Trailer wiring issue

[printman71]

One of the wires in my tongue swing away broke today. Picture attached. Is there anything I can do except get another 5 plug that plugs into the front part of the tongue and splice all 5 of the wires together. Is there an easier way? Am I missing something obvious (I have a tendency to do that).

[Phisherman]

I surely wouldn't call that hard to do. cut the wires at the old plug and and splce from there. No need to run the harness inside the frame. You take your time you can make it look professional and at the same time you will have added alittle additional length to the harness.

[greg88]

I had that happen and patched to get home. But when i got home i did away with that and installed double insulated 4-14 S-O cord it will not get pinched ever by the swing away tongue.

[printman71]

I had that happen and patched to get home. But when i got home i did away with that and installed double insulated 4-14 S-O cord it will not get pinched ever by the swing away tongue.

Can you send me a picture of your repair, a link for what you used or any further info I can use. When I google your description all I see is a piece of wire. This is the second time I have done this. The first time was an easier fix.
Please and Thank You.

[OldTimer57]

Here's one possible idea. I've never owned a swing-away, but a friend did (before he moved away... lived next door in fact.) He had the same problem (not a BCB however). He came over and asked me to look at it. I did. He then asked how can we fix this, make it more reliable, and make it look professional.

I looked at it a bit, looked at his trailer wire which was pretty messy with a few cracks in insulation and such. I suggested that we do the following:

(1) go buy a new 5-flat male connector/pigtail. NAPA sells them. Hard to find 5 flat connectors around here, 99% of the ones sold are 4-flats.

(2) go buy a good heavy-duty 4-wire power (Home Depot and similar sell it by the foot. 12 gauge is a really good size.).

(3) buy a small roll of blue wire.

(4) We obviously ran the pigtail into the wiring hole on the front of the trailer. Pulled it through to get access and then used solder/heat-shrink followed by liquid vinyl to splice the power cord wires.

(5) We used enough of the power cord wire to get us well beyond the swing-away junction. We cut the outer insulation at that point so we could split the wires.

(6) the wire came in 4 colors in the cord. Obviously not going to match the usual brown/green/yellow/etc. It had red, black, white and green (4 wire 220v power cord you might use for a heavy-duty extension cord).

(7) we took one of those wires (red) and called it "brown" and ran it down one side of the trailer, across the back and up to the front marker light on the other side. We connected the tail lights (not stop/turn lights) to this wire along with all the marker lights. OK, one wire done.

(8) we took another of those wires (black) and called it yellow and ran it to the left rear turn/brake light.

(9) we took another of those wires (green), called it green, and ran it to the right rear turn/brake light.

(10) we took the white wire and ran it all the way down the left side, across the back, and up to the marker light. This we used as a ground and directly connected every light to this to give a solid ground (his trailer frame ground connections looked too rusty to me).

(11) we took enough blue wire off the roll to go from the blue wire on the 5-flat over to the solenoid for the reverse brake lockout. For sanity, we also ran a white wire from the solenoid body and connected it at the splice where we connected the 5-flat white wire to the extension cord white wire. We also ran a piece of blue wire down one side and across the rear to power the backup lights on the trailer.

We ended up with the following:

(a) solid connections at every light, both + and ground.

(b) solid connections to the solenoid.

(c) a heavy insulated power cord that passed through the swing-away. This wire is very finely stranded and is flexible to avoid metal fatigue, and the heavy jacket makes it difficult to pinch it when closing the swing-away.

Sounds complicated, but it took about two hours. Primarily to make all the connections (NO butt connectors). Every connection was soldered and heat-shrinked, then coated with liquid vinyl. He moved away about 5 years after we did that and it still worked perfectly.

If you don't want to go to that much trouble you could just splice in the 4-wire power cable up front at the 5-flat wire, use the power cable to go through the swing-away, then splice into existing trailer wire. As a note, I did take his 5-wire pigtail, rolled it up long-way to make it sort of square, then taped it, particularly at the point where it passed through the hole into the trailer frame (his trailer was similar to my bass cat trailer in regards to the wiring approach including the frame grounding. I got rid of that on his (and mine) since I had a problem a few weeks back with a flickering marker light that was caused by a poor frame ground connection.

I think the real key is the power cable. It can handle the flexing, but is fat enough and protected enough it is pretty well impossible to pinch it. Apparently Greg88 came to the same conclusion / solution.

[Bass Cat Boats]

You could likely solder inside that bullet.

[greg88]

I did very similer to Oldtimer57 but I got rid of the connector tied in in front of it soldered and heat shrinked it also heat shrinked over all wires after completing splices and ran all the way thru tongue to split for right and left.

[printman71]

You could likely solder inside that bullet.

Solder the unattached wire back to the base?
It broke almost on the base. There is less than 1/16" of wire showing from the base to re attach to.

[CatFan]

Solder the unattached wire back to the base?
It broke almost on the base. There is less than 1/16" of wire showing from the base to re attach to.

You can cut into the connector to get more wire and then reseal with silicon. Wouldn’t want to leave it long term, but to get by until you have time to change it wouldn’t be a big deal.

[greg88]

I got rid of the connector it is just another place for a problem and in my opinion isn't needed just a little slack in the heavy*(basically extension cord )* is all that is needed. Just my opinion

[mactlman]

has liquid tape on it so it has been fixed before likely best to redo it completely with new wiring and connector

[Bass Cat Boats]

yes, we have removed those pins on the old flat connections in the past and reinserted them after repair.

Solder the unattached wire back to the base?
It broke almost on the base. There is less than 1/16" of wire showing from the base to re attach to.

[printman71]

I found this. 5 plugs with 6 wires are difficult to find. I will cut the old one off and replace with this one using wire connectors. Plenty of extra wire length to spare. Hope it works.

[Bass Cat Boats]

It will work fine and last if it’s Wesbar as the image shows.

[printman71]

It will work fine and last if it’s Wesbar as the image shows.

It is indeed what was ordered. When it arrives and I get installed I will post a picture or two, if all goes well.

[Cajunhunter67]

It is indeed what was ordered. When it arrives and I get installed I will post a picture or two, if all goes well.

[printman71]

It isn't the prettiest thing I have ever seen, but it works (for now anyway). I had the good sense to only cut and connect one wire at a time so keep me from getting more confused. I left plenty of extra wire so as not to get the wires in a bind when opening the tongue. I then added the tie strips loosely to help hold the wires in place. This is why I am "printman" instead of "boat repair man". If I did this for a living, I would starve! Thanks for the "better" suggestions, but this is about my limit of my abilities.

[Bass Cat Boats]

Hey... it works and it looks fine.

[mactlman]

need to seal up the butt connectors with liquid tape or black tape at the minimum or will have corrosion issues soon

[Powerworm]

need to seal up the butt connectors with liquid tape or black tape at the minimum or will have corrosion issues soon

Yup he's right. That looks like a heat shrink butt connector. Take a Lighter, small torch, or heat gun and carefully heat it up until it shrinks around the wire, on both sides. Try not to burn the wire. A little elec tape over the heat shrinked connector too if you want.