Is the Can Am harness for trailers standard for all makes of trailers?'lmlk

[Wmoater]

I was told today that some bushtec trailers would need completely rewired if they are set up for a Harley. I have pulled and owned at least 12 trailers in my life and pulled over 300k miles with them. They were all automobile trailers and I have pulled with Chevy, dodge and ford and never had to switch anything with them. (4 or 7) Are motorcycle trailers not wired standard to work with all brands? Is can am and Harley plugs not the same as in 4 pin? I was told my can am control wiring is different. Honda is also different. I say they should all be same. Ground, power, turn and brake should all be the same. Yellow, green, brown and white. Are they different? I was told I’d have to rip out all the carpet and rewire.

 

[Wmoater]

I looked up specs and it says 4 pin flat plug on the trailer. Aren’t they all wired the same and anyone have a problem with our harnesses not working correctly?

 

[Wmoater]

Here’s the actual picture and it comes with cooler rack. You can zoom in and that plug looks standard to me. 2016 trailer for $1750. Retails for $4500 brand new not counting tax and delivery. 4 hour drive so no buggy to me on that.

 

[Wmoater]

Let’s try again

 

[K80Shooter]

If you have the can-am wire harness, they use a 4 pin square so more than likely you'll have to change one or the other.

 

[Wmoater]

So if I buy this adapter I should be set correct? He was trying to tell me that my turn light wire will be his brake light and that Harley wiring would not match mine so lights will not work. That makes no sense. I assume looking at lamonsters plug
White = ground
Brown = tail
Yellow = Left turn
Green = Right turn

On trailer it should be

Power to brown = Tail and side lights
Power to yellow = Left tail and left turn signal
Power to green = Right tail and right turn signal

He says I’ll need a five pin to make it work. There’s only 4 on the picture above. Now I’m wondering if he’s making me stall to sell to someone else?

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

So if I buy this adapter I should be set correct? He was trying to tell me that my turn light wire will be his brake light and that Harley wiring would not match mine so lights will not work. That makes no sense. I assume looking at lamonsters plug
White = ground
Brown = tail
Yellow = Left turn
Green = Right turn

On trailer it should be

Power to brown = Tail and side lights
Power to yellow = Left tail and left turn signal
Power to green = Right tail and right turn signal

He says I’ll need a five pin to make it work. There’s only 4 on the picture above. Now I’m wondering if he’s making me stall to sell to someone else?

Why would the seller do that ???? .... where is the BRAKE wire ???? ..... IMHO the only thing that might be different in the " Trailer " harness is the addition of a wire for BACK-UP light/s...... I'm pretty sure ANY harness can be adapted to any PLUG, the PLUGS must match ......good luck .... Mike :thumbup:

 

[Stubby]

The Bushtec my son bought last year came wired with a 5 pin flat. Yellow left turn,
Yellow right turn, combo red brake lights on both sides and tail lights on both sides,
and a ground. I took out the 2 yellow turn lights and added combo brake/turn on left
and right side, tail light for both sides, and a ground for a 4 pin flat. Sounds more
complicated reading this than it is.

 

[Bfromla]

Ask for schematic if factory from Bushtec should be a simple adapter solution.
Electrical connection Vendor on home page can help from there.
https://electricalconnection.com/

 

[Wmoater]

The Bushtec my son bought last year came wired with a 5 pin flat. Yellow left turn,
Yellow right turn, combo red brake lights on both sides and tail lights on both sides,
and a ground. I took out the 2 yellow turn lights and added combo brake/turn on left
and right side, tail light for both sides, and a ground for a 4 pin flat. Sounds more
complicated reading this than it is.

That makes perfect sense to me stubby. If he would have just said it was a five pin first, I could have figured it out. The website says 4 pin but either he changed it or they changed from 2017 to now. He said I would have had to rewire the entire trailer to make work and I knew that wouldn’t be the case. (Thats was BS and him not knowing how a trailer is wired) I appreciate everyone’s feedback. I knew they had to be standard wired. It doesn’t matter now he marked it as sold this morning. Now I know for future reference. I just wanted to be able to drive there and bring back on spyder instead of taking truck and loading in the back. I snoozed I loosed! Wasn’t meant to be.

 

[EdMat]

Remember the good ole days when you just drug out the test light cause someone used the same color wire for everything. :gaah:

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

I knew they had to be standard wired.

There are two standards existing for trailers, 4 wire and 5 wire. The 4 wire system uses a common red bulb for brake and turn. That is one wire for each left and right, one for tail, and ground. The 5 wire uses separate amber turn signal bulbs so it has right and left turn wires, a brake light wire that goes both left and right, a tail light wire, and ground.

The Spyder on board configuration is 5 wire with a trailer wiring converter, since about 2012, to go from 5 to 4 for the trailer connection. If the Bushtec trailer has amber turn signals then it is wired as a 5 wire system. Both 4 and 5 wire trailers exist, I think even new ones today. The Can Am trailer is 4 wire. Goldwing has been, and maybe still is, 5 wire. Trailer harnesses for Goldwing have mostly been 5 wire and the norm for trailers for Goldwings were/are 5 wire. I don't know what the norm is for H-D.

If you buy a 5 wire trailer you need to either convert the lights to a 4 wire system, which does mean modifying the trailer wiring, or add in a converter to go from a 4 wire bike connector to the 5 wire trailer connector, or change the trailer harness on the Spyder to provide a 5 wire trailer connector.

If you buy a trailer with a 4 flat connector one trick is to cut the flat 4 in two and tape back together to fit the Can Am 4 square connector.

In short, in contrast to automotive trailer configurations that you are accustomed to, there is no single standard for motorcycle trailer wiring.