Don't like the adverts?  Click here to remove them

UK to USA trailer wiring - thoughts...

Beau

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
2,014
Country Flag
guyana
So I'm a little stuck.

I currently have the standard 7 pin UK trailer socket wired in, and I'm in the process of wiring in a 4 pin trailer harness as these are the most common over here. But here's the trouble...

The US trailers (99% of them) use the Indicators as there breaks unlike our UK stuff. I can wire in the indicators and side lights fine, but not the breaks. If I wire in the breaks with the indicators, then when indicating my break lights on the car are also flashing - Not good.

I've had a thought about it, and I don't see a way of getting round this, without changing up the trailer wiring to match my cruisers. I've done some quick research and it seems there are some adapters out there which will sort this out. What's in these electronic boxes, that I can't do myself? https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Tow-Ready/118158.html

Anyone have any idea how to go about wiring in it?
 
You could just wire in a bypass relay. It's powered by a 12v feed then picks up only the SIGNAL from your brakes etc to fire the relay and send power to the extra lights. You could wire in what you liked to make indicators flash and so on, but it wouldn't send a signal back to your vehicle lights. They're about a tenner over here.

As you already have tow wiring in, you wouldn't need to tap into the loom again. All the connections are ready made for you.
 
Why bother when there's loads of 7 to 4 pin plug in adapters on yanky ebay costing about a pound in real money .
 
Chris, that sounds exactly like how those adapters work. They need a 12 volt source, so I guess they're just a seperate relay.

Shayne, those adapters are only good if your wiring already matches the trailer wiring. Mine doesn't. This is because American cars double up the use of there indicators as there break lights where European cars have these separate. So one of those adapters are no good for me. I need to buy one of those converters like the one I linked to make it work.
 
Beau,

Why not just pick up a Tekonsha brake control unit & wire as per diags to a 4-way trailer adapter tucked away? That's what we did when we ran an electronic brake unit on a US travel trailer over here.
 
Yeah, I bought a similar one of those converters from advance auto and ran it, pretty straight forward and works well.
 
Don't like the adverts?  Click here to remove them
I wired up a dodge van to have 'normal' brakes and indicators, the only mod was to separate the brake light switch from the wiring and run a wire to the light units via the relay Chris mentioned, I then fitted the tow bar following the normal wiring.

regards

Dave
 
Back
Top