Trailer plugs

I'll second that. I was having heaps of problems with bad contact / broken pins, plug dislodging etc with a 7 pin flat plug - changed over to a Narva metal round 7 pin and have not had any problems since. They also lock the plug in via the cover of the female plug and it cannot come loose over the rough stuff. Not much more expensive than the plastic flat plug if I remember rightly.

The flat sockets also lock in via the flip up lid.

As far as bad contacts go I've had bad contacts in both round and flat. A quick squirt of WD40 or an electrical cleaner and everythings go for another six months.

My preference is is for the flat as they mount up higher on our 4by's as we bent the round ones on both our cars the first time we went off road.

The round ones can be more rugged if you use the metal ones. A lot depends on where they are mounted on the car.

Peter

ok, well my flat plug always worked loose - might have been a different brand and the locking mechanism was therefore not effective.

I have mounted my round plug up in the bar itself with the wires coming in from the top - just drilled and tapped 3 holes in the face of the bar - there is nothing below the bar to get ripped off.

You do realise that drilling in to the bar creates holes which will rust and simply drilling into the bar weakens it?

You should never drill into a structural member, be it in a house beam, car chassis, bridge member etc.

Unless, of course, it was designed to be drilled into.. In which case the plug would have been mounted there already.

Peter

Maybe so re: rust - but I painted the hole with primer and rust paint prior to installing - don't know why I bothered though - everywhere that has copped a bash or scrape on it has surface rust. The holes are also completely filled by screws - don't know how they could possibly rust as they are sealed by the screws. As for drilling 3 tiny holes in the face of the towbar - you have got to be kidding - if that weakens it then I should have bought a different bar!

Maybe I am wrong, but I feel quite safe in doing it.

LOL, I bet the three holes each side drilled into the bar where it mounts to the vehicle make the whole thing pretty weak then as they are much bigger than the holes I drilled ;-)

Actually, yes the monting plates with the three hole would be significantly weaker than a piece the same size without the holes.

But you are probably correct on the impact of the holes you've drilled. They will amke only a slight difference to strength and under normal towing loads I don't think it would make any difference. But...If you snatch with the towbar the load on the bar can be upwars of 5-6000kg which is comfortably double the weight limit on the bar and there is a slight chance that the bar would bend where you have drilled your holes.

Me, I would prefer to play it safe and you'll never catch me drilling in to anything I'm going to really load up later.

A friend of mine bought a car with a towbar that some dill had decided to drill a hole in the tongue of all places. The FIrst time he put a trailer on with any weight in it the tongue bent. Without the new hole it would have been fine.

Peter

I don't know where you got your flat 7 pin socket from but the one I originally used had oins about 1/2 the size of those found in the round metal Narva plug.

Moggs,
I originally had the Narva small round 7 pin plug, fairly standard up this way. The pins in the 7 pin flat are quite a bit larger, but smaller than the Large round 7 pin connector.

Cheers....