Hopkins 5 wire to 4 wire converter.

[Irving]

I've just installed one of these on my toyota pickup. Hopkins #48895 Converter. I am damn near certain that I have it hooked up to my truck correctly. However, when I plug it into my trailer lights they do not function properly. Blinkers will not work when brake lights are on. Blinkers are very very dim when tail lights on on. It's no good. Anyone had issues with these converters? How did you solve it?

[Corwin C]

The first thing when you have problems with your trailer lights is to check for a good, solid ground on both the tow vehicle and trailer. A partial or intermittent ground can create all kinds of gremlins which are really difficult to track down. When signals are dim or don't operate as expected the ground is usually the culprit.

[Irving]

The first thing when you have problems with your trailer lights is to check for a good, solid ground on both the tow vehicle and trailer. A partial or intermittent ground can create all kinds of gremlins which are really difficult to track down. When signals are dim or don't operate as expected the ground is usually the culprit.

The lights are not on the trailer at the moment. Just on my workbench. But I have the ground wire coming off the harness connected to the mounting bolt on both lights. That ground wire ultimately leads to the bed of the pickup.

[GuitarPhotog]

Here's a link to what signals should be on which pins. http://www.etrailer.com/faq-wiring.aspx

Use a voltmeter, or test lamp to make sure everything is OK at the vehicle end of the 5-pin first. Then check the output of the converter.

Don't trust the color coding, make sure the signals are correct by PIN NUMBER.

<Chas>

[Irving]

Pretty close to sure I've got it all set up right. Perhaps these lights that came with the harbor freight trailer are just trash?

[Dale M.]

This might be better way to test tow vehicle wiring and less confusing....

http://www.etrailer.com/Wiring/Curt/I26.html

IT also sound that you may have turn-signal/brake lamps filaments reversed with tail-lamp filaments...

Most 2 filament bulbs have a larger filament which is stop/turn and a smaller filament for tail lamps....



Dale

[Irving]

5 wire (seperate blinkers from brake lights) seem superior in my mind. I don't see why 4 wire is the norm for most applications. Running lights, blinkers and brake lights seem like a lot for one two way bulb to handle. When the brakes are applied the running tail lights clearly get brighter. But what about when your blinker is on while you are braking?

This is the problem my tail lights seem to be having - when the brake lights are on the blinkers don't work well at all. You can tell it's trying to do it but it's no where near road worthy.

[Irving]

This is what the box directed me to do:

White - Ground
Brown - Park/Tail
Yellow - Left Turn
Red - Brake
Green - Right Turn

The turn signals were a breeze because it was very obvious which wires were the separate orange blinkers. 2 wires down.

Ground was easy. Drilled a hole, filed off some paint to bare metal, put a sheet metal screw in it. 3 wires down.

Brown - Park/Tail and Red - Brake are left

I was a bit unsure on these two and tried them back and forth between my two options a few times. Neither seemed to work well. Finally I decided I would turn off all lights and hold down my brake pedal so that the only lights shining were my brake lights. I cut one of the two wires in question and my brake light on the drivers side immediately shut off. I turned on my tail lights and both still worked. Bingo, I found my brake wire. I then hooked up both wires and I now knew that the truck was wired correctly with the converter box.

One thing that I feel slightly unsure of is this - I hooked up the converter box to wires immediately before my drivers side tail light. Should I have hooked it up farther up the wire trail before it split off into two directions for each tail light?

[Dale M.]

Where you connected converter box is probably a non issue, if its works its good.....Typically most aftermarket converters connect at rear of vehicle....

There is a really simple cheap tool for tracing low voltage electrical issues.....



With simple tool like this you can pre-identify wire "functions" and what ever with out a lot of connecting and cutting and reconnecting..... I have hundreds of dollars invested in expensive meters and electrical tools and this is the best $5 I ever spent for doing 12volt electrical testing....

Dale

[Irving]

I'm positive that my ground is good. I ran a ground wire directly from my negative battery terminal to the lights. I grounded the sh** out of it all and still the same functionality.

When I turn my blinkers on it takes about 4 seconds for the trailer blinker to start working. It is dim at first and sloooowly gets brighter until it finally looks like an acceptable blinker. I just noticed that it works much quicker when I turn the engine of the truck on.

Even with the truck on the brake lights don't work right. They work when the tail lights are off but not when they are on. The blinkers don't work when the running lights on on. Both sides flicker and pulse a bit.

I am 99% positive I have the converter box hooked up correctly. 100% positive that it is all grounded well. I'm using different tail lights now, so I know it's not the tail lights.

Bad converter box perhaps. I just don't know.

[absolutsnwbrdr]

When the brakes are applied the running tail lights clearly get brighter. But what about when your blinker is on while you are braking?

When you're braking, then the turn signals flash OFF instead of flashing ON.

Out of curiosity... what year/model is the Toyota? Are you certain that your truck brake lights are separate from your turn signals?


Looks like the Hopkins 48895 isn't a powered converter box, which means you're just adding more lights to your truck's lighting circuits. This is probably why the lights look brighter with the truck running. Which could mean that your trailer lights are just underpowered because they are piggy-backing off of the trucks circuit. I would think that the truck should be able to handle it but I don't know. Just a thought.

Something is definitely not right though.

[Irving]

When the brakes are applied the running tail lights clearly get brighter. But what about when your blinker is on while you are braking?

When you're braking, then the turn signals flash OFF instead of flashing ON.

Out of curiosity... what year/model is the Toyota? Are you certain that your truck brake lights are separate from your turn signals?


Looks like the Hopkins 48895 isn't a powered converter box, which means you're just adding more lights to your truck's lighting circuits. This is probably why the lights look brighter with the truck running. Which could mean that your trailer lights are just underpowered because they are piggy-backing off of the trucks circuit. I would think that the truck should be able to handle it but I don't know. Just a thought.

Something is definitely not right though.

Positive it has independent blinkers. It's an 89 pickup. Has separate amber turn signals with it's own wire. It definitely requires a 5 wire to 4 wire converter.

I just unplugged both truck tail lights and the trailer tail lights functioned much better. Blinkers worked while the running lights were on. Though they still got screwy when I put on the brakes. This is driving me nuts. Really starting to think that the converter box is junk.

[eamarquardt]

Why not install lights and wiring on the trailer to match the tow vehicle. I'm sure you could make it so that you'd be able to use it with a regular 4 wire vehicle and a 5 wire vehicle with a little thought and perhaps an extra plug/socket.

Go with the flow.

Cheers,

Gus

[Irving]

Why not install lights and wiring on the trailer to match the tow vehicle. I'm sure you could make it so that you'd be able to use it with a regular 4 wire vehicle and a 5 wire vehicle with a little thought and perhaps an extra plug/socket.

Go with the flow.

Cheers,

Gus

I thought about that, but I'd like to be able to tow the trailer with more than one vehicle.

[eamarquardt]

Why not install lights and wiring on the trailer to match the tow vehicle. I'm sure you could make it so that you'd be able to use it with a regular 4 wire vehicle and a 5 wire vehicle with a little thought and perhaps an extra plug/socket.

Go with the flow.

Cheers,

Gus

I thought about that, but I'd like to be able to tow the trailer with more than one vehicle.

You easily could. Wire your truck and trailer with a 4 wire connector. Ground, tail lights, right and left brake light all wired separately. Add two more wires and dedicated turn signal lights to your trailer and a separate connector for the right and left turn signals on your truck. So, if you plug into your truck you connect the additional turn signals you've installed on your trailer. If you plug into a conventional vehicle your brake lights function as the turn signals and your extra turn lights are non functional. You could always add a switch on the trailer to connect your extra turn signals to the brake/turn signal wires so the extra lights would function 4 wire or 5(really 6) wire.

Where there is a will, there is a way. Doing it this way would eliminate the converter module. It sounds more complicated than it would actually be.

I think I'd do it w/o the converter and have, as you'd like to, the ability to tow it with any vehicle.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Gus