Trailer Issues

[Handymandbq]

I have a 2012 RT-S, and I'm having trouble with a trailer hookup. I bought an aftermarket trailer and hitch, the hitch went on fine, and now I am trying to hook up the wiring for the trailer.

I bought a harness kit that is actually a five pin flat, and the trailer has a four pin flat. I have the harness installed but I cannot get all the lights on the trailer to work. The only ones that come on are the orange market lights up towards the front.

None of the lights in the back come on. I purchased a four pin flat connector to hook up to the five wired coming out of the adapter harness. I have voltage at the connector at the correct times. I read voltage for the marker lights, and the turn signals and brakes on the correct pins. It just seems like that voltage is not making it's way to the LED lights I installed in the back of the trailer.

Does anyone have any ideas of what the problem might be? I don't know if anyone has ever heard of this before.

 

[retread]

First thing that comes to mind, polarity. If you have bulbs, take the bulbs out and see if they light with direct connection to a battery. If they do, the wiring to the socket is backwards. If the new lights came prewired, it's possible the wires got crossed when they were connected.

john

 

[rbob]

trailer wiring

I have a 2012 RT-S, and I'm having trouble with a trailer hookup. I bought an aftermarket trailer and hitch, the hitch went on fine, and now I am trying to hook up the wiring for the trailer.

I bought a harness kit that is actually a five pin flat, and the trailer has a four pin flat. I have the harness installed but I cannot get all the lights on the trailer to work. The only ones that come on are the orange market lights up towards the front.

None of the lights in the back come on. I purchased a four pin flat connector to hook up to the five wired coming out of the adapter harness. I have voltage at the connector at the correct times. I read voltage for the marker lights, and the turn signals and brakes on the correct pins. It just seems like that voltage is not making it's way to the LED lights I installed in the back of the trailer.

Does anyone have any ideas of what the problem might be? I don't know if anyone has ever heard of this before.

I too have my own trailer with a four pin plug.
My 2014 RT Limited uses four wires for :1- left signal
2- right signal
3- brake lights
4- tail lights
plus a fifth wire for ground 5- ground
Your trouble is likely derived from the fact that your spyder uses two separate wires for signal and one other for brake lights.
Your trailer is likely standard in the fact that the left signal and the left brake light is a dual element bulb, as is the same for the right side ,but the brake and signal lights on each side are run by only one wire and the other element is run by the tail lights , which are run on both sides by one split wire.
Now, if you are sufficently wired up here is the rest of the story.
I used an automotive converter that has an input of five wires(from the spider) and an output of four wires to a flat four pin jack.
I used my wiring diagram from my service manual, which I bought and downloaded, and on my spyder I spliced the four input wires plus the ground wire and the convertor now feeds the trailer.

 

[pitzerwm]

On my Honda and probably other cars they have 5 wires, so you need the converter mentioned above. I see that my 14 just has 3 wires plus the ground, maybe just rewire the 5 wire like above to the 4 wire plug.

 

[OverHillAndDale]

I had similar issues with my cars and bikes and trailers with a variety of 4 and 5 pin connectors. This place has converters that solved them all. Some can be bought at local trailer hitch installers and auto parts stores.

http://www.etrailer.com/question-64352.html


http://www.etrailer.com/question-111890.html

 

[Handymandbq]

Trailer Wiring

Everyone thanks for the feedback. I have gotten it mostly figured out. I found some information on the internet about these lights that said to connect the trailer brake wire to the turn signal wire and ground the white wire coming out of the light. I had it working fine until I finalized my splices and taped everything up. Now the marker lights and brake lights work fine, but when I turn on the turn signal, both lights blink. It doesn't bother me, but my wife thinks we will get a ticket if we are out on the road with it. I'm going to make another stab at it tonight. Besides, I now also have another problem. I put all of the tupperware back on the bike and now I cannot open the rear trunk. The saddlebags work fine, but for some reason the trunk won't. I can't get the tupperware off without getting the trunk open so now I am stuck. I'm going to make another post in the forum concerning this issue to see if there is some way of getting the rear trunk open without the handle working.

 

[billybovine]

Did you wire in a 5 wire to 4 wire converter somewhere?

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

THIS WORKED

I gave up trying to figure out BRP's way of making the rear lights work........So I bought LED turn signal lights that are all separate. ( about $ 15.00 per pair on E-Bay )...........It's not plug and play but hard wiring into the harness is not difficult.......I cut the plastic located under the seat and made an access door ( no hinge ) to the main plugs for the OEM trailer connections. My plug and trailer Harness is a 5 wire set-up, without any convertors. The system is fused, and so far it all works fine.........KISS........Mike :thumbup:

 

[pitzerwm]

A trailer came with my new/used 2014 and today I hooked it up to give it a test drive. I see that the side running lights aren't lit and the backup lights don't work. I'm thinking that there is no way with a 3 wire plus a grd could ever make the backup lites work. So does anyone have a manual? I went to BRP and see nothing. A wiring diagram would be nice. It can't be that hard, but tearing the trailer all apart just because BRP didn't bother to print a diagram sucks.

I understand what MIke has done and really don't want to do that. I'd also stick in some interior LEDs while you are in there.

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

622 trl

A trailer came with my new/used 2014 and today I hooked it up to give it a test drive. I see that the side running lights aren't lit and the backup lights don't work. I'm thinking that there is no way with a 3 wire plus a grd could ever make the backup lites work. So does anyone have a manual? I went to BRP and see nothing. A wiring diagram would be nice. It can't be that hard, but tearing the trailer all apart just because BRP didn't bother to print a diagram sucks.

I understand what MIke has done and really don't want to do that. I'd also stick in some interior LEDs while you are in there.

Bill if I had a 622 trl. I wouldn't do what I did either. My trl. is scratch built. Someone here can direct you to the correct info to find the issue...Mike

 

[trikermutha]

This is for the older 622 trailer

 

[pitzerwm]

Talking with a wise person, I found out the following. On the 13/14 trailer the back lights are the same as the RT, the difference being that there are no lights in the backup spot or the turn signal. For turn signal they use the brake lights. This is the trailer plug looking at it from the front. I checked the connections and suddenly the side makers started working. I found that the markers are LEDs, but not sure about the running/brake lights. I hope so.