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| 7 Pin Trailer Plug |
Must dealers do stock the standard 7 core flexible electrical cable with the correct wiring colors as indicated in the drawing.
There are many ways to connect your wiring harness in your vehicle if fitting a new trailer socket. You can bare a piece of insulation on the wiring harness of the vehicle, bare the ends of the wire from the trailer plug and twist them around the bared wires of the vehicle. Note that these connections must be soldered to ensure excellent conductivity and prevent corrosion. Make sure that your solder is resin cored and not acid cored. Resin core is for electrical wires and acid core is for sheet metal work.
Poor conductivity is the cause of most electrical fires. The reason is that the current can be enough to cause heat build up on a area of high resistance, but not enough to blow the fuse. As the heat builds up it causes carbonizing which increases the resistance even more. This can continue until the heat build up is enough to ignite flammable materials in the area. So ensure that your joints have the best conductivity possible
I prefer using HT self vulcanizing insulating tape to tape up the joints.
This can be obtained from any electrical supplier. I normally use the 3M or Pratley type. Although it is expensive it will not unravel like normal insulation tape. You will not be able to unwrap it once it has vulcanized. You will have to cut it off to remove it.
Most modern cars have fancy tail light holders as shown below.
One can solder your wires directly to the galvanized strips instead of stripping the insulation on the wiring. However you will have to remove some of the galvanizing to ensure an excellent joint. It is advisable to coat the soldered areas with insulating varnish to prevent corrosion when all the joints are completed.
Another method is to use splicing connectors. This involves no striping of insulation or soldering. However you must ensure that you size the connectors to mach the size of the conductors used. Here is an image of splicing connectors.
If you look at the connector, you will find that the groove in the front of the connector will simply clip over the wire in the cars loom. The groove at the back is only accessible from 1 side only. Simply insert the wire from the trailer socket into this groove, clip the connector over the wire in the car loom, and gently press the splicing clip down with a pair of pliers. Ensure that the splicing clip is depressed evenly and squarely, otherwise you will have to extract the splicing clip and start again. Once the splicing clip is fully home, simply clip the top cover over, and your connection is complete. Once again I prefer to use the 3M type.
It is easy enough to trace the wires if you are not sure. I prefer to use a 12V test lamp to a multimeter. The reason for this is that most modern multimeter s have a very high internal reading. This can give you incorrect readings when looking for the correct wire. However a multimeter can be very useful in checking the joint resistance after completion. Do not forget to subtract the reading of the lead resistance when checking the resistance. This can be found by connecting the two leads together of the multimeter and taking a reading. I would be very concerned if the resistance from the trailer plug to the connection is more than 0.2 ohms.
It is imperative to ensure that the wires from the trailer plug is equal to or thicker than the size of the wiring in the vehicle. Using thinner wire might prevent the fuse from blowing in the case of an electrical short circuit.
Last of all always check the wiring on the trailer or caravan as well. Ensure that this also matches the standard wiring code before plugging in.
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