Video on the Bushwacker teardrop

[S. Heisley]

Take a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nArWlWIJDgI

[mnjeepguy]

I saw these teardrops online. Honestly, the cost and that they are in stock made me think they must be horrible. Then I found a lot of reports of them leaking. Ugh...I just ordered a hiker. There's a bushwacker 45 miles from me new at a dealer. Maybe I will go check it out this weekend and get convinced...Be handy to have a dealer that close if there are issues. Hiker would be a day drive each way...and then the wait vs getting one now...

[S. Heisley]

I saw these teardrops online. Honestly, the cost and that they are in stock made me think they must be horrible. Then I found a lot of reports of them leaking. Ugh...I just ordered a hiker. There's a bushwacker 45 miles from me new at a dealer. Maybe I will go check it out this weekend and get convinced...Be handy to have a dealer that close if there are issues. Hiker would be a day drive each way...and then the wait vs getting one now...

From the comments in the video, it was stated you may have to do some work on it and maybe water leakage is one of the issues. But, for the price, since you know ahead of buying it, you can look into that before you buy it and fix that and other things before you use it. It just depends on how savvy you are at fixing things and whether you want to take the chance. However, if you already ordered the hiker, you may want to stick with it.

[mtbikernate]

Hmmmmm. Some of those things are definitely minor. But things that are miswired? Fit so sloppy that it leaks from day 1?

Those things are dealbreakers for me, frankly.

Miswire the wrong thing and you're going to have some real trouble. 3 days after I brought my Hiker home, I was on the road from Indiana to AZ, so I had to assume that everything was done correctly from the start. And it was. Some folks have had some issues from the manufacturer, but it seems like those are isolated issues rather than pervasive ones. The only problem I had was a vehicle-side wiring one. I had problems finding anyone willing to install 7 pin wiring on my Subaru Crosstrek, so in a pinch I had to make do with 4 pin wiring and an adapter. The adapter worked fine when I picked up the trailer, but the morning of departure, it crapped the bed.

The Hiker crew drove to my house (I only lived about half an hour away from the factory back then) and installed a 4 pin plug on a Sunday morning. So now my trailer is probably one of the only ones on the road that has both 7 pin and 4 pin wiring. I ended up installing the 7 pin (plus brake controller) on my subie myself after the trip.

[rjgimp]

I had problems finding anyone willing to install 7 pin wiring on my Subaru Crosstrek, so in a pinch I had to make do with 4 pin wiring and an adapter. The adapter worked fine when I picked up the trailer, but the morning of departure, it crapped the bed.

Awesome! I knew there had to be a way to get from a vehicle side 4-pin to a trailer side 7-pin but any time I would ever mention such a thing people would tell me I was insane. Good to know it actually exists.

[mtbikernate]

I had problems finding anyone willing to install 7 pin wiring on my Subaru Crosstrek, so in a pinch I had to make do with 4 pin wiring and an adapter. The adapter worked fine when I picked up the trailer, but the morning of departure, it crapped the bed.

Awesome! I knew there had to be a way to get from a vehicle side 4-pin to a trailer side 7-pin but any time I would ever mention such a thing people would tell me I was insane. Good to know it actually exists.

Yeah, the adapter was a hack. And not a very good one. Really, it's meant to be used as part of a 7 pin UPGRADE because there are extra wires that are actually meant to be used for the trailer brakes. I think part of the issue is the weight of the adapter jostling around maybe messes up the connections inside it.

https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Wiring ... 30717.html

What Hiker did was just to wire in a 4 pin pigtail to my existing junction box. Something I could totally do myself. But sourcing the parts on a Sunday morning wasn't happening.

https://www.etrailer.com/Custom-Fit-Veh ... 48030.html

Obviously won't activate the brakes if you hook it up this way. But it'll run the lights. Could also be an issue if your trailer relies on the extra power source from the 7 pin to power anything. Mine doesn't, so it's fine.