Sunshine and progress! The first picture shown in the gallery below says it all! Gorgeous weather brings good luck! I didn’t show it before but the photo below the trailer also shows the new axle that was installed during the last trip. What follows are a series of shots of Pete and Stef’s work to get the brakes’ electrical connection working. Stef is her father’s daughter; loves tinkering and problem solving. We are not kidding that this trailer is a PROJECT! But it has not deterred either of them; of course, my hope is that a year or so from now, you will see the true fruits of their labor. I know Pete is hoping sooner rather than later.

So, what happened: lots of electrical wiring work as the dynamic duo prepped the trailer to go home. As you will note, Pete did get a temporary Texas tag to use for the trailer (Related stories — definitely if you are registering a trailer in Texas — with some notes on what you will need and can expect coming soon!).

The easy part was installing temporary driving lights to the trailer and testing them successfully with a seven-pin connector. The brakes, as mentioned the last post, proved more challenging as there was no good diagram to wire them up. Enter YouTube and wiring up Dexter brakes. What key equipment were they missing? A brake controller. Because they ran out of time during the March visit and both of them needed to get back to work the following Monday, Pete and Stef returned to New Mexico approximately two weeks later, brake controller in hand (Thanks, Amazon!!!) as well as a new seven-pin connector, 12-gauge and 14-gauge wires and a seven-pin circuit tester. So, while some of you well-versed in towing trailers may know this, Pete did not: a controller is required if you are towing a trailer with brakes even if your own vehicle has a factor tow package. Four-pin connectors (the type used for U-Haul) do not control brakes.