I have a Jeep Comanche, I made it so that I can remove the doors and replace them with a set of half doors I'm in the progress of making. I'm looking to add speakers in both sets of doors (2 wires each) and then on the full doors I'm looking to add in a lock actuator (about 5 wires each door) so I'm looking for an easy way to connect and disconnect wires so I can swap them off easily. I have looked at the molex plugs that they sell at radio shack but those suck. they don't realy look like they will hold up to a lot of plug and unpluging.
I was looking around online and cannot remember the site I found them at but they were perfect the were round and you would insert them and twist and they would lock into each other they were called cpc connectors. only problem was the price, the plugs were prices well but they didn't include the pins and had to buy them seperate. that would mean for 2 sockets and 4 plugs I would be looking around 80 bucks, kinda a little much for me.
then I was looking at trailer plugs and they seam to be something I could work with. a system like this:
https://www.southwestwheel.com/store/...r-car-end.aspxand of course the plug also. it would provide 7 wires which should work for me and I could either cut a hole in the kick panel sheet metal and mount it or use one of their L brackets to mount it. then get 4 plugs and wire them in. So I went to my local walmart to look at them and they are HUGE!
So does anyone know if they make smaller trailer plugs? or does anyone else have a better suggestion for a (not super expensive) plug alternative?
sorry for the long post.
Jonathan
There are 5 wire flat trailer plugs and 6 wire round trailer plugs, both are smaller than the 7 wire. The 5 flat is about a 1/4" longer than the 4 wire, they are typically used on trailers with surge brakes which need voltage in reverse to override the brake system so you can back the trailer.
Hoppy 47895 is the flat 5 kit and should cost less than $20 per door.
Trailer plugs sometimes don't do well, especially the ones that have round pins. I am speaking from my own experiences only so take it for what it's worth.
I have used what is commonly called "XLR" plugs for similar applications. They do make 7 wire connectors in both inline and chassis mount versions. I believe they are rated at about ten amps as well. I don't know about the cost, they aren't really cheap, but you don't have to keep replacing them either.
Part numbers you may be interested in are:
All are Switchcraft part numbers
D7F chassis mount female
R7M inline male (right angle)
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Joe in Texas
The trailer plug I was looking at were the round type (plug and receptacle not the pins) the ones suggested 2 posts up look like they could work but I need at least 7 contacts the way I figure it, unless I want to put the switch on the dash somewhere.
The last post mentioned ones like I have been looking at. The plugs and sockets are usually like 3-6 bucks; the thing is that the pins are not included, so you need at least 14 of one kind and then 28 of the other. Now you can buy the pins in packs of 25 on one site for 10 bucks or a pack of 100 for like 40. so add it all up and you are up to...fantastic 4, steak, steak (sorry family guy tangent) you up to about 40 bucks on a really low estimate, most come out to around 70 or 80 bucks all said and done. I cannot see myself spending that much for connectors unfortunately.
I find it so hard to believe that they do not have connectors like this readily available, the only alternative I have seen are the Molex plugs.
I may just have to resort to going to the junk yard and finding random plugs that all fit together and cut them off and solder the wires to the wires I cut off.
Thanks for the suggestions and if there are any more I would love to hear them.
I may also look for a 4 contact plug if I decide to put the lock switches in the dash instead of on the door. So if there is a small locking connector with 4 contacts, feel free to post that up too.
Thanks, Jonathan
You can do a flat 5 and a flat 2, or even two flat 4s so you have on in reserve. If you use flat 4, just use the opposite sides together.
do you have a size limit, and do they have to be waterproof? If not, you can use standard wiring harnesses for installing radios. Just get a standard harness and a reverse. You could use late model hyundai or nissan harnesses which are fairly compact. You will obviously not need all the wires. You could also use a toyota harness as they split up the wires to two harnesses.
Check out metra 70-1761 and the reverse 71-1761.