Last trip to St. Joe State Park to ride dirt bikes, well and the time before that, trailer brakes have stopped working. In the morning some of the lights on the trailer weren't working but magically did when enough things were kicked. So I knew it was kind of a mess under my truck but I didn't even think it was *MY* truck that was the problem, but I stand corrected now. You can see in the first pic, or maybe you cant, but the bigger connector has 3 wires going into it, 1 cut off, then only 1 wire leaving it ( I know it looks like 3). There were about 5 other wires going to nothing, 5 more wires that had been physically split by corrosion (including trailer brake wire), and enough butt connectors to fill up the Ace Hardware bin. I cleaned it up and got rid of all the BS as you can see in the second pic. I got some light wires wrong like the running lights flash with the turn signal, but the trailer brakes work now! Have to make it all perfect tomorrow.

That is always been a sore point to me... If someone is going to wire in a trailer lights or trailer brake do it right the first time... I see all kinds of scotch loc's and plugs and goofy crimp on connectors. If you can buy a weather tight plug (male and female) and put in your self that fine but don't hack up a good wiring with crimps... Now as for you method with shrink tube and soldering will do the best job over time...

Well last night it had the running light issues and stuff so today I went at it again and found out yet another wire was on there for useless purposes, cut it off and now everything is perfect. I hooked up to the trailer and got to the end of the driveway and hit the brakes and the heard trailer skidding on the gravel, made my day. I really should have got some kind of tube to stick all the wires in but with them all being different lengths and me being reluctant to cut them down any shorter, I don't think it would go in a tube very nicely. Now that I think about it, I think I will just wrap it in electrical tape really good. I think I need to put a thicker ground wire on it so it can charge the battery in the trailer a little better, other than that the thing is perfect, no stuttering lights or anything and when I checked all the contacts in the outlet, they all had 12.6 volts instead of it being 11 or 10 or some oddball voltage caused by all the corrosion in the wires.Here's the final result. I might rewire the whole run from cab to trailer connector one of these days but I think it looks good enough for now.

The best type of wire connections that I have come across are called "environmental splices". While on active duty my avionics guys used these to join electrical and High Frequency radion antenna systems, as well as other critical aircraft systems. If you have an airport with a repair facility near you, you might try asking what they use. They may have something similar. In aviation, wire connections are critical and MUST be protected from any type of environmental hazard that could effect or damage the splice. Another less expensive option is to seal all of your wire connections with "Liquid Electrical Tape". I used this a good bit when repairing and installing wiring in my Sea Ray Sorrento. http://www.plastidip.com/home_solutions/Liquid_Tape_-_Electrical_Insulation This is used a lot in the marine industry. Copper wiring left exposed to water or moisture in a boat bilge or hull will quickly turn into a blue/green mush if not properly protected.

Now we're getting in depth Might have to use that next go around. Have to see how long this lasts. I happen to live a half hour from the AFB that houses all but one of the B2 Bombers. I would think if any place, they would be the ones who have something like that. Thanks for the input Liveoak! Got me interested in what those things are.