4 pin, 6 pin, 7 pin.....hopeless towing newbie struggles with the simplest of things.

[BillaVista]

Who wants to give me the pin out of the common trailer connectors.

Seems locally, 4 pin flat, and 6 pin round are common, as well as a 7 pin RV plug.

My tow rig has the 7 pin RV plug as it had a camper in the bed (judging from the outrigger bars (or whatever they're called)

Trailer had a 6 pin, which seller hacked off and installed a 4 pin so Chad could tow it home for me

If I had to guess:
4
ground
side marker/tail/conspicuity light
stop lights
turn signal
6
add 2 for electric brakes (don't know what the 2 wires would be - some sort of progressive on/off?)
7
add a 12v service line?

[smurfsdad]

The 6 pin has 1 for brakes and 1 for whatever. The 7 pin has brakes, charge and reverse light. Just buy the end for the trailer that matches your truck. Also If you wire it all screwball so it doesnt match anyone else it makes it a bitch for someone to borrow your trailer.

[BillaVista]

So I was right on the 4 pin?

Also If you wire it all screwball so it doesnt match anyone else it makes it a bitch for someone to borrow your trailer

Yea - that's the real reason I'm asking...want to make sure it's all good / common, so the trailer can be borrowed.

[JasonH]

Trailer wiring

[70~K5]

4 pin as follows
1. ground
2. tail/ marker lights
3. R turn/ brake light
4. L turn/ brake light

Don't have the color code handy, but I could look it up if needed.

[FYRMAN]

Originally posted by JasonH
Trailer wiring

Please tell me you didn't make that page... If you did...

What a dumbass!!!

That page is so totally fawked, I don't know where to start...


Let's start at the first obvious mistake...

There are two appropriate ways to wire a 6 way plug. Trailers manufactured in the mid-west are wired one way, and trailers made in the rest of the US are wired another. Both ways are perfectly acceptable. The only difference in the wiring code is switching the brake and the 12v+ wire.

If you pull apart a 6 way plug (male or female) it will be marked with letters, not numbers. Also, never wire a trailer by the color of the wire. The color of the wire, unless you have the manufactures wiring chart in front of you, will hardly ever be the same between manufactures.

GD (the largest terminal) = Ground
LT= Left Turn/Stop
RT= Right turn/Stop
S= Brake or 12v+
TM= Trailer Markers
center pin will be the brake or the 12v+, whichever was not put to the S terminal.

The center terminal is hardly ever used for a back-up light wire. If it is used, it is something that you better take a picture of, cause you probably will never see it again. That is one of two reasons why the manufactures are going to the 7 pin. The second reason being that the 7 way will always be wired the same. Unless someone has pulled the plug apart to make the wiring work with some hermaphrodite truck, the wiring should always be the same.


The biggest fuck-up on the entire page:
DO NOT WIRE THE 12v+ WIRE TO CHARGE THE BREAKAWAY BATTERY!!!
The most amperage you can put to a dry-cell, or gel-cell, rechargable breakaway battery is 1.2 amps. Anymore than that and you will fry the battery, possibly, more than likely, by explosion. Since 999 out of 1000 batteries used in breakaway systems are of this type, do not wire your trailer to charge the battery unless you wire in a specific charger available from one of the trailer parts people. If you have an RV, or any other trailer that has a living quarters, your breakaway switch will be attached to the batteries that run your 12v systems in the coach. Then, of course, it is fine to wire the 12v+ wire to charge the breakaway battery.


The 7 pin wiring is also all fucked up. The 7 pin is labeled by number, and they also use color as an identifier.

1 White = Ground
2 Blue = Brake
3 Green = Running Lights
4 Black = 12v+
5 Red = Left Turn
6 Brown = Right Turn
The 7th isn't marked, but is the center terminal. That will be the auxillary wire. 999 out of 1000 times, it will be the back-up wire, and the common color is Yellow.

The way the 7 pin plug is labeled is common to RV's. This color scheme usually holds true through out the RV industry. Do not trust it. Always double check by function. You don't want your 12v+ wire to run to ground unless you want to see some pretty sparks and lots of smoke. You'd think you were at a TinBender gathering.

Congratulations... the 4 way wiring was right.

[Toy 4Runner Man]

The best way to deal with the difference, is to either buy the ready made adaptors, or make them. This way, reguardless of what you end up towing, you can just pick the appropate adaptor and not worry about it.

[FYRMAN]

Originally posted by Toy 4Runner Man
The best way to deal with the difference, is to either buy the ready made adaptors, or make them. This way, reguardless of what you end up towing, you can just pick the appropate adaptor and not worry about it.

And as long as everything you tow is wired to code, this is an excellent idea. It is how we do it when we haul anything with the shop truck. We have three ball mounts, a 2" drop with a 2" ball, a 2" drop with a 2 5/16" ball, and a 4" drop with a 2 5/16 ball. this works for 98% of the trailers we need to tow. Then we have a 7 way on the back of the truck with a 7 to 6 adapter with brakes wired to the outside terminal (s), 7 to 6 adapter with brakes wired to the center, and a 7 to 4 adapter.

[CSP]

Originally posted by Toy 4Runner Man
The best way to deal with the difference, is to either buy the ready made adaptors, or make them. This way, reguardless of what you end up towing, you can just pick the appropate adaptor and not worry about it.

Provided of course the adapters are wired like your truck/trailer are. My dad recently bought a 7 pin (truck) to 6 pin (trailer) adapter and the trailer brake wire was not going to the correct pin for the trailer. As Fyrman mentioned there are two accepted ways to wire the brakes for 6 pin connectors. So if you ever buy one of these adapters and the brakes lock up as soon as you plug it in you know that it isn't the right type for how your wires are connected. Luckily the one my dad bought was one you could take apart. He was able to move the brake wire to the correct pin that his trailer used and not try to find a different adapter.

[BillaVista]

3 Green = Green

Huh? Should this read 3 green = marker lights?

[FYRMAN]

I must have read that post of mine 60 times, trying to make sure that everything was perfect, so that I didn't look like a dumbass... Thank you for pointing that out. It has been edited.

[JasonH]

Originally posted by FYRMAN



Please tell me you didn't make that page... If you did...

What a dumbass!!!

Nope. Just what I found from a google search. I guess I should have proofread it first.
I used a page similar to that one to wire my truck and it worked fine. Must have been a different source.