Bargman connector, are blue and black flipped?

Hi all,

Well, it's that time of year in the Midwest when we can finally think about rescuing our trailers from their impound lots (in my case, the local fairgrounds) -- in preparation for this, I went out to my TV and did a double check on the Bargman connector, fuses, etc.

All in all, I'm glad I did, given I found two blown fuses -- but that's not why I'm writing this. I found one thing that really confused me -- if the Bargman connector on my TV looks like this:

key (notch)

white (Ground) blue (Brakes)

yellow (left turn) green (right turn)

brown (tail lights) black (12V)

with Aux in the middle


If the connector on the TV looks like that (and it seems to match up when I test the turn signals and tail lights), why is that blue is always hot, regardless of whether the brakes are active or the TV's on, and black varies according to me either depressing the TV's brake pedal or swinging the brake controller lever???

i.e. in reality, does the TM not match the common Bargman diagram (as shown above) and accordingly blue and black are switched, or is something screwed up with my wiring?

Thanks in advance for bearing with me!
John

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by HappyWDWCampers

Hi all,

Well, it's that time of year in the Midwest when we can finally think about rescuing our trailers from their impound lots (in my case, the local fairgrounds) -- in preparation for this, I went out to my TV and did a double check on the Bargman connector, fuses, etc.

All in all, I'm glad I did, given I found two blown fuses -- but that's not why I'm writing this. I found one thing that really confused me -- if the Bargman connector on my TV looks like this:

key (notch)

white (Ground) blue (Brakes)

yellow (left turn) green (right turn)

brown (tail lights) black (12V)

with Aux in the middle


If the connector on the TV looks like that (and it seems to match up when I test the turn signals and tail lights), why is that blue is always hot, regardless of whether the brakes are active or the TV's on, and black varies according to me either depressing the TV's brake pedal or swinging the brake controller lever???

i.e. in reality, does the TM not match the common Bargman diagram (as shown above) and accordingly blue and black are switched, or is something screwed up with my wiring?

Thanks in advance for bearing with me!
John

Check to see if your emergency brake away switch doesn't have the plug pulled out (someone may have stepped on the cable going to the TV). If the plug is still in, disconnect the breakaway switch from the battery and see if your problem goes away. It could be shorted out inside the switch. Either scenario would cause the brakes to activate and run down the battery within a few hours.

[wbmiller3]

When describing your connector were you going around the pins or just looking at the color of the wires? If you were going around, it does not match up with what I know of the wiring. This old post http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...98&postcount=3 describes in words how it's wired, and I know there are diagrams posted on this forum.

Thanks for the replies!

I was going clockwise around the connector -- I literally called out the colors according to a diagram I found on the web.

The thing is, every pin functions according to _some_ function I would expect, and the functions travel properly to the trailer as well (i.e. stop lights, turn signals, braking, etc.) -- I was just making a likely faulty assumption that when people wire these things up, they always use the same colors in the same locations.

So in this case, "blue" spit out 12V as expected and "black" spit out 6V, which makes sense given my brake controller's set to spit out 6V peak (6.0 on a Prodigy -- I had one of my kids hold the lever on the Prodigy as a means of watching the peak and variance in output).

Which leads to another question -- should a 6.0, or 6V, be sufficient to lock the brakes on a 3124KB? Because it's not sufficient to lock things up on mine -- moreover, I can't _ever_ seem to lock the brakes up on my trailer, which disturbs me to no end...

Thanks,
John

[Bill]

white (ground)
blue (brakes)
yellow (left turn)
green (right turn)
brown (tail lights)
black (12V)
Aux in the middle

The sequence you describe makes no sense to me. Can you match it to the proper diagram here?

http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...&pictureid=442

Starting at the notch, and running counterclockwise, I would be looking for

• Green (running lights)
• Red (left stop and turn)
• White (ground)
• Blue (brakes)
• Brown (right stop and turn)
• Black (12 volt charge line)
• Center yellow (backup)

This isn't anything like what you have described.

Bill

[Wavery]

I am assuming that everything worked at the end of last season........Is it possible that someone could have messed with your wiring???? or am I missing something here?

Here is a good diagram:
http://www.etrailer.com/instructions.aspx?pn=HM48480

[MudDog]

Originally Posted by HappyWDWCampers

Which leads to another question -- should a 6.0, or 6V, be sufficient to lock the brakes on a 3124KB? Because it's not sufficient to lock things up on mine -- moreover, I can't _ever_ seem to lock the brakes up on my trailer, which disturbs me to no end...

Thanks,
John

John - see this thread here for a discussion on the Prodigy..many of us can't lock the brakes.

Thanks MudDog for the tip -- that thread did an excellent job of a) confirming what I experience and b) giving me sound direction in what range my Prodigy's setting should sit... it's nice to know that there's nothing wrong there...

Bill: here's the pic I had originally worked off of when testing the connector on my TV -- note that I have deliberately flipped the graphic to place the notch on top.

What I've tested matches your diagram identically, except for the ground and running lights -- makes me wonder if I flipped those somehow while testing... *sigh*

Ah well, better to learn these things while playing with the TV in my driveway...

Anyway, thanks everyone!
John

[Bill]

John -

Got it! I misunderstood your description - I though you were going clockwise (or CCW) around the connector. My apologies, I should have looked with a little more thought.

Bill