Trailer 4way Plug Replace

Well, I was going to go sailing over the weekend, had the boat all cleaned up and ready, even set it up in the backyard to make sure everything was working fine, put the boat back on the trailer and had it hooked up to the hitch and went to connect the wiring harness and surprise, it was all chewed up!!! Dang squirrels seem to like wires. So I got all the necessary parts to fix the tangled mess and spliced in a new 4way connector today. I used a Reese connector, some crimp butt splices that have heat shrink ends, and wrapped the splices with a sleeve of shrink tubing, then covered it all with plastic wire loom and double wrapped it all with electrical tape. A bit over engineered I know, but hopefully the squirrels won't eat my wiring anymore. I can also take the whole bundle and tuck it inside the main trailer box tubing just behind the hitch for more protection when not in use.
Before and after.

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Marty
1984 H16 Yellow Nationals Redline, "Yellow Fever"
Lake Martin, 'Bama.

Just a thought as I haven't tried it but,
What about a spray of bug repellant on the harness? I bet the squirrels would avoid it then!

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84 14T Redline #67 Blue Hawaii faded but still working!
82 Yellow hull16 '81 Boomer nationals 20.9 on GPS
83 White hull 16 No sails "Clean and Purty Now!"
87 White hull no sails no tramp

May have to try that or some sort of pest deterrent. They will have a hard time chewing through my "new and improved" harness now, lol.

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Marty
1984 H16 Yellow Nationals Redline, "Yellow Fever"
Lake Martin, 'Bama.

Actually, unless you used a metal lined conduit, they will be able to chew through that just as easily. That looks like the plastic cable wrap you can get at home depot. I am not trying to be critical just past experience! And if you have mice in the area they LOVE the taste of wire insulation for some reason. When I got my trailer almost all the wires were bare from mice.

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84 14T Redline #67 Blue Hawaii faded but still working!
82 Yellow hull16 '81 Boomer nationals 20.9 on GPS
83 White hull 16 No sails "Clean and Purty Now!"
87 White hull no sails no tramp

Point taken, and yes, it's actually only the plastic electrical wire loom, and it did in fact come from Home Depot. I got the 10 ft pack and it had 2 sizes. I first used the smaller diameter and then put the larger diameter over that and then double wrapped with electrical tape. I understand that squirrels would still be able to chew through it all, but at least it might slow them down a little being that I now dont have just bare wires hanging around, but I know it's not 100% rodent proof. I have never had a problem with this happening before, pretty sure it was either squirrels or chipmunks, have not seen any mice around although I understand it could've been any rodent that caused the damage, I hope that whatever did it has gone back to a more simple diet of nuts and grubs and leaves the wiring alone, lol.

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Marty
1984 H16 Yellow Nationals Redline, "Yellow Fever"
Lake Martin, 'Bama.

I like to coat the wires where they go into the connectors with Gardner Bender's Liquid (Electrical) Tape, also available at Home Depot or Lowes.

If you put enough on the wires where they go into the connectors it will make them stick together and act like an insulated extension cord. This also helps the wires from being damaged due to the stress on them while plugging and unplugging the connectors.

Not sure if squirrels or mice like it.

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Tim
84 H16
82 H16
87 H14T
Tortola Sails: 115222
Blue Prism Sails: 88863
Clearwater, FL

The other thing you can do is shorten the wires so the connector ends right at the tongue. Then make a separate pigtail with a male and female connector on each end. Store the pigtail separate from the trailer (inside your car or in the boat box) when not in use.

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