Karl Townsend wrote:
On Wed, 21 Sep 2011 10:51:52 -0500, Ignoramus17765
wrote:

The trailer that I bought, has electric brakes and electric lights.

The lights worked intermittently, such as worked only once or twice.

The electric plug is a two piece job, with wires held by screws, some
wires fell out. Not good enough.

I bought a replacement molded one piece plug with 8 foot tail, and
will use it. What I want is to do a good job rewiring the trailer. I
believe that the trailer body is used as negative ground, which is not
so great when there is corrosion. So I want to be sure that I follow
"best practices" and to know what they are.

Any suggestions?

i

Set down and plan out what you want for lights and if you want any
extras (like on board power for a winch or maybe a couple of detachable
work lights or deck lighting) I just rewired a 20' beavertail last month
and it now has control sockets at both ends for the winch, deck lights
at the front and dual S/B/T lamps at the rear. Plus back-up lamps. Works
MUCh better if you can run all the wires and then seal it up.

Does it have a wiring box now? If not then plan on starting there. You
want a weather-tight box that you can run conduit out of. Inside this
goes a couple terminal strips. This allows you to easily connect the
pigtail (and replace it as needed) and run wiring neater and easier.
Out of the box you will be running conduit back to the tilt pivot. Here
you add a section of flexible watertight conduit to a box on the tilt
frame. Out of that box you run conduit as needed to reach each
light/accessory. OH the conduit doesn't have to be EMT. I use different
items for different lights. For instance I like 1/4" brake line tubing
to the marker lights. Easy to find, easy to clamp and bends real nice.
Run the wires through it prior to bending as it makes it much easier.

For ALL connections you will want to either solder, coat and shrink tube
OR use heat shrink self sealing crimps WITH THE PROPER CRIMPING TOOL!!!.
ALL wires get matching grounds. I don't use the frame for a ground as
rust likes to screw around far to much. I do run a ground to the frame
just to eliminate static potential though.
I HIGHLY recommend LED marine safe lighting items. They are sealed, last
a LONG time and use much less current overall. (this can cause problems
if your tow vehicle has mechanical flasher elements so I also install an
electronic flasher and hazard unit on my vehicles.



--
Steve W.