American Hauler Wiring Issues

[jefferyofsky]

As a full time living in a home made truck camper, I carry lots of tools, and it came to a point we had to invest in a cargo trailer, so we got a used, only used twice, American Hauler Air-Lite cargo, 5x8.

So we been using it quite steady but recently hit a major bump, lets be honest they take alot of abuse behind a old truck, and a few days later another driver on road hailed us down to tell us our lights were blinking.

I then noticed that the 7 pin to 4 pin connector was smoking and the ground wire was burning off the camper, and since it was almost dark it kind of left us in a scramble to rewire, solder on a new connector etc.

So I decided to take off the access panels and poke around, and then I noticed little thing, which was not the complete issue. One of those things is they drilled small holes to being the wires into the trailer from the outside lights, but the holes had burs on them and sharp shards of metal. They did not even remove the burr. To correct this, I decided to cut inch long pieces of air hose, and then hot glue it in a larger hole out to the wire, using the hot glue to seal the hole and make sure the sleeve would not move, running the new wire through.

I also noticed during production, the placement of the holes were off so they crammed on the outside light anyway, sandwiching the wire that was through that small hole, putting pressure on them, and they were shorting out.

The fenders also had no sleeve, and the installer put so much pressure on the wire vertically it was literally wearing through the casing of the wire, which there is no doubt that in time it would cause a short.

To top it off the real bad thing they did, was leave a piece of wire hanging over the front of the side rail, that had about 1/8 inches of bare wire out and it was flopping around and shorting out, it was black.

I do not feel that this is acceptable, and if you have any brand of these cargo trailers, make sure you fix up the wiring. It was shorting out, and in the past I had a propane leak, and also carry other flammables such as gas, and it is false security, these people do not seem to be concerned about the safety of their products.

I did a video of the event there, so if you are seeing the actual things I found and what to fix.

American Hauler Air Lite Cargo Wiring Dangerous Unsafe

[bartlettj]

You can buy commercial grade wiring gromments, both split or not split, here:
https://www.mcmaster.com/#push-in-grommets/=1721y58

Less work than using hose, and more likely to stay in place in the hole.

[jefferyofsky]

westend wrote:
Looked at your video. Yes, that is really bad workmanship. The drilled holes should have been reamed to remove burrs and a grommet installed where wires were run through any steel. The under-trailer wiring is fairly typical in that, most mfgs don't use a loom covering to pull wires from tail end lights to the front. When I maintained a fleet of heavily used trailers, I used garden hose to cover wires as it was cheap and nearly indestructible.

Tips: While you are upgrading, it would make sense to build in a fused terminal strip towards the front of the trailer. They are not that expensive and will ease diagnosis/protect against future problems. Yes, your truck has fuse protection for those circuits but it is often easier having it on the trailer.
If you are connecting/disconnecting this trailer frequently, it may behoove you to use a 7 pin connection to the trailer and break that out on the trailer rather than using a 7->4 adapter. The 7 pin Bargmann connector is vastly superior to a 4 pin.

Good luck with your trailer. The American Hauler brand is one of the cheapest out there so you may be doing more repair/maintenance in the future.

Good ideas, I was thinking of that, since I am hauling same vehicle, thinking of getting a 7 pin and wiring it up. I never considered garden hose, makes good sense,and is fairly good in cold weather.

[westend]

Looked at your video. Yes, that is really bad workmanship. The drilled holes should have been reamed to remove burrs and a grommet installed where wires were run through any steel. The under-trailer wiring is fairly typical in that, most mfgs don't use a loom covering to pull wires from tail end lights to the front. When I maintained a fleet of heavily used trailers, I used garden hose to cover wires as it was cheap and nearly indestructible.

Tips: While you are upgrading, it would make sense to build in a fused terminal strip towards the front of the trailer. They are not that expensive and will ease diagnosis/protect against future problems. Yes, your truck has fuse protection for those circuits but it is often easier having it on the trailer.
If you are connecting/disconnecting this trailer frequently, it may behoove you to use a 7 pin connection to the trailer and break that out on the trailer rather than using a 7->4 adapter. The 7 pin Bargmann connector is vastly superior to a 4 pin.

Good luck with your trailer. The American Hauler brand is one of the cheapest out there so you may be doing more repair/maintenance in the future.