trailer lighting plug

[Frontranger]

Howdy folks: I have taken on a new project here at home on the front range, and have commenced to re-wiring a used trailer I bought recently. I'm now starting to make some of the connections, and am pretty happy with the progress so far. I'm using crimped AND soldered connections with a shrinkwrap covering on my terminal ends inside the plug housing (a 7 pin plug). Everythings fittin' together pretty good and am just about ready for the final assembly. I've read much about using dielectric grease on the connections for corrosion protection, and I don't want to put too much on, but I don't know what too little would be, other than just saying I put some on without really doing it. Would you use just a dab on both one side or on both sides of the terminal (a ring type terminal in this case, 12 & 10 AWG with a #10 stud hole)or do you try to cover the terminal and the post it is screwed to with the grease? Thanks fer yer help!

 

[Bob]

You CAN'T put too much dielectric grease on those connections.

 

[Wayne_H]

I put a 7 pin plug on my 88 F-250 and my trailer 6 years ago. My advice to you, is to if at all possible, make sure water does not "drip" down into the connector on the rear of the truck from the bumper or truck bed. I have not found a good "truck side" connector that is sealed, and water drips down the wires into the plug. I have drilled a small hole in the truck side connector, but last year, one of the wires came entirely off due to corrosion. When that thing is hooked up, there is always voltage going to it, and I think it makes it corrode faster.

Of course this always happens when you are in a rush, and when you hook up your trailer and find there are no brakes on it, it takes hours to fix....

Good luck!

Wayne

 

[RobMD]

That's right!

Dielectric grease is formulated so that it only functions to prevent corrosion, and not inhibit the contact area from achieving voltage.

 

[Frontranger]

Bob and Rob: Thankin' you fellers muchly. I was some concerned about maybe gettin' too much in there and having it foul something else up. Wayne: I did a lot of lookin' around for a plug that had a better seal than the ones I found in the stores around here. None of 'em seem to have any kind of O ring/gasket at the closure cap and will nearly always have to leak some at the top of the closure when they are not in use. I think Pollack makes one heavy duty one that might make up for no seal with a cap that fits over the hole a little better (think lid on a jar minus the threads), but it is in the pin configuration as opposed to the blade type setup. I was looking at contact cementing a small rubber flap over the top and maybe that's just what I'll try. Too durn much trouble for most folks and nearly too much for me, but I would rather have the blade type hookup for now. Maybe that'll change later. Thanks again fellers.

 

[john *.?-!.* cub owner]

Don't seal it up to tight, condensation, etc. will build up water in it and cause corrosion. seal the wire side good, and make sure the rear is tilted down slightly so anything that gets in it will drain.

 

[Ken L]

Make sure that the dielectric grease you use is non conductive. I put a new plug on my trailer a couple years ago and coated everything with dielectric grease. When I turned the turn signals on the brakes pulsed with the turn signal. I checked and rechecked the wiring and couldn't find a problem. For some reason, I put a dab of that grease on a board and put the leads from my multi meter in the grease about 1/8" apart. It did coduct electricity. Cleaned it all out and bought a tube of non conductive dielectric grease and I haven't had a problem since.

 

[Frontranger]

Hey thanks Ken and John too: Ken,what you're saying is exactly the answer I was shootin' for. While I have a pretty good grip on how well the dielectric grease principle is supposed to work and how nothing a guy would do can last forever, but I was not aware/wasn't thinking about how that it could be conductive to the other terminals. I figured it was all the same stuff, brand to brand. But that is exactly the kind of problem (what you described) that I don't want to have. I'm thinking in a single terminal situation, it probably doesn't matter as much how much gets applied. But when you've got 7 terminals all within about an 1/8" of each other, I'd sure want to protect 'em from corrosion AND keep 'em seperated, even if by only millimeters! John, I'm probably overworkin' this subject a bit in my own head, but I had also thought about tipping it downward a bit on the installation and about how sealing it up too tight might just encourage the corrosion too....still not quite sure where I'll come down on that last one. Still, thanks for the advice. I do a lot of muddy road drivin' so I'll probably try to get it say 90+ percent tight and hope for the best. Y'all been great here....thanks for the help! I like this forum a lot!!

 

[Anonymous-0]

It is interesting that you found something marked dielectric that conducted..........

A dielectric is a nonconducting substance, i.e. an insulator. The term was coined by Whewell[1] in response to a request from Faraday. Whewell considered dia-electric, since an electric field passes through the material (Greek: dia meaning "through"), but felt that dielectric was easier to pronounce. Whilst the nouns dielectric and insulator are generally considered synonymous, the term dielectric is more often used when considering the effect of alternating electric fields on the substance; insulator is more often used when the material is being used to withstand a high electric field.