Trailer wiring

Thank you to CX/GL forum Member Blindstitch Here is how he wired his bike to power trailer lights.

A few months back there was some talk about wiring a trailer and motorcycle and I believe I explained my method but it's time to wire up the Gl650i.

So here's what I got and it takes a bit of time in house.

First I buy a Hopkins 48915 60" Tail Light Converter found here on amazon but I buy mine from a tractor place.

http://www.amazon.co...r/dp/B0002Q81XA

then I buy a pack of male/female bullet connectors.

Then at the bike side of the wires after being cut to fit with some room for error about 4 inches up I strip 1 inch of wire bare and fold it over and give it a bit of a twist. Then I insert it into the male connector. The reason I use the mail connector is if you bend that little stopping notch out of the way in the connector you can insert wire all the way to the tip. And of course crimp the connector.

Then I strip the last 1/2 inch of wire and insert it into the female connector and crimp that.

Once done I wrap the wires from the trailer connector back up to the bike. You can also use wire protector to make it look more uniformed but I always like to wrap the wire just for extra protection against rubbing.

In the picture below it shows the almost finished product. I haven't yet hooked the white/ground wire to a connector because i'm not sure where it's going yet.

Ok so you may have some questions if you aren't familiar with trailer wiring especially motorcycles. In the U.S. most of our trailers are 4 wire plugs. And in Europe and other places they have a 5 wire plug. Therefore American cars and trucks that are older like the 4 wire setups but the newer cars require a 5 wire harness at the vehicle side.

Well now you run into another thing. Most trailers in the U.S. are 4 wire meaning they have 4 wires coming from the vehicle powering them.

Of the 4 wires on the trailer side one is left, one is right, one is brake and the last is ground.

On the 5 wire system there is left, right, brake, running and ground.

I'm using a converter above because motorcycles are of a 5 wire style but then when you hook them to a 4 wire trailer they need a conversion. In the convertor most is the same but the running light and the brake light share the same out hole. When the convertor senses power from the brake light input it flows power to the turn signals making them work at the same time as brake lights.

I'm sure I missed something and there are many ways around but this is the quick and clean. Since motorcycle trailers aren't likely to be pulled by other vehicles there are other adapters that can be used and you can even run a 5 wire system off the bike to a 5 wire system on the trailer.

There are also people that have sleeping disorders and need to carry a 12 volt sleep machine so they get a 6 wire plug and hook one of the extra wires to the battery and place a battery in the trailer so when they're riding the trailer battery is charging.

And then there's electronic brakes ......

Now you know how I do it.

And now for some pictures of how I did it.

This method was a lot easier to hook up than using those stupid fold over clips that pierce the wires and then fall off causing you to wonder why lights don't work.

It didn't stay like that. After I wrapped it all up things tucked in nice and easy. The good thing about the gl650 is not only did it have the room for extra wires but it has holes in the rear fender to run the turn signals. And it was big enough to run the trailer wiring through.

Then I connected the end to an old antenna mount.