Question for those who have installed a Turn Signal Converter.

Hello,

I just rebuilt and rewired a trailer with LED Lights for over 80" Wide for a Ski Boat. I am pulling my rig with a 2004 Chevy Tahoe with a Factory installed seven wire towing package. I also pull a utility trailer and pontoon trailer and I have never had good luck with getting my lights to work correctly for long. I have replaced the under the hood trailer fuse in the past to make the lights work, but they do not seem to work for long period of time. My fuse may be my problem now, but after looking at the Tailer Light instructions I now realize that I need a Turn Signal Converter.

It this rebuild I ran independent ground wires to a central location at the tongue and tied into the harness ground to try to eliminate any grounding issues.

I REALIZE THAT I NEED A TAIL LIGHT SIGNAL CONVERTER to split the seperate turn and brake signal from the Tahoe to one that can be used by the trailer LED lights. I have the seperate amber turn signals that are seperate from my brake lights on my 2004 Chevy Tahoe.

The Tahoe came with a Factory Towing Package that uses a 7 Blade Round Plug. For years I have used an adapater that plugs into the hole and converts the wires to a four pole setup all self contained within the adapter itself. My new trailer wires are a four pole plug type.

I have seen several types of Signal Light converter in the Iboat store and on etrailer.com. and I am still a little confused and here is my questions:

#1) Do I need to remove my factory Round Seven Blade Plug and hard wire in one of these converters?

#2) It appears to me that the converter has five wires running into it from the tow vehicle and four wires to the trailer coming out of the converter. Can I put a five pole plug on the Towing vehicle side of the Turn Signal Converter Box? This FIve Pole Plug would then plug into a new Seven Blade Round to FIVE adapter. On the Trailer side of the converter box, I would put a four pole plug that will mate up with the four plug trailer harness? Naturally, I would have to make sure I have the male and female plugs in the right places.

I am trying to come up with a Plug in Play method of not changing the factory Seven Blade system. I am now sure that by not having the Turn Signal converter in the past is why I have had so many trailer light problems over the years.

Your help and thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Donald

Re: Question for those who have installed a Turn Signal Converter.

You don't need a converter. My Yukon (same vehicle) has the factory 7 pin connector and the embossed pin-outs on the cover for that connector clearly shows LT, RT, Tail, and Ground connections. I tow several different trailers and don't need the converter even though the truck has amber turn signals. All you need is the 7-pin to 4-flat plug.

Re: Question for those who have installed a Turn Signal Converter.

Silver,

I was hoping that you would check out this thread. You have been a help to me in the past on the Force Forums.

I just called a local trailer repair shop and they also told me that with the factory Towing Package I do not need the converter. This conversion is handled with the factory package.

This means that I must have some blown fuses under the hood. I finished my LED Install and Trailer Rebuild at 11:30 PM last night and I still have not yet checked the fuses. I must have at least one bad fuse.

I need to figure out why I am blowing fuses. This trailer had very poor wiring that I have now fixed. My Pontoon Trailer has good wiring and I always had good luck with those lights. My utility trailer has very poor wiring and I use that trailer all of the time. I am thinking that my utility trailer is what is killing my fuses. I need to rewire and reground that trailer also.


This site is great.

Thanks

Donald

Re: Question for those who have installed a Turn Signal Converter.

The only thing that will cause a fuse to blow is ppulling too much current through it. That can be caused by having the improper sized fuse (I.e. Having a 2 amp fuse in a circuit that draws and is rated for 10 amps etc.....) Or having a short in the circuit.

As it was explained in the other thread if your continuisly blowing fuses something is shorted out. Check the wiring for cuts or abrasions and fix it accordingly.

Ifyou just rewired the trailer, you need to replace the fuse in the truck with the proper size and plug the trailer in and see what you got. It may work just fine.

Bill

Re: Question for those who have installed a Turn Signal Converter.

Since this is a factory tow package, the fuse size indicated should be sufficient for nearly any trailer. I would verify that the fuse size is correct and then verify the trailer wiring.

Re: Question for those who have installed a Turn Signal Converter.

Any vehicle that has the factory tow harness installed does not need the converter. if you hook one up and your rig already has one, hopefully you'll get lucky and just blow out the converter. and as silver tip said, in another post about damaging vehicles wiring, i've seen it too i had the unfortunat of the customer trying to blame it on me.

Another thing to check make sure someone didnt play a switcheroo with fuses i've seen the well this 40amp blew out but i have a 30 and dont want to go to the store.

Re: Question for those who have installed a Turn Signal Converter.

I wanted to close the loop on this thread. Upon inspection, I found that one 15 Amp Fuse under the dash was broken and one 10 Amp Fuse in the dash ( on side as you open the door) was also broken. Both fuses were for the trailer lights.

I replaced both and now the lights work great. Now I need to put new lights on my utility trailer so I can stop blowing fuses.

Thanks

Donald