Trailer hitch wiring meltdown at a rest stop in Ohio

Was hauling my 89 F150 to a buddy's place last Saturday, about 40 miles out of Columbus, when the trailer lights started flickering like a bad fluorescent tube. Pulled into a Pilot station and popped the plug apart, the ground pin was black and crusty, wire insulation melted right off. Turns out the previous owner had spliced the brake wire with house speaker cable, and it was pulling way too much current. I had a cheap multi meter and some butt connectors in the cab, so I spent an hour redoing the whole plug with proper 14 gauge wire I found at an auto parts store across the street. Lights worked fine the rest of the way, but I'm wondering how many other cheap used trailers are running on burnt up wiring like that. Anyone else had trailer harness fires or shorts, and what did you replace the stock setup with?

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felix_thomas7312d ago

Walked into the exact same mess two years ago with a utility trailer I bought off Craigslist. Ground wire was fried and the PO had used lamp cord for the running lights. I ripped all that out and rewired the whole thing with a proper kit from etrailer, plus marine grade heat shrink connectors. Cost me about 60 bucks and an afternoon, but I haven't touched it since. Also added a little dielectric grease on the plug pins, that seems to keep the corrosion away.

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