Trailer wiring for C5
06-07-2007, 11:08 AM
#1
Race Director
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Location: www.ncminsurance.com Bowling Green KY Home of the Corvette!
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CI 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12 Vet
St. Jude Donor '07-'08
NCM Sinkhole Donor
Trailer wiring for C5
Bought a Northern Tool trailer and have it put together and ready to go...
Got the hitch on the C5 now...
All I need to do now is get lights to the trailer hooked up with the Vette..What did you all use? Anyone have any directions on how to do it?
Thanks!
Adam
Got the hitch on the C5 now...
All I need to do now is get lights to the trailer hooked up with the Vette..What did you all use? Anyone have any directions on how to do it?
Thanks!
Adam
06-07-2007, 12:45 PM
#3
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Adam,
There was a post some time ago, but I don't know if a search would find it or not.
Basically, you pull a right rear tail light to gain access to car's rear wiring harness. Inside the body is a harness going to the tail lights, etc. The corvette wiring is the same color as the adapter kits from most auto parts houses. The 4-wire kit you buy from the auto parts store has green, brown and yellow. There is also a white lead that is used to ground and there is a lug on the frame in the right rear area that you can connect to. This is all from memory, but if you use an electronic tester you can double check the wiring harness and match up colors from the aftermarket trailer wiring kit. The kits come in many lengths, I forget how long you need, tail light area to hitch is probably 3 to 4 feet, I think there is a standard 6' length available.
Mike
There was a post some time ago, but I don't know if a search would find it or not.
Basically, you pull a right rear tail light to gain access to car's rear wiring harness. Inside the body is a harness going to the tail lights, etc. The corvette wiring is the same color as the adapter kits from most auto parts houses. The 4-wire kit you buy from the auto parts store has green, brown and yellow. There is also a white lead that is used to ground and there is a lug on the frame in the right rear area that you can connect to. This is all from memory, but if you use an electronic tester you can double check the wiring harness and match up colors from the aftermarket trailer wiring kit. The kits come in many lengths, I forget how long you need, tail light area to hitch is probably 3 to 4 feet, I think there is a standard 6' length available.
Mike
Last edited by ReddyZ06; 06-07-2007 at 12:47 PM.
06-07-2007, 01:36 PM
#4
Melting Slicks
You got it Mike! Remove inside tail light from both sides. Remove license plate and backup light assembly. You can see the ground screw to put the white wire on. Just splice a 4-wire connector in with quick splice connectors that come with the harness. Before you put it all back together just hook up your trailer and test.
06-07-2007, 05:20 PM
#6
Le Mans Master
Adam,
There was a post some time ago, but I don't know if a search would find it or not.
Basically, you pull a right rear tail light to gain access to car's rear wiring harness. Inside the body is a harness going to the tail lights, etc. The corvette wiring is the same color as the adapter kits from most auto parts houses. The 4-wire kit you buy from the auto parts store has green, brown and yellow. There is also a white lead that is used to ground and there is a lug on the frame in the right rear area that you can connect to. This is all from memory, but if you use an electronic tester you can double check the wiring harness and match up colors from the aftermarket trailer wiring kit. The kits come in many lengths, I forget how long you need, tail light area to hitch is probably 3 to 4 feet, I think there is a standard 6' length available.
Mike
There was a post some time ago, but I don't know if a search would find it or not.
Basically, you pull a right rear tail light to gain access to car's rear wiring harness. Inside the body is a harness going to the tail lights, etc. The corvette wiring is the same color as the adapter kits from most auto parts houses. The 4-wire kit you buy from the auto parts store has green, brown and yellow. There is also a white lead that is used to ground and there is a lug on the frame in the right rear area that you can connect to. This is all from memory, but if you use an electronic tester you can double check the wiring harness and match up colors from the aftermarket trailer wiring kit. The kits come in many lengths, I forget how long you need, tail light area to hitch is probably 3 to 4 feet, I think there is a standard 6' length available.
Mike
yellow and green are the turn signals, brown is the brake lights unscrew both inner tail lights and remove the electrical tape and tap into the lines there. There are brown wires on both sides, doesn't matter which one. For the white ground you can use the existing ground on the drivers side of the frame about 1' infront of where the mufflers are (or were) (see picture below, it's #9).
I just have the wires stuffed into the rear fascia and pulled the out through the holes above the rear licence plate when I needed them.
06-10-2007, 12:15 AM
#7
Drifting
I took the car and trailer to a U-Haul rental office, and paid a very small fee to have them install the wiring harness in the car. It cost around $25, took less than an hour, and it was done by a professional who has done this dozens of times. He even cleaned up some shoddy connections on the trailer - no extra charge. Why fight it yourself?
If you insist on doing it yourself, then the above directions are correct. I especially like the directions above with the diagram included. That's exactly how the U-Haul professional did my harness.
06-10-2007, 10:06 AM
#8
Team Owner
Mike's writeup is a good one 
Just make sure you get a good ground connecgtion on the car frame or an existing ground wire point. The ground wire on the harness on the trailer should have a good ground point. When I wired my old tire trailer, I used a self-tapping screw to hold the white ground wire (with a ring terminal) to the traielr frame and then covered the screw head with some clear silicone and on the threads on the other side. That will help to prevent rust from forming and a potential loss of the ground connection.
You may find that the turn signals flash too fast and won't be as bright with the trailer lights connected. The factory turn signal flasher is designed for a particular load (resistance) and when you add another bulb, the flasher won't work properly. You can swap the flasher for a heavy-duty unit or an electroninc unit, but changing the trailer light bulbs to LED versions works just as good. I found a pair of LED 1157 bulbs at Wal-Mart.
Just make sure you get a good ground connecgtion on the car frame or an existing ground wire point. The ground wire on the harness on the trailer should have a good ground point. When I wired my old tire trailer, I used a self-tapping screw to hold the white ground wire (with a ring terminal) to the traielr frame and then covered the screw head with some clear silicone and on the threads on the other side. That will help to prevent rust from forming and a potential loss of the ground connection.
You may find that the turn signals flash too fast and won't be as bright with the trailer lights connected. The factory turn signal flasher is designed for a particular load (resistance) and when you add another bulb, the flasher won't work properly. You can swap the flasher for a heavy-duty unit or an electroninc unit, but changing the trailer light bulbs to LED versions works just as good. I found a pair of LED 1157 bulbs at Wal-Mart.
06-14-2007, 02:38 PM
#11
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One other point is that i have the plug to hook to the trailer coming out below the license plate holder. Between driving events, i take off the license plate cover and and zip tie it it back inside. No point making a hole for it in the car.
06-14-2007, 04:15 PM
#12
Drifting
no point in cutting the bumper. i actually ran mine out one of the holes in the bumper for the licence plate light then put some velcro inside to hold it out of the way when not towing. been working great for 5 months now.
07-03-2011, 06:06 PM
#13
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Mike's writeup is a good one
Just make sure you get a good ground connecgtion on the car frame or an existing ground wire point. The ground wire on the harness on the trailer should have a good ground point. When I wired my old tire trailer, I used a self-tapping screw to hold the white ground wire (with a ring terminal) to the traielr frame and then covered the screw head with some clear silicone and on the threads on the other side. That will help to prevent rust from forming and a potential loss of the ground connection.
You may find that the turn signals flash too fast and won't be as bright with the trailer lights connected. The factory turn signal flasher is designed for a particular load (resistance) and when you add another bulb, the flasher won't work properly. You can swap the flasher for a heavy-duty unit or an electroninc unit, but changing the trailer light bulbs to LED versions works just as good. I found a pair of LED 1157 bulbs at Wal-Mart.
Just make sure you get a good ground connecgtion on the car frame or an existing ground wire point. The ground wire on the harness on the trailer should have a good ground point. When I wired my old tire trailer, I used a self-tapping screw to hold the white ground wire (with a ring terminal) to the traielr frame and then covered the screw head with some clear silicone and on the threads on the other side. That will help to prevent rust from forming and a potential loss of the ground connection.
You may find that the turn signals flash too fast and won't be as bright with the trailer lights connected. The factory turn signal flasher is designed for a particular load (resistance) and when you add another bulb, the flasher won't work properly. You can swap the flasher for a heavy-duty unit or an electroninc unit, but changing the trailer light bulbs to LED versions works just as good. I found a pair of LED 1157 bulbs at Wal-Mart.
Do many people really experience this problem? Should an autoparts store supply a 'heavy duty' flasher module for a vette?, or would this be sourced from another GM product/truck?
07-04-2011, 01:36 PM
#15
Make your life much easier -- search Corvette trailer wiring on ebay. Plug & play set up. Installation instructions for C6 were incorrect as to where best to ground the harness. I used the ground strap that runs along outside rear bulkhead. Other than that it was a 15 minute install. Performed like a champ for the 1000 mile trip to and from VIR for NCM event last week! Thanks Mike and AJ -- the trailer and hitch setup got lots of attention and positive comments!!
