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wiring my bike for a trailer


DaveDanger

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I've recently purchased a previously-loved trailer to pull behind my 06 MV, and I fabricated and installed a receiver hitch on the bike, but I don't have the bike wired yet for the trailer lights.

My question relates to the necessity of using a powered converter on my bike. Most of the websites I referenced for hitches and trailers, make mention of the fact that many modern bikes use either computerized switching or control of the light wiring, and they say as well that the wiring is too light a gauge to handle the extra amperage load of additional trailer wiring if simply piggy-backed or spliced in.

Can anyone verify the existence of computerized switching for the light wiring on these bikes, and has anyone had any difficulties with the gauge of the wiring being too delicate?

I simply can't seem to find any verification of either of these items in reference to these bikes, but if it's true... I want to install it properly. I just have no desire to spend money on kits that aren't necessary.

I have the wiring diagrams required to tie in the circuits, so I don't need that info.

Thanks for any info :)

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Not so much of a computer monitored system for the trailer wiring as much as an isolater that contains relays. The power to the lights can then be activated with the relays and no load on the bikes wiring. The lights are powered from the battery. Also most trailers are the flat 4 prong...our bikes have a 5 wire system and the isolater converts that to the 4 wire for the trailer.

 

Modulite sells this and some have made their own using relays. Check in the trailer talk and search wiring...there is a ton of info there.

 

And now I stand back and wait for someone with a better explanation to fix any errors I may have made!

 

Oh, and the only reference you will find on towing in the bike manual is that is not recommended.

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Guest tx2sturgis

Dave, IF you use all LEDS on the trailer, you can get by with a simple parallel 5 wire system of lighting, and the existing wiring will carry the new load of the LEDS just fine, they draw almost nothing compared to incandescent lights.

 

You will be tying in to the 5 wires, ( brake, left turn, right turn, running lights, and ground) and using a central mounted stop light, maybe combined with running lights, and 2 more leds for turn signals and 1 or 2 more for running lights. When using all LEDS in parallel with existing lights on the bike, no converter or load equalizers are needed, but you may end up spending more on the LEDs than the converter. Of course, some trailers now use all LEDS, so it depends on what you buy.

 

One more thing. If you go this route, you are exposing the bikes harness to problems if a light fixture shorts to ground or the trailer wiring fails in some way, so be sure to fuse everything. Thats means, ideally, FIVE inline fuses.

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One more thing. If you go this route, you are exposing the bikes harness to problems if a light fixture shorts to ground or the trailer wiring fails in some way, so be sure to fuse everything. Thats means, ideally, FIVE inline fuses.

 

If you use the isolator, you don't have to worry about this, the isolator protects your bike's electronics from any shorts that may happen...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Alright, I gathered up my bloomers and jumped in. The trailer I purchased was already wired with a 5-wire system (primarily meaning separate bulbs for turn and brake lamps), so I purchased a 5-wire vehicle-side harness from WalMart for $8.95, and began my connections. I had discovered to my boundless delight, that all the wiring that needs to be accessed for trailer lighting is in a box that is uncovered by removing the license plate. I removed the container itself temporarily, and drilled a 1/2" hole directly through the fender where it would be hidden when the container is reinstalled. I then inserted a 1/4" I.D. grommet into that freshly drilled hole, and routed my new wiring harness up inside the fender and through that grommet, so that my 5-wire connector hung at the proper height near my hitch. I pulled the remainder of the wire harnes through the grommet, cut the length to what was necessary for connections and using a voltmeter, determined which wires I needed to tap into to operate my lights correctly. Turned out the imprinted labeling on the new vehicle-side harness was accurately matched to my trailer harness. I did not attempt to install a "powered" unit. I browsed through the wiring diagrams in my Factory Service Manual and found no "computer" or "black-box" switches. So there is little liklihood of overpowering the bike's wiring system. I did install individual inline fuses in all but the ground wire... 4 fuses don't take up a huge amount of space and is small price paid for that peace of mind. I squeezed everything back into the container behind the license plate and tie-wrapped the harness to an original harness inside the fender to keep the excess from getting into the tire. There is no harness visible on the bike except for the flat plug itself laying right at my receiver hitch. Connected the plugs and checked the lighting, and was pleased to see that everything operated like it should. I've put about 1,000 miles on the bike and trailer since the hookup and haven't had the first problem. I'm tickled with it :)

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Guest tx2sturgis
I've put about 1,000 miles on the bike and trailer since the hookup and haven't had the first problem. I'm tickled with it :)

 

 

There ya go!

 

A five wire system is the natural way to wire a trailer to a bike. I have BOTH a 5 wire AND a 4 wire system and both connectors on my bike, since I pull both a large trailer with a 4 wire system and a small trailer with a 5 wire system.

 

I have ridden behind my bike being ridden by another rider, just to make SURE that it all works good when in motion.

 

In the future, I may convert my large 4 wire trailer back to a 5 wire system, the way it came originally. Then I can eliminate the 4 wire converter on the bike. I would also have to convert my other bike trailer harness back to a 5 wire system....oh well...you see my predicament.

 

Its called: Procrastination.

 

 

 

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OK fellow riders and electrical experts, I've got a good one for you to solve. I've read the prior posts and still don't have a difinitive answer about the isolators (or whatever is needed) for the trailer wiring. I have a harbor freight trailer which I assembled and installed the provided lights with the flat 4 wire harness. I had my pu truck parked next to my work area so plugged into it to test the lights and all lights (directional, brake, and running) worked great. I then proceded to hook up my connector harness to my 99 VR as DaveDanger did and when done checked it out with my tester and all was fine. I then plugged my trailer into my bike (here is where it goes downhill). My left tail light comes on bright, ALL other lights on very dim, when I turn on either directional, all lights dimly flicker on and off. All of my bikes lights are on and working normally. WHAT DID I DO WRONG? What do I have to do to correct the problem? I guess I could pull the trailer behind my pick up but thats no fun. I know you guys have the answer, you have helped me and a lot of others in the past. Thank you!!!

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Does modulite make a unit that does not convert to a 4 wire system? My trailer is set up with separate turn signals the same as the bike but I'd like to use an isolator as well. What I'm seeing is that the modulite always converts to joined brakes and signals.

 

Wayne

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Guest tx2sturgis
.... My left tail light comes on bright, ALL other lights on very dim, when I turn on either directional, all lights dimly flicker on and off. All of my bikes lights are on and working normally. WHAT DID I DO WRONG? What do I have to do to correct the problem? I guess I could pull the trailer behind my pick up but thats no fun. I know you guys have the answer, you have helped me and a lot of others in the past. Thank you!!!

 

Ok...first, did you install a converter? If so, double, then triple check ALL the wiring...but you did that already, I'm sure. Do you have aftermarket LEDs on the bike, or trailer, or both? Do you have an LED brakelight? If so, the modulite converter will not see an adequate load and will not trigger the turn signals properly on the trailer.

 

IF you arent using a converter, then you will probably need to install one, to properly drive the incandescent bulbs on the trailer.

 

Or, you can convert the 4 wire trailer system to a 5 wire system, using LEDS, and hook up direct to the bikes 5 wire system, with no converter needed.

 

 

 

 

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Guest tx2sturgis
Does modulite make a unit that does not convert to a 4 wire system? My trailer is set up with separate turn signals the same as the bike but I'd like to use an isolator as well. What I'm seeing is that the modulite always converts to joined brakes and signals.

 

Wayne

 

I'm not sure if they make a 5 wire to 5 wire isolator, but some users have made their own using relays. This is the same idea as using a relay for passing lites. You will need 3 relays, one for each turn signal, and one for the brake signal. You COULD use one for the running lites, but unless your running a LOT of running lites on the trailer, you probably would not need one.

 

In a 5 wire to 5 wire system, if youre running all LED's on the trailer, you dont need the relays or an isolator, just some inline fuses to protect everything.

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OK fellow riders and electrical experts, I've got a good one for you to solve. I've read the prior posts and still don't have a difinitive answer about the isolators (or whatever is needed) for the trailer wiring. I have a harbor freight trailer which I assembled and installed the provided lights with the flat 4 wire harness. I had my pu truck parked next to my work area so plugged into it to test the lights and all lights (directional, brake, and running) worked great. I then proceded to hook up my connector harness to my 99 VR as DaveDanger did and when done checked it out with my tester and all was fine. I then plugged my trailer into my bike (here is where it goes downhill). My left tail light comes on bright, ALL other lights on very dim, when I turn on either directional, all lights dimly flicker on and off. All of my bikes lights are on and working normally. WHAT DID I DO WRONG? What do I have to do to correct the problem? I guess I could pull the trailer behind my pick up but thats no fun. I know you guys have the answer, you have helped me and a lot of others in the past. Thank you!!!

 

I would have to say that your ground on the bike-side harness is not hooked up to the frame. Find a suitable bolt and clean the paint off from under it and attach your ground there. If there's not one close, use a small tex screw and put one in somewhere. Just make sure to clean the point of contact.

 

Dan

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Thanks, Dan and Brian. I checked and do have a good ground. I have not installed a converter/ isolator. I do have a combination of both LED and incandescent lights on my motorcycle and on my trailer. I am considering changing my complete harness to a 5 wire so that I can use my LED, universal light bars' brake light, that I installed on my trailer, and got from signaldynamics.com, along with the standard incandescent tail, turn, brake, and marker lights that came with the harbor freight trailer.

Do you think that will do the trick without the motoleather.com universal isolator harness? Thanks again.

/Charlie (old salt)

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Old Salt, it sounds to me like you're working with two different wiring systems. I noted you bought the trailer from Harbor Freight and assembled it yourself, then connected it to your truck and the lights worked fine. What that tells me is that the trailer is wired as a 4-wire system, which is standard for an automobile.

The bikes are wired as 5-wire systems, which requires some changes to be made. Bear with me if I'm repeating the obvious here, but sometimes the assumption that someone else is on the same page... is a cause of headaches.

A 4-wire system means basically that the brake lights and the turn signals are powered with 2 of the total 4 wires, because the turn signals and the brake lights are the same bulbs. They duplicate functions.

A 5-wire system means that the turn signals and brake lights are separate completely, like on the bike itself. You have a brake light bulb that is by itself, so it requires 1 wire, and each turn signal is a bulb itself which requires 1 wire each. You now have 3 wires doing what 2 wires did on the 4-wire system. With me so far?

Alright, knowing this, you have 2 options... either obtain a converter from any of the sources referenced above, which will take your 5-wire bike wiring, and make it power your 4-wire trailer properly (which is the best way to go if you plan on ever using this trailer with an automobile), or re-work the lighting on your trailer and make it a 5-wire setup. It's not necessary to remove any of your existing lights, but you do need to add a turn signal to each side, either red or amber lensed. Most common is amber for turn signals. You now obtain a 5-wire harness for the trailer and connect the wiring on the trailer exactly as it is on the bike. 1 wire to ground, 1 wire to running lights, 1 common wire to both brake lights, 1 wire individually to each turn signal. This should clear up the problems you have.

As noted above, I have only incandescent bulbs on my trailer except for some LED "neons" underneath the trailer for "ground effect" lighting, and I have yet to see any need for a powered converter.

Understand again, a converter and a "powered" converter are two different things... but they do the same thing.

A standard converter simply switches a 4-wire system to a 5-wire system, and it powers the additional trailer lighting directly from the existing bike wiring to its own light bulbs, which does add some additional curent load to the bike wiring.

A Powered converter switches 4-wire to 5-wire, but does it with the addition of a unit that provides all the power to run the extra lighting on the trailer, directly from the battery of the bike. The existing wiring for the bike's light bulbs simply provides a signal to the powered unit (thru a series of relays or micro-relays) to turn on the desired light on the trailer, the unit draws power for the bike's battery to actually power the trailer lights. A powered converter is almost always fused internally on each circuit to further protect the bike wiring.

If you're using a 5-wire harness on the bike and a 5-wire harness on the trailer, you do not need a converter at all for it to work properly, but you may desire a "powered" converter simply to allow the battery to power your lighting.

 

Gimme us holler and let us know if we can help with anything further. :)

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Does modulite make a unit that does not convert to a 4 wire system? My trailer is set up with separate turn signals the same as the bike but I'd like to use an isolator as well. What I'm seeing is that the modulite always converts to joined brakes and signals.

 

Wayne

 

Wayne,

Check Rivco' s website. They have a 5 wire isolator that plugs into a Goldwing harness. Just cut off the plugs and wire it in. Mine is the same and works great.

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Guest tx2sturgis
What that tells me is that the trailer is wired as a 4-wire system, which is standard for an automobile.

 

Not if the automobile is a 5 wire system. Meaning, some cars use separate, amber, turnsignals, which means the brake lites are independent from the turnsignals. Thats is why those converters exist, so that car owners with those systems can pull a 4 wire trailer.

 

To make it even MORE confusing, some makers of the converters refer to a 5 wire system as a '3 wire system' and a 4 wire system is referred to as a '2 wire system'...they are referring to the SIGNAL wires, and not the total wire count.....go figure.

 

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Not if the automobile is a 5 wire system. Meaning, some cars use separate, amber, turnsignals, which means the brake lites are independent from the turnsignals. Thats is why those converters exist, so that car owners with those systems can pull a 4 wire trailer.

 

To make it even MORE confusing, some makers of the converters refer to a 5 wire system as a '3 wire system' and a 4 wire system is referred to as a '2 wire system'...they are referring to the SIGNAL wires, and not the total wire count.....go figure.

 

 

tx2sturgis, you're correct, and I was sort of ignoring the possibility that the vehicle and trailer were both 5-wire systems, since he was having the aforementioned problems. Some newer cars and a lot of imports do in fact use 5-wire systems, which allows for direct wiring without the use of a converter if you have a 5-wire trailer.

 

And I've also seen the harnesses labeled as 3-wire and 4-wire, when they're actually 4-wire and 5-wire:)

Like you said, they're counting everything except the ground wire.

 

It can get confusing :)

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