hitch wiring question

[Craig]

I know this is slightly off subject for this forum, but I know I'll get the right answer here! A friend of mine just bought a small boat (17') with boat trailer. He asked me if I would mind moving if for him with my Suburban. The Suburban is set up to tow my Airstream. My question is - other than the correct hitch ball size, what about the wiring for the trailer? Are there adaptors to simply plug into the 7-pin wiring on my Suburban to convert the wiring to work for a boat trailer? (I don't even know, and neither does he, what the wiring on the boat trailer is like).

Thanks!

[Inland RV Center, In]

Craig.

The answer is no adapters are available to wire from a known to an unknown.

You will have to buy the parts and make it yourself.

To start with, what is the exact plug on the boat trailer? The number of pins, the kind of pins and the configuration of the plug, are all questions that must have an answer in order to further help you. Simply saying a 4 way or 6 or 7 way, doesn't help.

Andy

[Craig]

Originally Posted by Inland RV Center, In

Craig.

The answer is no adapters are available to wire from a known to an unknown.


Andy

Thanks for the insight, Andy. I didn't expect there would be an adapter to wire a known to an unknown! My question is, are adapters available to plug into the 7-pin wiring on my Suburban, to allow me to wire a boat trailer (once I know the plug on the boat trailer is), without modifying my current plug?

[uwe]

Originally Posted by Craig

Thanks for the insight, Andy. I didn't expect there would be an adapter to wire a known to an unknown! My question is, are adapters available to plug into the 7-pin wiring on my Suburban, to allow me to wire a boat trailer (once I know the plug on the boat trailer is), without modifying my current plug?

Well, there is a 7-pin round RV plug with a 4-flat end on it. Then there are 4-flat harnesses with a clip for the ground and loose ends with round push-on connectors.
I bought this at U-Haul a while back to tow a car hauler.
Again - 2 pieces, 7-round RV style with a 4-pin end on it, ( no cable, looks like an adapter) and the 4-pin harness with loose ends to the trailer wiring.
This should work for you.

[HP9K]

I suspect this is what you are looking for:

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...egoryId=277520

What I did is buy a 7 pin connector at Pep Boys for about $8 - I then went to Radio Shack and bought a package of color coded alligator clips and made my own adapter. I ran a 30" wire from each of the 7 pins in the connector and terminated it with an alligator clip. I was able to label each clip using a Sharpie marker to tell me what it does. The clips are small enough to hook up to a 4 pin flat or 6 pin round connector, and works just fine with U-Haul equipment.

One thing that really helps is to use a longer cable and terminate the ground lead from the 7 pin with a really robust alligator clip - then you can clip it directly to the frame of the trailer you are towing - prevents most problems with poor grounding thru the hitch.