First attempt at towing - FAIL!?

Went to the local U-Haul to grab a motorcycle trailer. Had to buy the 7-pin to 4-pin adapter (I have the factory tow package on my 2012 D/C). No lights on the trailer. Hooked the little tester up to the adaper, still no lights. At least the nice folks at Uhaul gave me all my $$ back.

Next day I checked all the relevant fuses, and they all look good. Why would the trailer have no lights/what am I missing? Does Toyota require a special adapter, or what?

Thanks

 

Had the same problem. I went to a local trailer shop that did hitches and everything and come to find out they said that t connectors never work right on tacomas so they redid all of my trailer wiring with some new system for like $150 that has integrated fuses in the system and heavier wiring and its worked like a charm.

 

Could have been the wiring on the trailer. Trailer lights are notorious for going out as well.

 

What? Thats crazy! I spose I should get with the dealer and have them do the work; 9k on the ODO, this is just unacceptable!

Thanks zach

 

what he said especially haul

 

Yeah, but the tester showed nothing coming out of the truck either. I wonder if the ARE cap installer coud have somehow screwed something up? All the the lghts on the tuck itself work fine, tho...

 

That's freaking crazy and complete BS.
I had no problems using an Autozone 7-to-4 adapter on my Tundra, used the same adapter on my Silverado, my buddy's 4-Runner, and his Silverado, and 2 Tacomas.

There is a connector under the bed where the 7-pin connects to the body harness. That may have become unplugged or corroded.

 

One way to test your trailer socket is to put in a $10 Pilot hitch-mounted brake light. Adds a bit of safety, too, since the stock 3rd brake light is mounted too high for some cars to see.

 

Very possible. Maybe the cap installer tapped the trailer wiring to get the 3rd brake light on the cap working.

 

no not the 7pin to 4 pin adapter the system that they use to wire the truck. Mine never worked and when i needed them and went to get them looked at it was the whole wiring system and the trailer place said tacomas were notorious for not working with that kind of system

 

I'll check it out, thanks

 

What I was referring to though was that the same configuration as the OP... the 4-pin adapter plugged into the 7-pin socket... worked perfectly on multiple Toyotas (and the same adapter worked on non-Toyotas as well).

I've heard stories from various shops hundreds of times that "XYZ is nototious for ZYX" simply to make the customer feel better, or to make them more willing to shell out the money to fix it.
Later research shows that there is no such widespread problem.

If it were the case that Tacomas were "notorious" for having bad 7-pin connectors and harnesses, don't you think the good people on a Tacoma forum would be talking about it?
They aren't. In the last 6 months, I've seen one thread indicating a problem, and it was the problem I referred to above... the connector that joins the 7-pin fixture to the body harness.

 

Follow up:

I bought a nifty little 7-to-4-pin adapter this morning, and it has the test LEDs built into it. I turned on my hazard flashers and plugged in the adapter... got one flash out of the LEDs and that was it. All the lights on the truck itself are flashing, but I get nothing out of the tester.

I have checked the fuses, and all are visually fine. Add to that the fact that I can get ONE flash out of the test LEDs before it quits, leaves me even more confused.

Anybody???

 

If your fuses are good it should work fine, the problem was more that likely that the trailer at UFail had a bad ground wire somewhere.

Your truck is a 2012? Its the trailer bud.

 

Additional follow-up-

The adapter does not have the center ground post. Maybe I need to get an OEM adapter and see how this goes. Frusty!

 

still not what im talking about. its the wiering for the trailer lighs nothing to do with the 7 pin necessarily

 

I would pop out the tail light and check the ground especially if the truck cap people were in there.

I had trouble with my converter's ground in the tail light on occasion towing my snowmobile trailer.

You might just have to clean the connection by hitting it with sandpaper & dab some dialectic grease. The tinest bit of corrosion matters at times especially with trailer grounds.

 

This is BS, those T-connectors that interrupt the tail light/turn signals work just fine. I've had one on my truck for 5 years and had no issues at all.

OP, I'd start tracing your wiring back. Start with the easy stuff like the plugs. Make sure they're tight and clean. I'd spray them with a can of electrical cleaner to make sure you have a good connection. Next make sure that dealer that wired your shell didn't do something stupid. You might want to trace the shell wiring and make sure that it doesn't tie into the trailer wiring harness. If you confirm that the shell was not the culprit, take it back. This is why you have a bumper to bumper warranty. Let Toyota find the ground they forgot to connect or the connector they forgot to plug in.

 

Took it to the dealer this morning. They *think* it's the tow relay, in the fuse box under the hood. The part should be in by the weekend. I'm right now going to say "BS", because when I got home I swapped this relay with another one (identical unit)... no change. Lol.

I wonder if this has anything to do with jailbreaking my fogs. But that wire tap has nothing to do with the tow circuits! This one is going to be interesting.

 

Is your dealership incompetent?!?! What you did by swapping the relays is exactly what they should have done before they ordered the part...