Show Chrome Trailer Hitch Install

[stevencovert]

Hi All,

I chose this hitch & harness off of Amazon. For the few times I'll be towing the Harbor Freight trailer I went middle of the road for price. The hitch install was easy. The harness went in place in about 20 minutes, the directions are good. I then realized the harness was a 5-wire, trailer is 4 wire. Got a Hap converter, cut the wires on the harness and soldered. Stuck both deep under the left lamp. Turns out the rear fender curves under the left storage, leaving just enough room to tuck the trailer wire into the area under the left lamp, and clamp the connector well, keeping things neat when not in use. The harness has a built in relay board for isolation:clap: no worries about damaging any brains. Just wish they added the stuff to convert to 4-wire, maybe they have one and I missed it.

The Harbor Freight tag along went together well, with the exception of a large U-bolt that didn't line up with the holes. Had to file about 1/8th inch slots into each hole (keeping the U-bolt centered). Did the wheel bearing repack, dry as a bone with cheap grease as expected. Might upgrade the 8" wheels to 12", want to take it out on a trip first.

While I had tupperware off I ran a rear camera up to an HD dash cam with Wifi, something cheap off of Amazon to try out behind the windshield. Scared to death of someone ramming into me, want video evidence!

Overall the hitch & harness had great instructions, nice heavy powder coat on the hitch. Longest time was carefully removing tupperware and routing cables - I just traded in an ST-LTD for this 2016 RTS two weeks ago, just passed 100 miles (had to take out in the 35 degree weather here for a short run!). Scared to work on it, afraid of gouging the plastic!

Just wanted to pass along my experience, it wasn't difficult at all. First pic shows the Hap soldered to the trailer harness 5-wire system. Second pic shows the connector being "clamped" between the rear fender and the left storage bin - I'm think of adding a wire tie just in case. In the third pic you can see the trailer cable from the Hap interface looping around in the empty area under the lamp, slides right out when needed.

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

TOWING EXPERIENCE

With a light load ( 400lbs or less ) the size of the wheels isn't critical..... It's more the QUALITY of the tires ....I would rather have " C " rated 8 inch tires than " A" rated 12 inch tires ...... Also if the trailer isn't all LED you might want to consider swapping out the lights........ less likely to cause issue with the Spyder computer ...... and there are NO SOCKETS to corrode ................. jmho ...... Mike .................PS nice write -up :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

 

[DC1]

With a light load ( 400lbs or less ) the size of the wheels isn't critical..... It's more the QUALITY of the tires ....I would rather have " C " rated 8 inch tires than " A" rated 12 inch tires ...... Also if the trailer isn't all LED you might want to consider swapping out the lights........ less likely to cause issue with the Spyder computer ...... and there are NO SOCKETS to corrode ................. jmho ...... Mike .................PS nice write -up :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

I used a powered 5 wire converter on mine....Spyder don't even know it has my little HF trailer hooked to it...:thumbup:

 

[stevencovert]

Oh well...

Apparently my HAP 5 to 4 converter is DOA out of the box. The relays in the harness are clicking away, the turn signals do not work! The tail light is OK. I verified the signals coming into the HAP. Guess it's time to get another one from another manufacture :banghead:. There is no load, I'm using a $3 "tester" with LED's I got at Harbor Freight - so I know there isn't a short or anything, has yet to see a load. I do get hyperflash on right side, not on left. Thought that was unusual...