Short 7-pin Cable Extender

Jerry Kemp

Jerry Kemp

Junior Ranger
short 7-pin cable extender

I'm using the same 7-pin style trailer cable that no doubt all of you are to provide electricity, turn signals, etc to my Camp Inn 550 from my Scout 800A tow vehicle.

Things currently work fine, but even in the current setup, I'd like a little more maintenance slack. Also, I'd like to used one of those tow bar extenders, to provide some additional space for my tail gate. Specifically, I'm looking at one of these or similar, either 8" or 12"

https://www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Adapters/Tow-Ready/80307.html

I've looked around for short 7-pin trailer cables both on Amazon and also on etrailer.com, ideally, I'd like to find a 1' to 2' 7-pin extender cable. It seems that either my Yahoo-fu is off, or no one makes those. What I am finding too many of are 8' and 10' 7-pin extender cables, which is way too long.

I'd rather find a manufactured cable with molded, water tight connectors if possible. I suppose that if I found a 3' cable, I could roll up && tie-wrap the extra maintenance loop. Worse case, I could purchase a long cable, cut and shorten it, but I'd rather not.

Hoping that someone here has already "skinned this cat", and knows where to get a short extender cable.

Also, I did search the forum archives, and came across this thread, although there doesn't seem to be a direct answer here either.

7 Pin cable is too short

Fingers crossed, that the apparent evil that toyota does has created a market for short 7-pin trailer cables (reference above archive thread).

Thanks for looking.
 
Cary mentioned in one of the posts about this subject that your link pointed to, that they had made up some of the extension cables for addressing this issue. Have you checked with them?

Jason,

We changed it on all models. But, we would have probably made the change about the time yours was built. So, I really don't know if yours will reach or not. Won't know til you try. Seems that we starting seeing hitches built in 2010 being the start of the problem. We haven't been doing the longer cables for the whole two years because we didn't know it was a problem for awhile. So, we made up a few of the ugly adapters that Evan will likely need to have before we saw a pattern and made the change. I do have to say I don't like that we had to make the cables longer. We already run longer cables than is normal on a trailer to account for everyone's hitch setups. Now with the longer cable it is always just too long (expect on a Toyota). I guess that is what tie wraps were invented for.

My suggestion would be for everyone to ask Toyota how to resolve the issue, it is their very non standard hitch arrangement that is the issue. I would hope that they have an answer for their customers. But then again it is probably like Subaru requiring our customers to use trailer brakes as to not void the warranty and then the Subaru dealerships refusing to install brake controllers in their cars so our customers can used said required trailer brakes. Likely it will get you nowhere. Ay carumba!

Cary
 
no, I haven't but good catch.

OTOH, that thread I referenced is 9 years old, so I'm not holding my breath in hopes that there are still some laying around.

But I suspect Cary will see this and pipe in if there are some available.

Thanks for looking !
 
This caught my eye not because I need a longer cable, but because I tend to be a bit of a gear geek. Did a quick search myself and did not find a short extension cable. However I found several coiled cables that seem like a good idea. The problem is that they all seem to have the same plug on both ends (male) or were conversion cables ( 7 pin to something else). I did see a set up from proplug that looks interesting, but it would required cutting the existing plug off and wiring a recepticle to the trailer frame. 5 ft. 7-Way to 7-Way Coiled Cord | Pro Plug Products. Seems like it would have some nice advantages 1) when the trailer is parked, you can remove the cable to keep it out of the dirt, mud, snow 2) I like the neatness of the coil design 3) If someone steals the trailer and the cord is locked up inside the camper or TV, then maybe they get stopped for no trailer lights. 4) Installation looks easy enough

DSC00018.jpg
 
@ Henry,

Thank you for the post.

I'd like to think I did a thorough Internet search, but we all have off days, and I am no exception.

I did come across a few of those coiled cables in my search, like you shared in your picture, and they seemed like a good idea to me. I'd also be curious to get a group consesis on that. Stuff that looks neat in a picture sometimes doesn't work out so well in real life.

The other issue for the coiled cables, was that my search did not turn up any 7-pin extender cables that were coiled. The coiled cables that I discovered were also adapter cables, 7-pin on one end, something else on the other.

Again, thanks for looking and sharing.
 
JohnC said:
Am I misunderstanding, or would one of these 3 ft extensions work?

Amazon.com: ONLINE LED STORE 3ft 7-Way Trailer Plug Wiring Harness [7-Pin Trailer Cord Extension Wire Cable] [Gooseneck Hitch Extender] [Plug-N-Play] [10-14AWG] 7 Prong Trailer Tow Wiring Connector for RV: Automotive

https://www.amazon.com/SnowyFox-Tra...7+pin+trailer+extension&qid=1611639531&sr=8-9
Click to expand...


Thank you for this, rather have something just a little bit shorter, but I'm going to let this thread stew for a couple more days, and also (hopeful) that Cary will chime in.

If nothing else pops up, chances are strong I will run with one of these (2) you've found, and probably just zip-tie the maintenance loop.
 
Jerry Kemp said:
Thank you for this, rather have something just a little bit shorter, but I'm going to let this thread stew for a couple more days, and also (hopeful) that Cary will chime in.

If nothing else pops up, chances are strong I will run with one of these (2) you've found, and probably just zip-tie the maintenance loop.
Click to expand...
I hear ya. It seems like finding what you want for a trailer involves a lot of chasing your tail. At least it has for me. :-)
 
We have one but I am not sure where it is or what is the length. The people we bought our trailer from used a hitch extender so they could carry their bikes on a rack between the tv and trailer. We do not need it so we never used it. I will see if we have it here in PA, if not, it is in storage in Maryland. If it is here and it meets your needs I will be happy to send it to you for the cost of shipping. I could send the the hitch extender but it is really heavy and may cost more to ship than it is worth. We temporarily moved to PA and it has become a permanent move but we still have a storage unit in MD of stuff we did not need when we moved.
 
thank you to everyone for your comments and inputs. From the (2) suggested above, I ordered the Carrofix brand one. It was $3.00 USD more, but advertised waterproof construction.

I'll try to do a summary once the cable has arrived and I've got a few miles of usage on it.
 
[SUMMARY POST]

Thanks again everyone for the comments in my thread. Had a chance to go out this weekend and test everything. Not that there are any surprises, but the new extension cable worked great.

And also a reminder to anyone else doing this or something similar, I replaced my OEM 2 foot long lengths of trailer safety chain with (2) new 3 foot segments.

Not a big deal, but just a reminder, as safety chain wasn't something that immediately jumped into my mind when I conceived this. Everything else worked great.
 
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