wiring up my trailor lights....

hey guys i was going to help some friends of mine move to their new apartment and borrowed a trailor from another friend to save on trips back and forth. it was just a little 8ft trailor and had the normal 4flat plug on it for the lights. well the one that was on the truck when i bought it had the ground plug broken off and was really short way up under the truck jammed against the spare. so i went and bought another from walmart and went to throw it on there. when i got under there i noticed that the plug that was on there actually had 5 wires coming from the truck into the plug. white, brown, yellow, red and green. on the plug they were labeled ground, tail/marker, left turn, brake, right turn. heres a picture of it:




when i made my connections i connected the red(brake) and the brown(tail/marker) together because i would think they would have been the same. well this actually caused my cruise control to not set at a constant speed by cancelling when the lights were on. if the lights were off then it would work properly. you could set the cruise and drive down the road, turn the lights on and it was like hitting the brakes to cancel. so i snipped the red wire and all was back to normal. well when i did that the brake lights on the trailor did not work. the turn signals and the tail lights were good but no brakes lights.

anyone else have this problem or know what i did wrong or how to solve it? sorry for the super long post but i wanted to make sure i was clear and not confusing anyone.

 

bump to the the top. looking for any help

 

Did it come with a wiring diagram? What year is your truck - more importantly do you have separate break and turn signal lights? Maybe you just have the wrong wiring kit...

Mike

 

i just got a generic 4 flat trailor kit. as for a diagram it just said connect them accordingly and i just transfered them over to the new plug. and i had the brake one left over

 

Toyota,Nissan and the other import trucks use a 5 wire setup, American trucks have the 4 wire setup. You need to use the converter in the pic, scratch the walmart unit. The ground wire should not be all that important as the trailer will ground through the ball at the hitch. On the truck side you do not want to tie in the brake with the running lights...this is where the converter is needed for the flat 4 connector

 

The flat 4 from walmart will not work going from your truck to the trailer, you need the converter.

 

okay so ill need to get another converter like i took off? perfect. thank you for the help. i knew someone would be able to answer this!

 

What year is your truck and does it have LED brake lights? My '09 has LEDs and I have been through two convertors already which did not work. Same problems your having with cruise. One was a Valley convertor and the other was T-One from eTrailer.com, both units backfed current from the turn signals to the brake light circuit causing the problem. I spoke with Valley before ordering their convertor and they assured me it would not be a problem, well it was. I was looking at Hopkins and Curt convertors next. Both factories assured me they would work, You say the Hopkins does not so that leaves me to try Curt. I see now that Etrailer.com has a special covertor for LEDs but it is not the snap in type, it needs to hard wired in. This backfeed problem also played havoc with my ABS and Slip control systems.

 

Why not just use the Toyota stuff and be done with it? Wasted time, money and possible electrical troubles are the true cost of cheapness....

 

Im using a Toyota converter on my 04. Works fine BUT...I believe they are disc. from Toyota?

 

The Hopkins converter/harness works perfectly well on my '09.

 

As noted in my previous post. I did not personally try the Hopkins convertor, I depended on someone else telling me it would not work, so I went with the Curt unit. You might want to check the operation with your cruise control and turn signals at the same time. I hope you have truly found your solution.

 

Where can i get one of these converters????? Ive even looked on their website and can not find it. My trailer wires are useless because no decent minded person wires their trailer with a 5 wire set up lol. Thanks

 

I've been to 3 local wal marts, all of the local auto parts stores and tractor supply and home depot, and no one has a 5 wire flat to 4 wire flat adapter. All i can find is 4 wire flat to 5 wire flat.

 

Flip it around...

 

Then i would have to male sides trying to go together.... that doesnt work

 

two*

 

They have them on Amazon.com also.

 

If I understand you correctly, you have a 5 wire flat socket on the truck and a 4 wire flat plug on the trailer.

You shouldn't need a converter.

Plug the 4-wire trailer plug into the 5-wire truck socket, leaving the hole on the far end of the truck socket disconnected. If the 5-wire socket is wired normally, that's all you need to do.

 

Tractor supply and home depot both have trailer wiring stuff and none of the auto parts stores show they can get it. but if someone who isnt a smart ass would like to send me a link to one id be very appreciative. And tried just plugging it up, and it didnt work

Thanks