PIP trailer wiring different from other GenIII?

How does wire gauge alone "place excessive stress on the OEM wiring"? What is your source for this certainty?

Unless you know something I don't, I'd wager that the less than 5 watts extra load won't be a problem. I'll test this in a couple weeks when I have access to my trailer and PiP and report back here.

 

The "direct" connections utilize a 3M (or equal) splicing device which is generally OK if the wire sizes match, but overstress the smaller gauge if the wire sizes don't match.

 

Where do you get the extra load figure of less than 5 watts. Stop lights are rated at 21 watts each of witch there are 2 making 42 watts. Tail lamps are 5 watts each. With the requirements in Europe needing 2 for the tail lamps and 2 more for registration plate illumination bringing those up to 20 watts. Turn signal lamps are 21 watts each so with hazards working would take 42 watts.

John

 

In post #18 I shared that the LED bulbs I'm planning to use are measured to consume 80mA each for tail lights and 340mA each for the brake light.

Each wire to the bulb will be subjected to no more than 5 watts of extra load (0.34 amps * 14.4 volts). As we all know, the wires don't care about how many watts, but instead have a limit to how many amps they can carry. At 0.34 amps, they will hardly notice any difference.

This should be a simpler and cheaper solution to wiring tail/brake lights to a trailer, but I'll report back here in a couple weeks to confirm my suspicion.

 

In that case, why wouldn't strain relief resolve that issue?

 

To update this thread in case someone does a search, I ended up doing direct taps to the light wiring, with no controller for the trailer lights. Since I don't have a controller, I had to choose between having turn signals or brake lights, since both utilize the same wire on the trailer. I choose brake lights as I think those are more important, and people can still see my turn signal on the Prius. I also tapped the tail light for the lower brightness continuous on lights.

Everything is working great, with no problems.

Note that I was able to directly tap the wiring because I'm running LED lights, which have such a low draw that it doesn't stress the existing wiring. This would not work with standard incandescent lights.