To brake light of not!

[Jim Loiselle]

I found a used trailer for next years Rally. I panited the top Yellow and installed towchains. My question: After hooking up trailer wiring I have running lights and turn signals, but no brake lights. Should I hookup brake lights or just depend on my trunk brake lights?
Jim

[Ditto]

Hi Jim. Most all states require you to have brake lights on your trailer so I would go ahead and put them on to avoid any unwanted driving awards. Besides, the more lights you have the better the chance of someone seeing you. Congrats on finding a trailer. I've been pulling one for years now. It sure does make for easy packing.

[Doug in South Dakota]

Looks as tho your trailer is 4 wire....The bike is 5 wire.....You need adapter to get em to work right

[Nathan (South Carolina)]

You can purchase a 5 wire to 4 wire Hoppy adapter at your local WalMart for about $13.00. Very easy to install.

[Jim Loiselle]

Thanks to everyone! I am on it! Hope to get it corrected by this weekend.
Jim

[Doug in South Dakota]

Being used I would check the bearings

[Chris near Kansas City]

You could also just add lights, change the connector, and that way you wouldn't have to run a converter.

Still haven't decided what I'm going to do about my trailer situation.

[WhiskeyDoc]

Jim, Not trying to be a "know it all", but I hope you don't pull that trailer with the safety chains hanging down like that.

Some time back we had a long thread about trailer saftey chains and how they are to be used. The rule is that the chains need to be twisted and crossed so they create a "basket" under the tongue of the trailer. This will insure that if the ball or the hitch comes loose the tongue can't hit the pavement before you get the bike and trailer stopped.

[Bill52]

How should the chains go? Not sure myself.

Jim, Not trying to be a "know it all", but I hope you don't pull that trailer with the safety chains hanging down like that.

Some time back we had a long thread about trailer saftey chains and how they are to be used. The rule is that the chains need to be twisted and crossed so they create a "basket" under the tongue of the trailer. This will insure that if the ball or the hitch comes loose the tongue can't hit the pavement before you get the bike and trailer stopped.

[Bill O]

The chains should be crossed under the trailer tongue. They should have just enough slack (each) so you can manuver tight left/right turns with out trying to stretch the chains At no time should they drag (won't last long that way).

If the ball and hitch become separated, the crossed chains should cradle the tongue and keep it from dragging on the pavement. This way you will be able to maintain control and safely pull over. The primary legal reason you are required to have chains, is so you keep it out of someone elses windshield, if it becomes separated from your bike.

I have had the pleasure of having my camper trailer coming off the hitch ball. I was able to pull over safely with the chains. Mine did drag a bit, though, so lesson learned.......Don't pick the tongue up right away........ (Damn that was hot.....) Oh! yeah! The reason it came loose...... Operator error! Rode a 100 miles with out securing the hitch properly, before a big pothole bounced it off.

Bill

[Chris near Kansas City]

The trailer came off the ball in our accident, but the chains kept the trailer from going where it wasn't supposed too. Also, probably kept the trailer from yanking the wires out of the connectors too. One less thing to fix in order to be mobile again.

[Scott-(Altoona, PA)]

I actually saw this happen with my own eyes when a tar kettle trailer (heater for roofing tar) became uncoupled from the tow truck. When the tongue dropped to the road surface it became an Olympic pole vaulter an launched over itself toward the truck. Having the chains crossed under the tongue prevents this from happening as well as other reasons mentioned above.

[MTN99]

Bet that was a mess.... hope there DOT got some sand on it before it set up, that stuff gets nasty slick in the rain

Jim Good looking trailer ,
and yes I would go for the added lights, not that hard to hook up. Even though you have the 86 with the full light across the trunk, you can never have enough lights to wake up those couple of chuckleheads that are out there I'm adding a LED brake light strip to the top of our Piggy... (can't see the trunk light too well on account of the ht..)

As for the Chains, Just what Bill O said be sure to have the proper length, not draging and enough to turn with... don't wind/twist the extra chain out here in Calif. the CHP does take notice of safety chains that are wound / kinked up to take slack out.

[Scott-(Altoona, PA)]

Bet that was a mess.... hope there DOT got some sand on it before it set up, that stuff gets nasty slick in the rain ...

Tony, at the time it was a bit frightful to see but in hind sight funny as hell. The driver was very lucky in that the kettle was cooled down enough that nothing spilled and it flipped to the right over the berm and into a parking lot. Watching those guys flip it back on to it's wheels was some what amusing too!
No police involved as they got it righted and to the most part reconnected to the hitch (a bit twisted but still on two wheels).

[Jim Loiselle]

The job is done and everything is working! Thanks to everyone for the help. Jim

[Jim Loiselle]

This is what it looks like from behind! Jim

[raddmarl]

Jim did you istall the hitch yourself or did you have someone do it for you? If you did it yourself was it hard to do and where did you obtain the hardware?

[Nathan (South Carolina)]

Jim did you istall the hitch yourself or did you have someone do it for you? If you did it yourself was it hard to do and where did you obtain the hardware?

Bouncer Bob,
You can obtain a trailer hitch from http://www.marvellas.com. I have a Markland trailer hitch and it took me approximately 1 hr to install. The installation is not difficult. I used a Hoppy converter to convert the 5 wire Voyager lights to a 4 wire system for the trailer. The Hoppy converter can be purchased at WalMart for approximately $13.00.

[raddmarl]

Thanks! Next question. having no real wiring experience. where do you splice into the voyagers wiring to set up the plug in the first place?

[flip18436572]

Thanks! Next question. having no real wiring experience. where do you splice into the voyagers wiring to set up the plug in the first place?

It has been a while for me, but I am sure I did all of my soldering underneath the pillion seat/trunk area. But I had my bike torn down a lot because I was repainting and many other things at the same time.