Just purchased a new used boat. One of the minor issues was that the trailer brake wires are cut flush near the hitch area. Is there an easy way to fix this?
Not to make a project more in depth than it has to be but Ive given up on attempting to bring old trailer wires back to life unless it’s a 7 wire with four brake wires at the axles and even then I usually regret a patch attempt. If you have a four or five wire flat system buy a kit with long enough wires to get you all the way to the lights and start over. Its very rare i find Im replacing great wires that have not been cobbled on a trailer especially a boat trailer. You can run a whole harness in about an hour. And the same goes with the lights any corrosion here there gone. I use the sealed housing that fit in a rubber grommet that snap into a bracket. Napa sells the assembly for about $12 a side new bulb assembly is about $7 there led and are hard to damage rarely fail and are water proof. They require drilling a couple holes and securing a ground but $40 will get you solid lights for a long time. I solder everything. If your existing wires look great try a new end if not replace it all and be glad you did. Color codes for a four wire are readily available on line or in the package.
I always buy the 7 conductor quality wire and use it for the entire distance to the first junction which is usually the front clearance lights. From there I usually run 1/2 emt conduit in clips and run the remaining wires through the conduit. It makes for a nice looking job. Since most boat trailers don't have electric brakes, you don't use that blue wire. I like to mount the rear lights on the riser holding the side rails, which keeps them out of the water most of the time.
Here is a photo I snapped while on my way to work. Haven't investigated too much but the wire was not even ran through the trailer? It was just key chained onto the cords you can see in the photo??? Doesn't make sense to me.
Okay, that looks like a break-away tether, not an electric wire. This is used with electric brakes, in conjunction with a battery on the trailer tongue, to engage the brakes if the trailer becomes unhitched from the tow vehicle. Is that the setup you have?
Okay, that looks like a break-away tether, not an electric wire. This is used with electric brakes, in conjunction with a battery on the trailer tongue, to engage the brakes if the trailer becomes unhitched from the tow vehicle. Is that the setup you have?
If it is for the breakaway tether like Nybo figures then you can get cable, clamps and an S hook (to attach to the vehicle) from a hardware store.
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This sounds oddly, too easy! They had it just tied to some other cords or something like that, is that right? Why would they cut the cords, any thoughts?
Hard to say what happened.
It's possible they unhooked the trailer and drove away with the breakaway cable still attached.
If that was the case it may have also damaged what the other end is attached to.
It certainly looks like a break away cable. Maybe they forgot to hook it up and it drug on the asphalt as they were driving. Either way, it needs to be fixed.
Yes break away cable. They can and are on surge brake systems too. Pull the cable taught and hold with vise grips. See if your brakes are engaged. If so make the repair described above and add an S hook to the end of the cable. Hook it to your hitch when you are moving the boat.
