5 trailer wires

[smokeonthewater]

On your trailer you most likely have:

White, ground
Green, right turn/ brake
Yellow, left turn/ brake
Brown, x2 for right and left tails/ marker (one to run down each side of the trailer)

[peiserma]

Thanks, that configuration was my suspicion. The trailer wires are two duplex pairs. Colors are pretty faded, but they might have been yellow + yellow/brown stripe and green + green/brown stripe at one point. It makes sense, I just wanted a peer check (positive reinforcement). Thats how i rewired the plug, but running lights not working. Thats what prompted this post. Now that i have some confidence that it is correct, i can check the circuit at the car.

[smokeonthewater]

99.999999999999999999999% of the time it's a ground issue. and 0.000000000000000000001% of the time it's a toss up between a ground or something else.

[spareparts]

5th wire(blue) is for a trailer brake lock out, it hooks to your back up lights. you can still get the 4 wire plugs

[SkunkBoat]

my brand new trailer has a 5 pin plug. Truck is 4 pin. Trailer guy said 5th is for brakes but I dont have brakes so it doesnt go anywhere. They always wire them that way now. He said just plug the 5 pin into the four pin, the dead one will be on the end, not connected.

That being said, I think the fifth wire in your case is the second brown wire. They get tied together to connect to the same pin on the plug.

[THEFERMANATOR]

Originally Posted by SkunkBoat

my brand new trailer has a 5 pin plug. Truck is 4 pin. Trailer guy said 5th is for brakes but I dont have brakes so it doesnt go anywhere. They always wire them that way now. He said just plug the 5 pin into the four pin, the dead one will be on the end, not connected.

That being said, I think the fifth wire in your case is the second brown wire. They get tied together to connect to the same pin on the plug.

It's isn't for brakes directly, it is for your reverse lights. When in reverse you want the brakes locked out so you can back up(hrdraulic actuators get engaged by the trailer pushing against the tow vehicle and applying the hydraulic actuator, reversing does the same thing to it), so the reverse power goes to a solenoid in the brake system to keep them from activating.

[smokeonthewater]

That would be for a 5 TERMINAL plug... he stated that he only had 4 terminals and five WIRES.... it's two tail light wires for a split harness