Trailer Wiring Harness 4 pins or 5 pins?

[Julian]

Got a 4 pin plug on your tow vehicle and have a trailer with 5 pins? The best solution is to wire in a new harness and connect that 5th pin to your reverse lights.

Here is a simple way to avoid completely redoing the wiriing:

http://www.etrailer.com/p-47515.html

Alternate solutions are all manual stop gaps:

1) Use the metal key to prevent the brakes from engaging

2) Plug the 5th pin on the trailer onto the 2nd (I think) pin on the vehicle and turn the vehicle lights on (this is the running lights). This fakes out the trailer into thinking the reverse lights are on, and disengages the brakes.

 

[Bruce]

The wiring to the 5 pin connector on my trailer was falling apart so I switched to a 7 pin connector. It took about 5 minutes to make the switch and test everything. Now I do not have to use an adapter anymore.

 

[KXCam22]

I switched to a 7 before I towed the boat for the first time. Made sense since the connector was cheaper than the adapter. Cam.

 

[Wayloncle]

I lost my 7 to 5 pin adapter so I just wired on a 7 pin plug as well.

 

[Zarrella]

I just use the adapter I bought at West Marine