Trailer light hook up

/ Trailer light hook up #1  

16valex

Silver Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2004
Messages
137
Location
NY
Tractor
bx23
I plan to tow my kids around in a hay ride this coming Halloween, although I only plan to ride around just in the neighborhood but it would be nice to have the trailer light working. Can someone give me a pointer or two? Thank you for reading and advise.

Alex
 
/ Trailer light hook up #2  
16valex said:
I plan to tow my kids around in a hay ride this coming Halloween, although I only plan to ride around just in the neighborhood but it would be nice to have the trailer light working. Can someone give me a pointer or two? Thank you for reading and advise.

Alex

I assume your using your BX23 to tow, and the trailer has a 4 pin connector for car/truck use. I also assume the BX23 has a cigarette lighter type power outlet.

I'd go to an automotive section and get a lighter plug and a trailer plug set and wire them together.

The four pin plug has 3 pins in one direction and one in the other. The single one is the ground. The other three are tail lights, left turn, and right turn. You can touch the wires and see which lamps light after you connect the ground. You will only need tail lights. I assume again, the BX does not have brake lights.

The adapter on the tractor should be fused so I wouldn't add a fuse. Just be sure you get the ground connection right. It is the sides of the adapter socket. The single pin in the middle is plus 12 volts.

If you don't have a cigarette type plug you could get some alligator clips and connect to the battery. This is a quick temporary method. If you do this you should install a 10 amp fuse in the line.

I suppose you could also connect to you headlights if there is an easy way. For a one time only deal I'd probably use the clips.
 
/ Trailer light hook up #3  
16valex said:
I plan to tow my kids around in a hay ride this coming Halloween, although I only plan to ride around just in the neighborhood but it would be nice to have the trailer light working. Can someone give me a pointer or two? Thank you for reading and advise.

Alex

Maybe consider coming off the hazard flasher lead at the light to add an extra measure of safety as well. Can't be too safe.
;)
 
/ Trailer light hook up #4  
The four pin plug has 3 pins in one direction and one in the other. The single one is the ground. The other three are tail lights, left turn, and right turn. You can touch the wires and see which lamps light after you connect the ground. You will only need tail lights. I assume again, the BX does not have brake lights.

Of course you can determine which wire is which by the trial and error method, but there actually is a "standard" pattern as to which pin is for which lights. You can find it lots of places, including the instruction sheet that comes with the plugs, and in many places on the Internet, such as this.
 
/ Trailer light hook up #5  
dannydan3 said:
Maybe consider coming off the hazard flasher lead at the light to add an extra measure of safety as well. Can't be too safe.
;)

Good idea, the yellow(left) and green(right) are the turn signals, brown parking and white gound if I recall.
 
/ Trailer light hook up #6  
16valex said:
I plan to tow my kids around in a hay ride this coming Halloween, although I only plan to ride around just in the neighborhood but it would be nice to have the trailer light working. Can someone give me a pointer or two? Thank you for reading and advise.

Alex


Alex, You'll have a ball! I did that 20 years ago with my oldest son. We strapped a huge Jack-O-Lantern to the hood of my Cub Cadet, hooked up my 12 ft flatbed trailer, threw on a few bales of straw and a cooler and off we went. We ended up with 27 people crammed on the trailer and Trick or Treated the whole town! The local Gendarmes were perfectly pleasant, just grinned and waved. We might have even been legal as a farm vehicle.

If I remember correctly, I just ran a hot wire from the battery. I hooked that to a flasher from the auto parts store and connected both left and right brake lights on the trailer to the flasher output. That made both rear lights on the trailer flash. The flashers are designed to flash 2 bulbs (1 front and 1 rear) on a car so the 2 bulbs on the trailer created the right load. Hooking up that way didn't affect the tractor's head lights and tail lights.

My son was 4 years old and he's never forgotten that Halloween! Obviously, neither have I.
 
/ Trailer light hook up
  • Thread Starter
#7  
Thank you all for your responses. Now, I have a lot to chew on:).

And Yes I do have a BX23, I just bought a drawbar and a drawbar stabilizer for my three point hitch. I will be towing a small but tough little #3000 LBS capacity trailer. I won't be taking other kids because of reliability nowadays except for one neighbor kid and his dad plus my three

I think the kids will think it is so cool to be riding around in a hay ride for trick or treat.

Thanks again for all your help.

Alex
 
/ Trailer light hook up
  • Thread Starter
#8  
The kids had a great time riding around. Lights were on and flashing for hours without blowing any fuse. I ended up spliced the trailer light to the exsistant flasher and parking wires w/o fuses. Here are some pics.
 

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/ Trailer light hook up #9  
Alex, sounds like you and the kids had a great time! Now you can do the same thing on turkey day and then figure out first snow day ride, etc.

hey Bird that was a good link also, made a copy to have around, know it will come in handy some day.

Wayne
 

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