Anyone know where I can buy 7 core trailer cable that has a wound-in
curl? I want a couple of metres of it for my Forth-Rail-Bridge trailer
project and balk at paying £20 for an extension cable.

BTW Maplin is not the answer!

TIA

Richard


--
Real email address is RJSavage at BIGFOOT dot COM

rjs wrote:

Anyone know where I can buy 7 core trailer cable that has a wound-in
curl? I want a couple of metres of it for my Forth-Rail-Bridge trailer
project and balk at paying £20 for an extension cable.

BTW Maplin is not the answer!

I think the size of your towbar and the power of the towing vehicle
are going to be more of problem if you intend towing the Forth Rail
Bridge ;-)

How about some compressed air curly flex with singles threaded down
the middle?




--

On Tue, 30 Aug 2005 19:59:15 +0100, rjs wrote:

Anyone know where I can buy 7 core trailer cable that has a wound-in
curl? I want a couple of metres of it for my Forth-Rail-Bridge trailer
project and balk at paying £20 for an extension cable.

BTW Maplin is not the answer!

TIA

Richard

Yes. I am pretty sure that you could get these from Autac
(www.autac.com)

I had some cables specially made for a table saw control application.
THey are signal cables with 8 x 7/0.2mm, 2 metres long, so not wildly
different, although I presume that you would need heavier gauge than
this for a trailer.

Cost was £12 each.







--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

"rjs" wrote in message
...
Anyone know where I can buy 7 core trailer cable that has a wound-in curl?
I want a couple of metres of it for my Forth-Rail-Bridge trailer project
and balk at paying £20 for an extension cable.

BTW Maplin is not the answer!

TIA

go to a commercial vehicle factors, mind you I might have a spare bit in my
garage, I'll have a look tomorrow, what length do you need it to extend to ?

mrcheerful

mrcheerful . wrote:




go to a commercial vehicle factors, mind you I might have a spare bit in my
garage, I'll have a look tomorrow, what length do you need it to extend to ?

mrcheerful



Hi Mrcheeful. Thanks for that.

3 metres tops. I want to fit a box that distributes power to the
various side/front/tail lights on the trailer to the front of the box
body. Then run the curly stuff from that to the towing vehicle. The
idea being that the curly stuff will allow for cornering without the
risk of slack dragging on the ground. Does that sound valid.

Ta

Richard



--
Real email address is RJSavage at BIGFOOT dot COM

Andy Hall wrote:



Yes. I am pretty sure that you could get these from Autac
(www.autac.com)

I had some cables specially made for a table saw control application.
THey are signal cables with 8 x 7/0.2mm, 2 metres long, so not wildly
different, although I presume that you would need heavier gauge than
this for a trailer.

Cost was £12 each.


Sounds very reasonable. Oddly enough I had looked at Autac before
posting to the NG. The site looked very professional, non-retail and
expensive, hence my posting. Although I have sent them an email.

Rgds

Richard

--
Real email address is RJSavage at BIGFOOT dot COM

"rjs" wrote in message
...
mrcheerful . wrote:




go to a commercial vehicle factors, mind you I might have a spare bit in
my garage, I'll have a look tomorrow, what length do you need it to
extend to ?

mrcheerful

Hi Mrcheeful. Thanks for that.

3 metres tops. I want to fit a box that distributes power to the various
side/front/tail lights on the trailer to the front of the box body. Then
run the curly stuff from that to the towing vehicle. The idea being that
the curly stuff will allow for cornering without the risk of slack
dragging on the ground. Does that sound valid.

Ta

Richard

sounds perfectly sensible, IIRC the bit I have got has a commercial type
plug on one end and the other is just wires, if you hard wire it to the
trailer and fit a standard plug on the end it should be fine, I know where
it will be in the garage, but I can't conveniently go and check till
tomorrow afternoon . Assuming I can find it you can have it for nothing,
but I'll dig it out and check the length and post the details here tomorrow.

mrcheerful

In message , rjs
writes
Anyone know where I can buy 7 core trailer cable that has a wound-in
curl? I want a couple of metres of it for my Forth-Rail-Bridge trailer
project


Forget the cable

Where are you going to get wheels for such a bugger ?

--
geoff

On Tue, 30 Aug 2005 21:24:28 GMT, raden wrote:

I want a couple of metres of it for my Forth-Rail-Bridge trailer
project

Where are you going to get wheels for such a bugger ?

Any Vauxhall Nova round my way. The little hoodies fit wheels to them
the size of traction engines.

On Tue, 30 Aug 2005 21:40:51 +0100, rjs wrote:

The
idea being that the curly stuff will allow for cornering without the
risk of slack dragging on the ground. Does that sound valid.

IMHO, you will only be able to have a very short length of 'curly'
unsupported and / or very little tension on it to stop it pulling out
the plug?

I used some on the recent rebuild of a little German box trailer (as
you did to feed a waterproof 'junction box') but it ends up getting
used like non curly (and being heavier can actually hang down easier
than non curly)?

Offering a common d-i-y reply, in all of my 32 years towing I can't
remember ever catching the lighting cable on the ground / objects (but
then don't tend to tow 'off road' much .. except the B.O.B 'Yak'
behind the tandem maybe) ;-)

All the best with your project ...

T i m

On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 06:16:55 GMT, T i m wrote:


| Offering a common d-i-y reply, in all of my 32 years towing I can't
| remember ever catching the lighting cable on the ground / objects (but
| then don't tend to tow 'off road' much .. except the B.O.B 'Yak'
| behind the tandem maybe) ;-)

I have severed my caravan road lighting cable, once in mumble years of
towing by dragging it along the ground. Repairing it in a service area
with PVC tape was a right pain.
--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk
"Intelligent Design?" my knees say *not*.
"Intelligent Design?" my back says *not*.

Dave Fawthrop wrote:
On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 06:16:55 GMT, T i m wrote:

I have severed my caravan road lighting cable, once in mumble years of
towing by dragging it along the ground. Repairing it in a service area
with PVC tape was a right pain.
--

To come back to the OP's question, curly cable or at least ready made
ext leads made with curly cable should be available from CPC or Towsure
for less than an arm and a leg.

However, as others have noted, it really isn't necessary, as long as
only a little slack is left on the cable (and only a little should be
needed if the cable is cable tied to the A Frame / Drawbar to just
short of the tow hitch).

On 31 Aug 2005 03:18:24 -0700, wrote:

To come back to the OP's question, curly cable or at least ready made
ext leads made with curly cable should be available from CPC or Towsure
for less than an arm and a leg.

As mentioned about 12 quid but are only 1.5m long and I believe the OP
was looking for something around 3m (tops)(with his current design in
mind anyway) ;-)

When I rewired my trailer I brought std 7 core cable from each of the
light units, up the A frame of the chassis to a point up near the draw
bar coupling where they were united in a waterproof box with the coily
bit. This meant there were unused conductors in each cable but also
all signals were present at both points (backup wires maybe)?

However, as others have noted, it really isn't necessary, as long as
only a little slack is left on the cable (and only a little should be
needed if the cable is cable tied to the A Frame / Drawbar to just
short of the tow hitch).

On from that, I have even see the 'loop' held up by a light elastic
band to the jockey wheel handle so that there is slack when needed,
won't pull the plug out and is held clear of any bits that might trap
the cable (like overrun brake mechs)?

A small loop that would cope on full lock with the socket on the
'wrong' side and a bit for luck seems to work though. I use those
large black re-usable cable ties so I can quickly adjust the slack if
the trailer is towed by a different vehicle.

All the best ..

T i m

rjs wrote:
Anyone know where I can buy 7 core trailer cable that has a wound-in
curl? I want a couple of metres of it for my Forth-Rail-Bridge trailer
project and balk at paying =A320 for an extension cable.

BTW Maplin is not the answer!

TIA

Richard


--
Real email address is RJSavage at BIGFOOT dot COM

Have you tried a commercial vehicle breakers yard ? threre should be
several in the yellow pages.

wrote in message
ups.com...

rjs wrote:
Anyone know where I can buy 7 core trailer cable that has a wound-in
curl? I want a couple of metres of it for my Forth-Rail-Bridge trailer
project and balk at paying £20 for an extension cable.

BTW Maplin is not the answer!

TIA

Richard


--
Real email address is RJSavage at BIGFOOT dot COM

Have you tried a commercial vehicle breakers yard ? threre should be
several in the yellow pages.


Now that's a very clever idea. I need to install trailer fittings
and I'll certainly follow that up.

--
__________________________________________________ ________

Peter Scott

Scanned for viruses using Norton 2005 before sending
__________________________________________________ ________

"rjs" wrote in message
...
Anyone know where I can buy 7 core trailer cable that has a wound-in curl?
I want a couple of metres of it for my Forth-Rail-Bridge trailer project
and balk at paying £20 for an extension cable.

BTW Maplin is not the answer!

TIA

Richard

despite a good hunt that bit of curly lead has eluded me, sorry.

mrcheerful (despite having too much junk)

mrcheerful . wrote:
"rjs" wrote in message
...

Anyone know where I can buy 7 core trailer cable that has a wound-in curl?
I want a couple of metres of it for my Forth-Rail-Bridge trailer project
and balk at paying £20 for an extension cable.

BTW Maplin is not the answer!

TIA

Richard


despite a good hunt that bit of curly lead has eluded me, sorry.

mrcheerful (despite having too much junk)




Thanks to all who replied, and especially to those who looked!

Autac, bless them, have offered to send me a sample.

Rgds Richard

--
Real email address is RJSavage at BIGFOOT dot COM

On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 20:11:23 +0100, rjs wrote:

mrcheerful . wrote:
"rjs" wrote in message
...

Anyone know where I can buy 7 core trailer cable that has a wound-in curl?
I want a couple of metres of it for my Forth-Rail-Bridge trailer project
and balk at paying £20 for an extension cable.

BTW Maplin is not the answer!

TIA

Richard


despite a good hunt that bit of curly lead has eluded me, sorry.

mrcheerful (despite having too much junk)




Thanks to all who replied, and especially to those who looked!

Autac, bless them, have offered to send me a sample.

Rgds Richard


That's a good result, Richard.

I found them good to deal with and pricing for my special custom
requirement pretty fair and delivery fast.




--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 23:24:23 +0100, Andy Hall
wrote:



Autac, bless them, have offered to send me a sample.

Rgds Richard


That's a good result, Richard.

I found them good to deal with and pricing for my special custom
requirement pretty fair and delivery fast.

Just wondered, are these curly cables sold in set lengths so that you
get a straight bit of cable at the ends or can you buy it 'off the
roll' and in that case do you just fight the curley bit into the 7pin
plug etc?

All the best ..

T i m

On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 07:42:40 GMT, T i m wrote:

On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 23:24:23 +0100, Andy Hall
wrote:



Autac, bless them, have offered to send me a sample.

Rgds Richard


That's a good result, Richard.

I found them good to deal with and pricing for my special custom
requirement pretty fair and delivery fast.

Just wondered, are these curly cables sold in set lengths so that you
get a straight bit of cable at the ends or can you buy it 'off the
roll' and in that case do you just fight the curley bit into the 7pin
plug etc?

All the best ..

T i m



The ones I got from Autac have straight ends and I could specify how
much straight end I wanted.

One *could* make off a curly end into a connector, but the result
would look rather tacky.

You need a straight end.



--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 09:41:56 +0100, Andy Hall
wrote:


Just wondered, are these curly cables sold in set lengths so that you
get a straight bit of cable at the ends or can you buy it 'off the
roll' and in that case do you just fight the curley bit into the 7pin
plug etc?


The ones I got from Autac have straight ends and I could specify how
much straight end I wanted.

Nice ..

One *could* make off a curly end into a connector, but the result
would look rather tacky.

That's what I though ..

You need a straight end.

At all times ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

Andy Hall wrote:



The ones I got from Autac have straight ends and I could specify how
much straight end I wanted.

One *could* make off a curly end into a connector, but the result
would look rather tacky.

You need a straight end.




You're quite right about the pukka Autac cables having straight ends.
I expect that my 'sample' will be curly in its entire length. Not
something I'm going to complain about tho'

Rgds

Richard

--
Real email address is RJSavage at BIGFOOT dot COM

rjs wrote:
Anyone know where I can buy 7 core trailer cable that has a wound-in
curl? I want a couple of metres of it for my Forth-Rail-Bridge trailer
project and balk at paying ?20 for an extension cable.

BTW Maplin is not the answer!

Some sorts of cable can be coiled easilu by wrapping them around a former,
and placing in boiling water, or an oven.
If boiling water doesn't work, try putting in the oven for an hour, at
10C higher temps each time, and leaving 3 hours to cool.

Ian Stirling wrote:
rjs wrote:

Anyone know where I can buy 7 core trailer cable that has a wound-in
curl? I want a couple of metres of it for my Forth-Rail-Bridge trailer
project and balk at paying ?20 for an extension cable.

BTW Maplin is not the answer!


Some sorts of cable can be coiled easilu by wrapping them around a former,
and placing in boiling water, or an oven.
If boiling water doesn't work, try putting in the oven for an hour, at
10C higher temps each time, and leaving 3 hours to cool.


Good idea.

Ta

Richard

--
Real email address is RJSavage at BIGFOOT dot COM