Trailers and Tribulations

[tbone]

A bit of prep work, then its welded to the tailgate and and the other half added to it, could`nt do it all in one cos i didn`t have a long enough sheet of steel 

[tbone]

Whip the covers off the lamps and hold them up to the plate, mark the holes, then drill the mounting holes and the hole for the cable.

[tbone]

then bolt them on either end of the metal plate, and add the number plate in the middle

[tbone]

To comply with the trailer lighting regulations, i need 2 triangular reflectors too, so again position them, drill and bolt

[tbone]

And the second one. Why is it thats its soooo much quicker to say than actualy do   
So thats the lights fitted, next i`ll be running the cable to them.

[morrag]

When you get the gorilla installed it will look the biz. Mr. T ..Morrag

[tbone]

YOU WANT ME TO GET IN THERE?

[tbone]

Before i can run the wire, i need to attach the plug. For trailers and basic towing generally, you use whats known as a 12n plug and socket. The socket is on the vehicle and the plug on the trailer.
As is usual there will be different qualities of plug to choose from, but for something like a trailer, a cheap plastic one is fine. They are usualy made in one piece and open up by removing the end screw cap, pulling back the grommet then lifting back the plastic securing flappy thing.

[tbone]

Inside, you`ll find something like whats in the picture below. This is where the wires from the 7 core cable connect to the plug pins and the wires are held in place via small screws.

[tbone]

Start by stripping back the outer sheath to reveal the 7 cables inside, then strip back the ends of those to expose the wire.

[tbone]

Then attach the wires to the connector.
The connector will be marked by having numbers next to the pins. The numbers refer to the function of the pins, and in turn different  strand colours of the 7 core cable peform different functions too, so connect the right colour wire to the right numbered pin  .
How do you know what colour goes to which pin? If your an old git like me then you`ll have it scribbled down in a oil and tea stained notebook, if your young enough to think a notebook is a small laptop computer, then thankfully they print it all on the packaging these days.

[tbone]

The final step is to put it all back together, insert the pin block, close the case, snap the hinge closed, push the grommet into the top and screw the cap back on.

[BikerGran]

I particularly like the technical term

plastic securing flappy thing.

!

[tbone]

Spent hours on this but very little to show for it!
Need a way of stopping the tailgate from flying open as i drive along, the simple solution is to pin it in place, had i thought about it before i could have saved a lot of work.......but i didn`t.
First step then was to cut some 10mm plate, 2 strips, 30mm wide each. HARD WORK.
Then drill a 12mm hole in each. HARD WORK.
Then weld one on each of my top rails. Not hard but tricky, very different thickness in materials.
What i ended up with is in this picture.

[tbone]

The idea is to now drill down through the top rail of the tailgate, then drop a pin through the hole and secure the bottom of the pin with a clip. The thickness of the pin will take out any horizontal movement and because the tailgate locates under my extentions, there is no room for vertical movement either.