[Mike57]

Got the parts to fit a trailer wiring loom to the Jimny. Took a look at the circuit diagrams and also put a multimeter on the front parking light but I just want to confirm something. While the headlights have permanent power and are swqtched to ground it looks like all the other lights (stop, parking, indicators and reverse) are permanently grounded and switched on the positive side. Is that correct?

Hope I am correct here because the trailer wiring is going to be complicated if its the same way as the headlights.

Thanks

Mike

[Gwagensteve]

Everything except the headlights is conventional AFAIK.

Steve.

[Mike57]

Thanks Steve.

[Scrawny]

Mike57 wrote:

Hope I am correct here because the trailer wiring is going to be complicated if its the same way as the headlights.

How is it complicated? All you're doing is tapping into the wires

[Mike57]

It would be complicated if the switching was in the ground the same as the headlights. Doing that with a standard 7 pin flat connector would require a bunch of relays particularly as I have LED lights which are polarity sensitive with a common earth. As only the headlights it seems are switched on the negative side then it is just a matter of tapping into the wires as you say.

[Scrawny]

My brain is a little fried at the mo

That's probably why they wire them that way in the factory

[christover1]

I tapped into the VITS wiring behind the tail light assembly.
That kept the joins up out of thevmud and water.

[atari4x4]

christover1 wrote:

I tapped into the VITS wiring behind the tail light assembly.
That kept the joins up out of thevmud and water.

yeah, behind the LHS tail light is the main loom, can even pick up the RHS blinker from there.

[Mike57]

Thanks guys. I ran out of time today so a job for next weekend now. I want to hook up my heavy duty 6 x 4 trailer and take it for a drive to see how the Jimnny performs up hill with it in tow. It weighs about 250 kg so its going to guide my thinking about what sort of trailer I need. Thinking about selling the 6 x 4 and going with a 5ft x 3ft 6" and about 200kg. A long term plan anyway.

[fordem]

Mike57 wrote:

It would be complicated if the switching was in the ground the same as the headlights. Doing that with a standard 7 pin flat connector would require a bunch of relays particularly as I have LED lights which are polarity sensitive with a common earth. As only the headlights it seems are switched on the negative side then it is just a matter of tapping into the wires as you say.

It's neither more nor less complicated if they were ground switched, and the only reason to use a relay is if the current requirement of the load exceeds that of the switch - the LED polarity is also not an issue, if it doesn't light one way, flip the two wires - problem solved.

As long as what you're doing is matching the existing wiring all that you need to do is find the appropriate wire and tap it.

[Scrawny]

fordem wrote:

Mike57 wrote:

It would be complicated if the switching was in the ground the same as the headlights. Doing that with a standard 7 pin flat connector would require a bunch of relays particularly as I have LED lights which are polarity sensitive with a common earth. As only the headlights it seems are switched on the negative side then it is just a matter of tapping into the wires as you say.

It's neither more nor less complicated if they were ground switched, and the only reason to use a relay is if the current requirement of the load exceeds that of the switch - the LED polarity is also not an issue, if it doesn't light one way, flip the two wires - problem solved.

As long as what you're doing is matching the existing wiring all that you need to do is find the appropriate wire and tap it.

My initial thoughts too. It could be done if you custom wired the trailer to suit. I've never come across a car with negative switched tail lights tho

[Mike57]

Fordem

If the tail lights, stop lights, indicators and reversing lights were all switched to ground then all light bulbs on the vehicle permanently have power applied to them. A trailer has a common ground. So without using relays you would need to bring 10 individual connections from the trailer to the lights, that is each light must have two wires from the trailer to be connected in parallel with the bulb in the car (two for each of stop, tail, LH and RH indicator and reverse lights) this would mean rewiring the trailer so that it did not use a common earth and using a non standard connector and cable. To maintain the trailer wiring so that it was standard and the trailer copuld be used on other cars would require the use of relays. That is how I see it anyway.

Thankfully it appears that Suzuki only ground switch the headlights and not every light in the car. Why they do that for the headlights I don't understand.

Mike

[royce]

nah youd just reverse everything, use the earth pin on the plug to supply power to all lights and run the earth for each light back to the respective pin in the plug, wouldnt need any extra wire even.

Only thing to watch would be dont earth the lights to the trailer body

Negative switch headlight reasons have been covered heaps, main points being seperate fuses for each light so if you get a short in one side you still have a working light (hands up everyone that has lost all lights on a pitch black country road) and it makes for less wiring running in and out of hte column

[Mike57]

Royce

Good point and it does keep the number of wires down. This is a bit hyperthetical now as it isn't needed but I would still need to reverse all the LED lights and then they won't work on any other vehicle. Thanks for the explanation on the headlights.

Mike

[zukenutter]

Wiring the trailer plug is straight forward, find each wire and splice or join as usual. Best place to splice in is where the tail light loom enters the body at the rear of the passenger rear wheel well. There's a large (about 30mm) rubber grommet that easily pops out. From memory there's a couple of multi point joiners in there and enough slack in the loom to pull them down.

When done, tuck it all back in and your joins are well out of the elements.

[want33s]

royce wrote:

(hands up everyone that has lost all lights on a pitch black country road)

Scary stuff ....... Limped an XA Falcon 20Km into Biloela on a left indicator.

[fordem]

Mike57 wrote:

Royce

Good point and it does keep the number of wires down. This is a bit hyperthetical now as it isn't needed but I would still need to reverse all the LED lights and then they won't work on any other vehicle. Thanks for the explanation on the headlights.

Mike

A handfull of diode bridges will take care of that.

[Mike57]

Fordem

Brilliant. Why didn't I think of that? Now the hypothetical problem is totally solved.

Mike