about the same at night but in the day I'd say the LED is more noticable.
The 4" I used light up red despite they are clear looking. Was the only 4" combo I could find that would fit at the time. Now they have like a 30LED 4" on that fits. Oh well. They also now stock replacement side lights in LED but I like the old style and they light up fine.

[Tim Ryce]

I also made a .pdf of my '73 12VDC and 110VAC wiring and will post shortly. (I am an electronics tech and had to perfect it)

Hi Rudy,

Any chance you might be able to post the PDF's of your wiring diagrams? I'm just starting the planning process for the rewire of my '76 Trillium; it would be great to have a roadmap of sorts to follow along with!

Thanks,
~Tim