Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[ukdave2002]

I’m sure the folk who tow caravans will chuckle at this!

My last 2 moderns have had factory fitted towbars, that have the newer 13pin electrics, I always viewed this as a pain as my trailers all have traditional 7 pin, meaning I had to use adaptors that never seemed to be where I had left them!
A couple of weeks ago I was taking a car down to the PC Restoration show at the NEC, this meant using my car trailer that had not been used for 2 years, I was running late hooked the trailer up, checked the lights and was faced with bugger all lamp illumination at the trailer. I whipped the trailer lens’s off and everything looked quite clean, looked at the trailer plug and it was clearly oxidized, opening it up and there was more corrosion on the cable connecters within the plug, to the point where I couldn’t undo some of the screws.

Fortunately I had a trailer board so that was lashed on to the back of the trailer, all lamps working.
Back from the NEC I thought its time to get things sorted, I decided to change all the 7 pin plugs on my trailers to 13 pin on the basis that it at least removed the adaptor and they were all likely to be in a similar state with corroded screws.

I ordered the 13 pin plugs, first time I have really looked at them and it was clear how much they are of an improvement over the old 7 pin plugs:

1) The pins are nickel plated whereas the 7 pins tend to be brass.
2) They come with a “parking” storage cap / fitting tool; when “parked” the plug terminals are protected by a seal in the end of the storage cap as well as an O ring on the plug that is compressed whenever the plug is fitted to the vehicle or the storage cap.

3) The 6 additional terminals can provide power to/ from leisure batteries, fridges etc, no use for me, but if one has a caravan.

The plugs are designed in the same style as many military vehicle connections where the connectors twist within the plug casing.

So with a “belt & braces , I not going to have another trailer lighting problem” I chopped the old 7 pin plug off, stripped the cable back and crimped nickel plated bootlace ferrules < I also put some "contralube 770 in all the connections.


The parking cap can be simply attached to the trailer plug, or as I have done screwed it to the trailer.




So electrics are now fine, I appreciate the real test will be time, but I’m pretty confident given the better engineering and less point s to fail, this will be a more reliable solution..
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Dave