Glider Trailer Wiring Tips

JS wrote:
wrote:

Can't believe the arrogance of John's BMW dealer. It's just a bloody
car. The dealer probably wouldn't approve of taking a BMW X-5 off-road
either!

That's BMW for you. All Benz (except coupes) have factory-approved
towbars in the option list and are wired for trailers.

Besides, they were better cars. Some of them still are.

GC

Jim

I bought a new (used) Nissan Pathfinder and needed to add a hitch and a
"four flat" connection to be able to tow my glider trailer.

While I am sure that I could have used a generic trailer wiring cable
kit, I opted to pay for a more expensive cable kit specific to my car.
The nice part about this is that all you need to do is unplug the
connectors to the vehicles lights and then insert matching plugs from
the kit inbetween. Couldn't be simpler. The only difficult part is
getting to the connectors. Of course you have to do that in any case.
I bought the kit online from http://www.etrailer.com/wiring.aspx.

- John

Graeme Cant wrote:
JS wrote:
wrote:

Can't believe the arrogance of John's BMW dealer. It's just a bloody
car. The dealer probably wouldn't approve of taking a BMW X-5 off-road
either!

That's BMW for you. All Benz (except coupes) have factory-approved
towbars in the option list and are wired for trailers.

Besides, they were better cars. Some of them still are.

GC

Jim

One other hint.

Corrosion is the bain of all trailers. This is both within the
connectors and the lights.

I found that if I coat all connections with a "dielectric grease" I
never have any problems even after the trailer has been outside all
winter and the car has been dragged through salt spray. This is
basically a very good petroleum grease. I coat both the male/female
connections between the car/trailer and inside the lights between the
bulb and the contacts. Dow Corning mades a good product for $8 a tube
or so which goes a long way. I have found it at automotive shops,
trailer shops and online. Steer away from the cheap black stuff as it
makes a mess.

I also have found rubber boots for the trailer/car connectors. This
further protects this vunerable connection. I have found these at all
the big box stores (Wal-Mart, etc).

Good luck and let me know if this helps.

Johnatderosaweb.com