Trailer Wiring Repair Kits and Parts

Question:

I need a teporary fix to get home with my trailor ive found pieces of black, red, and white solid gage wire can I use the some of them to fix my missing brown and yellow wire on the drivers side of trailor if yes which colors can i use. Thank you.

asked by: Patricia T

Expert Reply:

If you need to do a temporary wiring repair on your trailer the wire color used does not matter but the wire gauge can matter. The brown and yellow wires on your trailer carry stop/turn and tail light signals and probably were either 16- or 18-gauge. Using solid wire instead of stranded wire is okay, but solid core wire can be harder to work with since it is less flexible and harder to twist together for splicing. Also, solid core wire will typically do less well with vibration since it is stiffer.

It is okay to use a larger gauge wire for a repair but not a smaller gauge than the original wire.

To get you home next time you might want to start carrying a few spools of repair wire like # 10-1-1 (which is 10-gauge) and some butt connectors like # 05732-2. Another good item to carry for emergency use is liquid electrical tape like # SWC50122 which makes on-the-fly wire repair easier.
We also have wiring kits like # HM51020 that include many such repair items.

expert reply by: Adam R