After owning several vehicles, this is my third UHAUL hitch installed in the past 5 years. Everything was working fine before a 1200 mile round trip in July. I bought a plug-in brake light at Walmart since I wouldn’t be hauling anything on my hitch. As you can see in the photo, the Walmart purchased, portable brake light goes on when the vehicle’s brakes are activated. This slide-in-hitch light provides additional visibility to the back of the van.
After driving through a thunder storm, and heavy rain everything seemed fine. Until my return trip. I attempted to hook up a kayak trailer to my van and none of the trailer lights came on! I used another vehicle and discovered the kayak trailer lights operated properly and were not the problem. Because I received a two year warranty, I made a hitch light inspection appointment for my camper van at a nearby UHAUL location. A helpful technician named Shane performed several tests with his handheld DC electric meter. And instructed me to turn on the emergency flashers which apparently test most of the rear vehicle lights.
Driver side rear light assembly removal
The black transformer box in the photo above apparently quit working. It’s attached to a wiring harness and a 4-wire flat plug. The entire wiring harness needed replacement. Luckily, there was no financial cost because it’s still under warranty. This is the THIRD ONE UHAUL replaced on my vehicles since 2020. The other two replacements occurred on two different vehicles. Needless to say, this hitch light unreliability has left me frustrated, angry, and extra cautious! I realize I need to be extremely careful in using the van’s wiring harness for towing purposes only. I quit using the Walmart brake light plug-in on a daily basis. I was not allowed to keep the non-working, older wiring harness because it’s being sent to UHAUL headquarters for testing and analysis of what went wrong! Why it apparently failed under warranty? I suspect rain water somehow came in contact with the 4-wire plug during the storm I drove through. Who knows. This third, harness failure has left me with zero confidence of ever owning a teardrop or pull behind trailer for camping! Maybe a Ram dealership could have installed a more reliable product? Anyone experience failures of your UHAUL wiring harness or plugs?
While waiting at the UHAUL facility, an older Ford 4×4 truck with rusted out, rear quarter panel pulled up with a travel trailer behind it. I could not believe my eyes! The trailer was sagging low to the ground and compressing the rear of the truck. A young couple (pair of free spirit hippies) stopped here to buy a replacement, 2-inch slide with attached ball. The male partner did not have a current driver’s license according to a nearby employee. A female (i.e. girlfriend) was driving the truck. I asked the couple how much did their camper weigh? The man replied 7800 pounds! They are towing a camper near the truck’s maximum capacity to haul it. Not to mention they probably exceeded the recommended tongue weight. The couple proudly exclaimed they’ve already been to Florida with their rig and back again to central Ohio where this visual sighting took place. Scary! I told them they are brave for towing something that heavy with no sway bars installed! It appeared they have electric brakes installed on the trailer. I would not want to be driving behind this rig for any reason. Looks like they already lost part of their air conditioning cover. They used gray tape (painted to match the trailer) to hold together the front, left panel. At least they are creative and artistic! In addition to being extreme risk takers.
I copied this photo map from Facebook. I bet the hippies are driving across Interstate I-70 East and then going south on I-85 or I-95 to reach Florida. Maybe this map will be useful to some random travelers or reader(s) of this blog? I certainly hope so.
Micro Van Life 