Trailer wiring instructions

A GUIDE TO SAFE AND LEGAL TOWING

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Trailer Wiring

Pin	Wire Colour	Purpose
1	Yellow	Left Indicator
2	Blue	Fog light
3	White	Earth
4	Green	Right Indicator
5	Brown	Right Side Light
6	Red	Brake Lights
7	Black	Left Side light

Front of plug view

Trailers must be equipped with running lights, brake lights and indicators. They do not need to have fog lights or reversing lights. So that these lights work in sync with the cars lights the trailer must be hooked up to the internal wiring loom of the car. this sounds hard but is

not that difficult. Instructions can be found usually in the car oners handbook. You can use T-connectors to tap into the cars existing wiring quite literally following the wire that comes from each bulb. The wire to each bulb is a positive supply and the bodywork of the car is negative or earth.

• Attach a yellow wire to the wire that goes to your left indicator bulb and run that wire to pin 1 on your connector

• Attach a blue wire to the wire that goes to one of your fog lights and attach this wire to pin 2

• Attach a white wire to the bodywork of your car (Usually to the casing that holds your rear lights array) and run this wire to pin 3

• Attach a green wire to the wire that goes to your right indicator bulb and run this wire to pin 4

• Attach a brown wire to the wire that goes to your side lights. Note the diagram says right side light but they have a common supply so it is not that important which one you use. However side lights are sometimes brake lights aswell. Inside the bulb there are two filaments one which lights up for side lights and a brighter burning filament which lights up for brakes. The bulb will obviously have two wires going to it.A test meter will help you determine which is which as if you piut your side lights on your car on and don't press the brakes, the wire that has 12v running through it will be your side lights. Connect the brown wire to this a run it to pin 5. the other wire that goes to this bulb will be the brake lights and you can attach a red wire to this wire and run it to pin 6

• Attach a black wire to your other side light (left as in diagram) and run this wire to pin 7. Having two side light connections is only necessary if you use parking lights where you can leave your indicator on when parked with the ignition off and only that side light remains on.

If you do not wish to use this function then you could connect pins 7 and 5 together and only tap into one side light.

Connectors
The are lots of type of connector available but you should choose one which can handle all the wiring in one plug as in the diagram. Mount the connector to the car neatly and make sure no wires are hanging down where they could become detached. Wire up the plug on your trailer in the reverse of the diagram so that the right pins connect to the right circuits.

Note: Not all trailer wirings are the same and some trailers do incorperate fog lights and reversing lights. Caravans can also take a contant 12v supply. These will have to be taken into consideration and will need connection plugs and sockets with more pins.

Some manufacturers provide a wiring harness for a towing connection details of these can be found below.

Wire Color By Manufacturer
Dual Purpose Bulb System
Wire Function	Wire Color	GMC	Ford	Chrysler	Jeep	Toyota	Honda	Mazda
RIGHT TURN & BRAKE LIGHTS	Green	Green	Orange W/ Blue Stripe	Brown	Brown	Green W/ Yellow Stripe	Green W/ Yellow Stripe	Green W/ Yellow Stripe
LEFT TURN & BRAKE LIGHTS	Yellow	Yellow	Lt Green Orange Stripe	Dk Green	Grey W/ Black Stripe	Green W/ Black Stripe	Green W/ Blue Stripe	Black Stripe
TAIL LIGHTS	Brown	Brown	Brown	Black W/ Yellow Stripe or Black	Blue	Red W/ Green	Red W/ Black Stripe	Green or Black Stripe
GROUND	White	Black	Black or Grey	Black	Black & Black	Black or White	Black	Black
Single Purpose Bulb System
BRAKE LIGHTS	Use Converter	Pink or Lt Blue	Red W/ Green Stripe	White	Blue W/ Black Stripe	Green W/ Red or White Stripe	Green W/ White Stripe	Green or Green W/ Red Stripe
BACKUP LIGHTS	Red	Lt Green	Black W/ Pink	Violet	Brown	-	-	-
ELECTRIC TRAILER BRAKES	Connect To Blue Wire From Brake Controller