TRAILER LIGHTING

[spydercoach]

Ok, I am at at a loss and confused on trailer wiring Hane a 2012 RT SE and am building a trailer for it. Why can't i just tap into the existing rear lights on the bike for running, brake and turn signals. does it overload the electrical system or something. I just want a standard flat 4 pin connector and will be using low voltage LED lights on the trailer. any thoughts on this?

[harrypottar]

It uses an isolator which draws the power directly from the battery, it senses when the lights are activated and sends power to the correct lead. When you use your turn signal, the harness will detect this and send power to the correct lead. This protects the spyders internal cam-bus.

Tapping directly into the spyder lights to power the trailer is not recommended. Get the correct wiring harness then wire your trailer to the spyder socket. Either make your own or buy the lead from BRP that goes from the spyder to the trailer and cut the trailer plug off to wire your own in.

harry

[NancysToy]

You can probably get by with tapping the existing wiring, especially if the trailer uses LED lighting. The Spyder is more tolerant of additional loads on the lighting than it is of reduced loads (burnt out bulbs). The RT is more tolerant than the RS, too. That being said, the safest way, especially with a lot of trailer clearance lights, would be an isolated (separate) trailer supply, like the factory connector provides.

Now for the fine print...
If you intend to use the factory trailer hitch, it comes with the trailer module, which is plug-n-play, but has an oddball connector. Current factory modules only provide 4-wire output.
If you tap your wiring directly, you will need 5-wire lighting on the trailer, to match the Spyder's separate turn signals, or you will need to wire in a 5-to-4 converter. Converters don't always work with LED lights and electronic switching, however. You cannot directly connect a flat-4, since the Spyder wiring is 5-wire.
If you tap your wiring for a flat-5, you will have to find a way to bring the pigtail out of the closed bodywork. The factor module provides a waterproof bulkhead connector, but I am not aware of a 4 or 5 wire bulkhead standard trailer connector.

[2ndChildhood]

Here is what I am doing, I added turn signals to used the 5 wire system.




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[2ndChildhood]

Oh here is a before picture of my trailer project.




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[BeachSpyder]

i found out, the hard way, that the trailer controller will not tolerate a standard 5 to 4 converter if you have any led's in the mix. Make sure you get the relatively new Hopkins LED compatible Taillight Converter, part number 48895. NAPA carries it under their own part number 7552161 for $30.49. Hope this helps anyone else trying to do a non-standard wiring job.