Trailer lights: what kind of connector?

[JBotAlan]

Wow. I never thought I'd find myself writing such a crazily off-topic question on this forum...but hey, that's what chit-chat is for.

My family owns a small Dutchmen pop-up trailer. It has the obligatory two taillights and set of running lights. Obviously, this must be connected to the car's electrical system, and in the past we've paid the trailer dealer to run wiring suitable for said connection. However, a change of vehicles later, we were without a convenient way of connecting this plug.

My parents took the car to the dealership (of the car, not the trailer), and they installed a wire harness coming out of several places under the car to the back. To protect the wire, the whole assembly was mummified with electrical tape. The connection and wire was exposed to the elements (Michigan road salt being one of them), and, not surprisingly, reacted with them, producing a lovely blue oxide and preventing our lights from working at all. At the points where the wire had been crimped into butt connectors (under the car), it snapped, with the same tell-tale blue oxide. We discovered this 5 minutes before leaving for a camping trip, so last-minute I whipped out my FIRST wiring skills, crimpers, wire-nuts, and electrical tape, and jimmied the harness to the trailer. It worked...but I know that I don't want to do that again.

So I'd appreciate suggestions. I'd like to protect this so it lasts a few years at least. It seems that would suggest I need to pull it inside the car during the winter. Also, I have no idea what kind of connector to get. Are there connectors specifically designed to withstand the elements?

Should I even attempt this myself? It seems simple enough...but car wiring seems to degrade handsomely if not totally sealed. Will the dealer actually seal it?

That's my dilemma. I'd appreciate any input on the whole situation.

Thanks,
JBot

[MrForbes]

Shop around for butt connectors that have sealing type shrink wrap outer skin...then you can just crimp and wave a heat gun over it and have a fairly reliable connection. Try a "real" auto parts store, or a full line electronics parts catalog or online store.

Being from Arizona I don't have as much experience with corrosion as the rust belt folks do...but you might try a round connector with a self closing cover, they are sold at "real" auto parts stores and trailer supply stores. Or get the small flat 4 wire molded connector, but get two of them, cut the wires off the extra halves and use them to cover up the connectors when the trailer is not being used.

A bit of grease over the connector terminals would help too, I imagine.

[RyanN]

I've never seen corrosion on the marine trailer lights around here. I also have the trick of putting Vaseline on all open electrical connections in our boats. I don't see anything special about the trailer light connections we have, but with the salt water, the lights (LED, incadescent, lifetime warranty, whatever) go out within a year no matter what, but I've only had to replace the whole wiring harness once on our boat trailer, and that was due to the wire being pinched somehow (don't remember how, but it cut all the wires). My dad had to recently replace the harness on his truck due to the "Professional Installation" by the dealership which consisted of various sized wire caps and lots of electrical tape.

My recommendation is to find a marine grade one and put Vaseline on it.

[KarenH]

I was amazed to see this thread, because just last night,* I was telling my son about all the connections that a camping trailer needs. This is stuff I learned about in the 1970s, and I haven't thought about for years!

Anyway, I don't know about electrical specifics, but if I were in your situation, I would not go to a car dealer; I would go to an RV specialist for any work related to the towing apparatus, whether for the tow vehicle or for the trailer. I believe that any decent RV specialist will have tons more experience with this than a regular car dealer. It would probably be worth the drive, even if you don't have an RV shop near you.

*In case you were wondering, we were discussing a show Eric had seen in which some crazy people did an experiment to see if they could stop a runaway trailer using rockets. They nearly got themselves killed, of course. As I explained to Eric, a good trailer towing package already has multiple safety mechanisms which would make it virtually impossible for a runaway trailer situation to occur.

[MrForbes]

I seem to spend more time getting horse trailer wiring working

[Branden Ghena]

My dad and I re-wired my grandpa's trailer because its lights didn't work. When we were finished the lights still didn't work. We realized we had blown a fuse in the car, although the wiring was probably bad to begin with.