What's the go for Trailer wiring in Oz?

[BazF]

Can any of our Australian members provide information on how to connect USA 4 pin plug to Australian 7 pin plug, on 2017 F3.
Currently using stop lights as indicators, but not legal here.
Should mention , I have Pierre's hitch and harness.
I also need to tow my trailer/camper with my car sometimes.
TIA
Baz

 

[Mazo EMS2]

You could try these guys...they seem to have quite a few options
https://www.etrailer.com/dept-pg-Wiring-sf-Wiring_Adapters-hs-Plug_and_Lead.aspx

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Currently using stop lights as indicators, but not legal here.

You need more than an adapter. The 4 wire trailer wiring system for the US has these four wires: ground (earth for you guys!), left turn & stop, right turn & stop, and taillight. A single bulb serves as both turn and stop, which you say is not legal in Oz. In order to meet your law you'll have to change out the taillight assemblies in the trailer to give you separate turn and stop lights. Then you'll need to run a new harness from the bike connector back to the lights. Your harness needs to have: ground, right turn, left turn, stop, tailight. That's 5 wires. Don't know why your bike would have a 7 pin connector unless that is the standard item for Oz vehicles and two pins are not used.

What trailer do you have? If it's a BRP one then the taillight assemblies may already be set up for separate bulbs.

 

[BazF]

Thanks for the reply Idaho.

The trailer is a locally produced Eco-Pod.

7 pins is standard here, and all 7 pins are used for some applications. You can get away with using 5. Stop, Tail, Brake, L flash, R flash, Reverse light, Aux. (fridge, etc)

I have posed this question on 3 forums, 2 in Oz, and not a single reply from Oz. I know there are many towing trailers here, and must have overcome this problem, seems to be some reluctance to offer information.

I have a friend who is an electrical engineer. He tells me he can make up a converter which will not interfere with F3 system for around $40 for parts. Fingers crossed.

Baz

 

[Peter Aawen]

Hi Baz, what username & sites are you using in Oz? Did you do any searching on those Oz Spyder sites? There are some recent discussions (less than a month old) as well as older stuff on what you are asking about both here:

http://www.ozspyderryders.com/index.php?action=search2 &

here: http://www.spyderryders.net.au/forum/index.php?action=search2

that you must've missed. :dontknow:

I can see that someone using BazF as their username asked this question in an existing thread & was answered/given one solution in the SpyderRyders.net.au Forum, and IIRC, Martin (who operates that site) retails a relay based kit for Spyders to mate Oz 7 pin plugs to BRP trailers equipped with a/mkt indicators (that aren't also stop lights) & that will also allow you to run the mandated lights on any Oz ADR compliant trailer.

Cheers :thumbup:

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Baz,
OK, I've got it figured out now, I think. Sometimes I'm slow on the intake! So all my info above is garbage for you, isn't it! You bought Pierre's hitch and harness. His harness is not what you want or need because it is 4 wire output. I suggest you send it back. There is also another issue with Pierre's trailer harness. It does not isolate the trailer electrics from the bike electrics. If you have an electrical catastrophe with the trailer you put the bike electrics at risk. If no one in Oz, NZ, or the UK makes the harness you need you will need to build your own. What you need is a harness that has a 5 wire output from the module. The trick is to get the three parts you need into one assembly. There is a Y harness, part # 219400855 available as an accessory item from BRP. Combine that with a trailer isolating module, 5 wire to 5 wire, such as this one: https://www.kuryakyn.com/products/1744/trailer-wiring-harnesses. Then make up your trailer pigtail to go from the isolator to the trailer plug on your bike, running 5 wires into a 7 pin connector.

You'd think someone would have a plug and play setup available, but 5 wire trailer lighting is the exception, not the rule, in the US. The m/c trailers that are 5 wire here almost exclusively have bike harnesses available only for HD and GW. When I made my trailer I wanted it to be 5 wire. I bought the Y harness from BRP, a trailer isolator for the GL1500, and made my own 6 wire pigtail for the trailer connector. I added a 12 volt power feed to the trailer with the 6th wire. I cut and spliced it all to make it. You can see it here. https://www.spyderlovers.com/forums...plus-other-lights-Part-1&highlight=high+mount. I added connections for extra turn lights and high mount brake light.

The only other option, if you want to keep and use Pierre's harness is to use a converter like this one: https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Tow-Ready/118158.html. You would connect this converter to the left brake/turn and the right brake/turn and ground wires from the 4 flat connector. Then bring the taillight wire and the ground from the 4 flat, passing it around this converter and put all 5 into a 7 pin connector.

 

[PrairieSpyder]

Twist the wires counter-clock-wise! hyea: :roflblack:

 

[BazF]

Peter,
That's me OK.
I posted for info on Spyder Ryders Aust on Dec 17th, still no response. There was a similar enquiry for an RT, contacted the guy, but no real answer.
Still awaiting a response from Spyder Ryders WA after 1 week.
I am waiting acceptance on ozspyderryders.com. I noticed as a guest that the last post from WA was 2014.
Thanks Idaho, have to try and absorb all that. I contacted Pierre more than a week ago, no response. I checked that 118158 and see that I need to install 6 diodes somewhere :shocked:
Very frustrating

Baz

 

[Peter Aawen]

I just saw (& approved ) your registation on OzSpyderRyders Baz. When you get on the boards there, check out the recent discussion between Craigtech & Askitee on trailer wiring, there's more along the same lines on the Spyderryders.net.au forum too....

As is sorta inferred in all that discussion, I think you'll find that most Aussie Spyder Ryders who trailer either use the 'RT trailer Loom - electrically isolated' kit available from Martin (on the Spyderryders.net.au site - and yes, altho it says 'RT', it will work on any model Spyder & with either our 5 or 7 pin flat plugs & even our local spec round plugs too!) or they use a similar micro-switch or relay based isolating set-up... it's not really all that hard to build one for yourself! In fact, from really early in the Spyder Roadster piece here in Aus & NZ, once the early Spyder Ryders Down Under discovered that using the Nort American trailer looms created all sorts of nasty issues (some very expensive) for our Spyders &/or trailers when trying to mate those looms & plugs with Aus spec trailer lighting, most dropped that idea entirely & many of our home grown 'surely there's gotta be a better way' technically minded types produced their own wiring versions, frequently making them available to others as required. For those people, search on Pogo, Pogotronics, Lindsay, ISPYD, or Rabbit.... & there are quite a few more too.

So while our local Forums & Spyder groups tend to have a fair bit of info, wiring schematics, & the like if you search, it's just NOT on how to make the Nort American stuff work or mate up with our Aus spec trailers & wiring needs, simply cos very few bother with the hassles doing that creates here!! And that's probably why you've got little response to your questions on trailer wiring - you are asking the wrong questions for our part of the world, cos very few if any Ryders Down Under use the BRP looms or Pierre's looms or even try to mate any of those 4 pin looms with Aussie spec trailer lighting!! But check it all out for yourself & see what you think. I reckon that, like the rest of us, you might ultimately find it easier to start with a loom on the Spyder that is designed to 1). Protect the Spyder Wiring; & 2). Work with our Aus ADR spec trailer wiring from the start. Over to you. :thumbup:

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

I checked that 118158 and see that I need to install 6 diodes somewhere

The way you want to use it you don't need them. The diodes are needed when the converter is used to power up the rear lights on a vehicle being towed behind an RV. Most, if not all, RVs will have the usual American 4 wire trailer plug, and the car being towed will often have the 5 wire system. The converter takes the RV brake/turn/ signals and separates them for the separate turn & brake lights on the towed vehicle. The diodes are used to prevent the towed vehicle from back feeding power into the RV lights, and of course, that is not what you have.

There has been a mostly unsuccessful move in the US to change to the same rear lights Oz and European countries use, but inertia is strong. The US accepts the 5 wire system if that's what the manufacturers want to use, which is mostly imported cars and foreign companies making cars here, and large trucks. American based car makers almost always have, and do, use the 4 wire system. Hence, all the complications when it comes to trailer wiring!

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Peter, do you know if any Aussie or UK suppliers have available a 6 wire in (5 light plus one power) with 5 wire out isolators? They are scarce here in the states. The one I link to above is one of only a few I've ever found here. The BRP Y harness would be good to use, but I'm not sure that the RT one will fit the 2015 F3. BRP parts lists different ones for the 2015 F3. It looks like the 2016 and 2017 RT and F3 use the same harness, which I think is the same as for earlier RTs. And, apparently something was changed in 2018 as the 2018 Y is different from earlier ones and fits both the RT and F3.

My suggestion, which is what I did and mention above, is to use the BRP Y harness, cut off the Deutsch connector, splice it to the proper isolator and add on 5 wire trailer pigtail. From what you're saying it sounds like this is what your Aussie friends have done. The earliest BRP trailer harnesses were 5, 6, and 7 wire configurations with some odd ball isolator that turned out to be crap. That's what your friends down there were dealing with.

Are you sure BRP isn't offering a trailer harness for you guys who must use a 5 wire system? I find it hard to imagine they don't. They do sell their trailers down there, don't they? And the hitches too, right?

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Are you sure BRP isn't offering a trailer harness for you guys who must use a 5 wire system? I find it hard to imagine they don't. They do sell their trailers down there, don't they? And the hitches too, right?

I think I just found my answer. The international version of the BRP Accessories catalog does not show any of the hitch items that are in the US catalog!

 

[Peter Aawen]

Other Aussies may be able t o correct me on tyhis, but I don't believe there was ever a 'factory' wiring harness available for the BRP trailers here, in fact, those factory trailers cost a whole SHIP-LOAD here in Aus. IIRC they were well over $8,000 new - & that was if & when we could get them!! They stopped importing them fairly early in the piece because of the poor sales largely due to their cost when local stuff that was wired appropriately & more suited to our conditions outta the box was about 1/3rd that! This relatively high cost was at least partialy due to the re-wiring & all changes necessary to the light fittings required to make them ADR compliant here!! :shocked:

 

[BazF]

My problem is solved Gents, thanks for all the input.
Baz

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

My problem is solved Gents, thanks for all the input.
Baz

What's your solution?

 

[BazF]

The 'Y' cable from Pierre has 7 wires into the isolator box, picked up from the Spyder wiring, and 4 wires out to the trailer plug.

Cut off the isolator ($99 harness destroyed), and use 5 of the 7 wires to connect to my trailer plug, via small relays to protect Spyder electrics, using cable direct to battery via a fuse.

If I need to add anything else, I still have 2 spare wires (reverse light etc).

Even the wire colours from the 'Y' connector match the Aust colour code exactly.

Obvious once done.

Baz

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

The 'Y' cable from Pierre has 7 wires into the isolator box, picked up from the Spyder wiring, and 4 wires out to the trailer plug.

Cut off the isolator ($99 harness destroyed), and use 5 of the 7 wires to connect to my trailer plug, via small relays to protect Spyder electrics, using cable direct to battery via a fuse.

If I need to add anything else, I still have 2 spare wires (reverse light etc).

Even the wire colours from the 'Y' connector match the Aust colour code exactly.

Obvious once done.

Baz

You da man!!