Need to replace trailer plug

[PEARCE]

It's lasted for 16 years and it has finally developed a short. I ordered new 5 flat pigtail off of Amazon for $11 since no store had it in stock. I have cut off the old one and started to match up the colors. Well gents, our original 5 flat plug has six wires. There 2 brown wires on the trailer and one coming from the new pigtail. Brown is the running lights in case you didn't know. So I put the 2 browns to the one on the pigtail and matched the rest of the colors. Everything worked except the running lights. I need to know how to fix this. I've searched a little as well as experimented connecting differently that made what was working not work. I need to get this working and I'm hoping this board can help me. It's an '06 MFI trailer.

 

[gt5pilot]

Do you still have the old flat plug? If so, trace the wire there.

 

[PEARCE]

Oh yes I still do. I've traced them and tried to duplicate it with the new plug and that's when I lost all lights.

 

[Beachbummer]

The issue may not be the plug alone. You may also have a continuity or ground problem elsewhere. You will need to troubleshoot with a tester, or consider back feeding 12v to any of the running lights to see what happens. (While disconnected from the car for sure) Best of luck

 

[Scottintexas]

do you know you have power from the truck on that terminal ??

my F350 has a separate fuse box for trailer wiring,

if you know all the terminals on the truck side are working correctly I'd run a jumper wire to the running lights to see if they would work,

do you have a swing tongue trailer ?? many times the swing point stretches/cracks the wire at the pivot,

 

[AZMark]

My running lights have acted weird on my much newer trailer before and I think it’s grounding issues that go away after towing for a bit

 

[BlkGS]

I legit did this today, except I put a 7 pin on (can use the electric brake wires later if I go electric over hydraulic).

I just checked the plug I cut off, the two brown wires are siced together. I'd double check your connections.

EDIT: My (factory?) ground was toast. It broke off from that bolt that the emergency cables are attached to. I still need to do something with that to fix it.

 

[PEARCE]

I put a 7 pin on

I'm considering doing the same thing so I can bypass the adapter. I'm too damn tired to mess with it tonight. I'm going start over on this project after a good night's sleep and breakfast in the morning. I'll let y'all know what I end up doing or figuring out. Thanks gents.

 

[BlkGS]

I'm considering doing the same thing so I can bypass the adapter. I'm too damn tired to mess with it tonight. I'm going start over on this project after a good night's sleep and breakfast in the morning. I'll let y'all know what I end up doing or figuring out. Thanks gents.

That's exactly why I did it. I had a 4 pin, and my new actuator has a reverse lockout, so I needed to go 5 pin. Then since 5 pin is stupid and everything uses a 7 pin, I'd need an adapter. So I just said screw it the 7 pin harness is cheaper anyways and did that

 

[PEARCE]

Update: I threw in the towel and took it to a trailer shop this week. I got so aggravated I just said to h*!! with it! Took it in one afternoon after work and picked it up the next day. I was connecting everything correctly, but there was a bare wire within the trailer that they found that was shorting out and causing my frustration. So all is well! Renewing the trailer tags today and we're ready for some fun. Once we have some free time and the weather decides to make up it's mind and not be so damn windy.

 

[biffdotorg]

Update: I threw in the towel and took it to a trailer shop this week. I got so aggravated I just said to h*!! with it! Took it in one afternoon after work and picked it up the next day. I was connecting everything correctly, but there was a bare wire within the trailer that they found that was shorting out and causing my frustration. So all is well! Renewing the trailer tags today and we're ready for some fun. Once we have some free time and the weather decides to make up it's mind and not be so damn windy.

Sometimes, a pro is worth the lack of frustration.

I'm about to do the same with my trailer after I put the boat on the lift. I may have them go through the brakes and the lockout, as it seems to want to not run the lockout solenoid lately. Mind you I only use the trailer a couple times a year to go in and out of storage. But it's frustrating and should be functional.

 

[Babin Farms]

Sometimes, a pro is worth the lack of frustration.

I'm about to do the same with my trailer after I put the boat on the lift. I may have them go through the brakes and the lockout, as it seems to want to not run the lockout solenoid lately. Mind you I only use the trailer a couple times a year to go in and out of storage. But it's frustrating and should be functional.

There are a lot of times that things like that don't function correctly due to lack of use. For myself, I would like to take a lot of stuff somewhere else to get fixed but when I'm in that line of work it's hard to spend the $$ on it when I can do it myself. Just have to figure out how to make more time to get all of my personal projects done.