When we purchased our pop up, it had air in the tires, so we hooked it up and took off. It was only five miles from where I live, so we didn’t have to take it far. Once there, we started to go over it in a little greater detail. The first thing that came to my attention was that none of the trailer lights worked. Quite the problem, but luckily it wasn’t dark out yet.
What To Check First
I had to get that fixed fast. The first thing I did was check the bulbs. They all looked good, so I got out the multi-meter to check for any voltage in the tail light housings. I found that nothing was there. Before assuming the trailer wiring is malfunctioning, I made sure to verify that the tow vehicle wass powering the plugs leaving the vehicle. Using the multi-meter I checked for voltage between the trailer connectors and a ground on the vehicle. That, too, was working just fine, so it had to be the trailer plug or wiring.
The plug looked interesting enough using the round 4 pin connected with a 7 pin adapter. The quickest and easiest thing I could think of doing was cutting it off and just installing a standard flat 4 pin plug like this.
4 Pin Flat Plug Information
This plug is basic and doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that a 7 pin plug would have. The green wire powers the right turn signal and brake. The yellow wire powers the left turn signal and brake. The brown wire powers the tail lights, and the white wire is the ground.
Installing the 4 Pin Plug
It’s inexpensive and easy to install. Just put the plug in the location that you need it so that the wires can be shortened to the proper length. Splice the wires together matching the colors with butt connectors and cover with heat shrink tube. They could also be put together with heat shrink butt connectors.
It Worked, Mostly
I was all done and, wallah! All the lights worked. Well, mostly. The problem with using the 4 pin connector is there is wiring for reverse lights or electric brakes. I had everything I needed to tow the pop up safely and that worked fine for use all of last season.