Building a Trailer Light Converter that Doesn't Suck
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- Опубликовано: 21 окт 2024
- "Shortly after man invented the wheel, he invented the trailer. Ever since then, he has been trying to figure out how to hook up the lights."
--Patrick McManus
The schematic I used appears in this article: hhrvresource.co...
Add a diode in line with each relay coil if you’re going to ground-switch your setup like I did. Otherwise, any trigger that's not powered on will supply ground to the relay coils through the tail light wiring (because the bulbs are just tiny wires to ground), and it'll click whether the switch is on or not. I'm not sure why this didn't occur to me sooner, but at least I got there in the end!
If you prefer quiet, here’s a schematic for a solid-state version that won’t drive you mad with clicking noises, along with an explanation of what's wrong with the usual converters.
www.electrosch...
You could also just buy a Hidden Hitch Powerline or similar, but where's the fun in that?
Whatever you end up doing, always check your lights before you tow!
Wow a guy that really knows what he is doing and shares it. What a absolutely awesome video, it works and works great, had this issue on my ford escape with factory trailer package. Great job, awesome video. This was great. Thanks
Glad it helped!
Cool project and great work around. Out of interest, when your cars brake lights are on as well as the indicators, the trailer and car lights flash 180 degrees out of synchronisation... is this typical for all 5-4 converters in North America? (sorry, I am in Australia and all cars and trailers use amber turn signals)
Thanks! AFAIK, yes, they're all like this. To avoid that effect, the converter would have to know the difference between the flasher being off between flashes and the flasher being off in general, which would be difficult without running additional wires. IMO the back-and-forth flashing is more eye-catching anyway, which is what you want in a turn signal.
Separate turn signals are a much better idea. Unfortunately this four-wire setup is standard on trailers over here, with the exception of the big chungus ones on semi trucks.
Took me a few minutes to understand the schematic. I was lost on where pin 30 was in the schematic. It is +12v on the brake relay and signal out on their respective relays. The rest are self-explanatory.
Use LED bulbs, won’t need to worry bout that small voltage drop as the use less power
I have the opposite issue, being in Europe and having a US classic car I'm allowed to have US-spec lights on a car, that is this brake light and indicator combination lights are done by one red bulb, while to attach to normal trailer I have to somehow divide these functions.
Yeah, that's a tricky one. I don't think there's a simple circuit to break the US combo wiring back down into the euro style. I would run wires from the brake switch and the turn signal switch (or front turn signals, if those are separate), and then run those back to the Euro trailer connector.
Nice build … If you are looking to get little more in higher voltage to the break lights, run a separate copper ground wire directly from your negative battery terminal to your break lights , instead of using the vehicle and the trailer frame . The .steel. in the trailer and the auto, has a certain amount of resistance compared to copper. I recommend #10 gauge
That would be an interesting one to test. While steel's not a great conductor, there's a whole awful lot of it. Imagine mushing the whole truck body and frame down to a wire, that wire would be massive in cross-section. For this load, I think a body ground should be just fine.
#10??? In residential wiring #10 can carry up to 30 Amps! Holy smoke!!!
@@jimbaranski4687 30 amps at 240 volts is 7.2kw, while 30 amps at 12 volts is only 360 watts. It takes much greater ampacity at automotive voltages to complete identical work -- this shows up as bigger wires.
@@andrewdunlap5130 yes, most of my 12v battery /inverter etc system is #4 & #2.
I got a 2 wire going into a 3 wire. American car. European trailer so trailer has separate amber lights.
Any ideas how to do this?
Gonna be building this myself for my 1983 GMC 7000. I like LOTS of lights on my trailers, and 7.5a isnt much capacity when using a Hopkins converter!!
Any idea how to make the signals stay in sync with the car when brakes are on??
You could light up a trailer like one of those Japanese dekotora trucks with this setup!
The counter-flashing is baked into the circuit, but I'll bet you could rig another relay to each stop/turn wire that inverts the signal back, then set those relays up so they only work when the truck's brake lights are on. Basically re-invert the inverted signal, when it's inverted, so it's not inverted anymore.
Is both flashing together a requirement where you live? I don't mind the counterflash, honestly I think it draws a little more attention to the trailer (if it's small enough that the truck's tails are visible).
Use transistors instead of relays and add diodes
What kind of relays did you use and where did you get them? Also, what is the purpose of mounting them with a cruise control box or that was existing in the car and it was handy?
The cruise control box was handy, that's the only reason I used it. The relays are cheap automotive relays I found on Amazon. Hopefully this link works: smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KVZ2MU4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Thank you for this. I found that with my particular set up all signal lines required a diode or brake lights would not function.
Glad it helped! I've been surprised before by the things that backfeed and cause problems.
@@Darwinpasta Also for anyone else that maybe wants to put this in an engine bay or some other spot and would like to have this in in a nice enclosure. Amazon has a nifty 6 relay 6 fuse enclosure.
@@Awuani That's a good idea!
I would think the back feed comes through the ground wire.. so, if you just diode the ground I'm sure you will accomplish the same result.. hehe THE MAX
Hi there,
I also made such a relay system with the help of that diagramme.
It seemed like it would work well, however I noticed inconsistencies with the lights depending on the order of which you use the lights.
For example. I had an issue where if my brake lights were applied, both sides would light up. If I indicated left (for example. The right hand side lamp stayed on and the left flashed - all correct.... But if I still had the brakes applied and switched directly from left to right indication. The right side would flash, but the left side brake would not illuminate until I have released and re-apply the brake.. Is there any way around this??
Just to say. Great video by the way.. In my case, I am trying to convert a Buick that has independant indicator/brake lights into a combination turn/brake system as it has red turn lenses.
Thanks man! I pulled up the diagram again and I'm drawing a blank trying to work out how it would do that. Near as I can tell, the only way that light would stay off is if the Buick's turn signal wire stayed hot, which would indicate a fault with the Buick rather than the relay arrangement. I'll run mine through your procedure and let you know how it does.
Tested mine again today with a camera set up behind. Brake on, switching the turn signals from side to side, I couldn't make it act up the way yours is doing. Again, this tells me the Buick's wiring is probably the issue. I'd unhook the relay harness from the Buick and test it on its own, make sure you don't have a random sticking relay or something, make sure you've got a good ground for the coils, then test the Buick's wiring to see if switching quickly between turn signals leaves the other side's light on. If the Buick tests fine, and the relays test fine, maybe try adding diodes on the signal lines to the relays, on the off chance that's what's making the stock wiring unhappy. Good luck!
Old but I had a ford that changed polarity of the brake light depending on whether the parking light was on or not. I discovered this as I couldn't get Led lights to function properly. I then tested with a multimeter to discover this madness.
Nice cool job
I have the same truck and I love it. It's very thirsty
LOL yeah, the fuel economy of a V8 with the power of a 4!
its a neat trick, but probably not really needed for LED trailer lights. I noticed the issue a lot more visible with bulbs or with the engine turned off. I recently installed these little modules from theretrofitsource, they are made specifically for halos and led lights, but they work well for trailers. Basically they convert the 3 pin into a 2, so i have one per side and they also DO NOT blink off sequence, so even with brake on or off they blink in line with the signal line. I will need to take it apart one day. The only issue with the little modules is they have very think wiring, so I am not sure how they will do if i need to plug in a regular bulb trailer (not work at all, or possibly fry the modules).
Another note, there are solid state relays you could buy, they are just a bit more costly. But no more tick tock :)
Interesting, that's an option I didn't know about. And yeah, this could be made without the noise! I found a schematic for a solid-state version of all of this (using MOSFETs I think) that I was tempted to build instead, but this was much simplier and, I figured, easier to troubleshoot if something went wrong. I didn't count on the racket though LOL.
Darwinpasta I can send you the link to the switchback controllers if you want to check them out. I took one apart and it has a mosfet inside. I had them installed a few weeks ago, will see how long they last :) aside from electrical damage, they are inside the car and I already have an led flasher to remove all load resistors. Those converter modules also need load resistors to work correctly. My cruise control was getting disabled once I tried to signal (without load resistors and running all led tails). I work too much on electrical stuff haha
@@oneeyedrone4293 Yeah, if you've got a link I'd love to check them out!
All you needed was a trailer wire converter kit with the 12v main for more power
They didnt have those 4 years ago
You can accomplish the same results with 2 relays and 4 diodes
Got a schematic?
Thanks............idk you could purchase convertor boxes ... :)
I think I am just going to run a extra amber light on my trailer as this is like a lot going on here. and those little boxes are expensive. I am going to go with KISS model .
I did consider that. Trouble is, just about every trailer you're gonna find has the standard four-wire plug, so you'll be stuck either converting any other trailer you need to pull or only ever towing the one you converted.
Wouldn't it have been cheaper and easier just to change the bulbs to LED? They consume a lot less voltage and amperage. That would have saved you a lot of trouble instead of using relays?
Very Nice! Thanks 👍
Shame you had to do all that just to have legal trailer lights, but my trailer is the same way. For the lack of 50 cents worth of wire trailer manufacturers makes us spend $100s on converters, wiring, connectors, tools and time investment frustration.
When the standard was developed, it made sense. Most older pickup trucks don't have separate turn signals, so the standard four-pin piggybacks off them without any screwing around. What I don't get is why the available converters are junk!
That's a Nissan Pathfinder
tick-tock
Very cool project but too much work.