ya, good point FIRST350. Tongue weight is a big thing.....its good to evenly spread out your load on your trailer so that the trailer is carring all the load and not the tongue of your trailer --- ie hitch and bumper beam...

The reason "dnguyent" was feeling the unstable bumper beam was because from the get go he had 50lbs of load on the tongue with no wheels in the "trailer" to pass load... He introduced a MOMENT into the system (system being bumper beam and brackets)

Not a good idea to use with bike hitch mounts - better to buy the trunk mounting -type of bike rack with the nylon straps that attach to the corners of the hatch - LIKE THE ONE PICTURED IN THE ATTACHED PIC BELOW. mind you i couldnt find a pic of a Z - audi will have to do..

- J

 

Here is one picture of a hoppy converter used on our cars. like i mentioned before the brain (inner workings) of the POWERED hoppy converter is all the same. This one in particular has no wired end...the 4wire connection to the trailer is molded right into the brain.

To me this is not exactly ideal because that means i have to find a mount for this big bulky thing really down low to the bumper.

Would rather have an adapter 4-wire flat added to it or one that has some length of wire already on the unit so i can connect the trailer.

- Jason

 

Check NAPA. The shop I used got one from there that has an separate pigtail and they mounted the box on the sheetmetal behind the bumper cover. The car side connection also has a cover for when it is not used.

 

sweet.....ill next time i stop at NAPA ill check that one out that way i can post the p/n for those that need it.....

- j

 

Just a FYI, I would hook it up and have it mounted in the trunk near the spare tire area. And when you need it, you pull the cable out and connect it and let it hang from the hatch. So then you don't have this ugly cable hanging down below, and it isn't exposed to the elements. I did this on my G35 when I pulled my Jetski with it.

 

ha...sweet....post pics of your car pulling the jet ski..

- j

 

Well I will have to find the ones for my G, but here is my Jetski behind my 03 Audi A4. Look at the gas prices then.....03-04 timeframe. Haha geez.

 

sweet....good lord what i would do for those gas prices again.........this is so retarted.......

- j

 

UPDATE:
TRAILER WIRING HARNESS:

ANY HOPPY BRAND - (AUTOZONE, ETC) WILL WORK - SO LONG AS IT IS FOR A CAR THAT HAS A SEPARATE** BLINKER AND BRAKE LIGHT LIKE THE Z DOES. GET IT?? THE DIFFERENCE IN HOPPY BRANDS IS ONLY DUE TO THE CONFIGURATION OF THE END (END WHERE TRAILER WIRES CONNECT - I BOUGHT A SEPARATE END AND ATTACHED ONE WITH TESTING LEDS ON IT).

I used a wiring light tester and verified all my colored wires did the exact function i was looking for.

I labeled in the attached pics the wiring colors for my 04 Touring Z but i dont know if the colored wires are the same for all Z's so i recommend buying a simple wire tester and double checking.

I dont have any pictures but i hot soldered all my connections and then used the ghetto electrical tape.

ALSO: FORGOT to mention, for the (WHITE) ground wire i just sanded a small area on the back trunk "firewall" if you know what i mean, and then used a short, small self tapping sheet metal screw. I positioned it low so i could see it by crawling under the car just to double check it every once in a while. just my 2 cents.

- J

 

Just a FYI. Make sure you have a self-powered unit for these cars, not one that pulls its power from the tails. You need a self-powered unit that runs a power line from the battery back. The ECU on my G35 was freaking out when the blinker would run and cause the engine to lose power everytime the blinker blinked. It was crazy. We resolved it with a self-powered unit from U-Haul.

 

Mine pulls power from the back lights, you just have to swap out to LED lights on the trailer.

They pull less power and work great.

 

WHAT BRAND UNIT did you use at first???

Because my HOPPY brand unit works great. SO did a few others that ive talked to that have used Hoppy brand units.

I talked with Hoppy and they assured me it would work fine. their units are protected/wired so not to draw a ton of voltage.

so far that ive used mine its worked great.

- J

 

Also,

What brand is yours???

- J

 

Both the units were Uhaul brand. I don't know the models. I had a shop install it, and the one that runs off the tails caused problems and had to switch to the one that powers itself from the battery.

 

on the hitch Roark designed he just put a resistor inline to correct the current draw

 

hum...well, ill post my HOPPY brand p/n for everyone.

so far no problems, works great.

- j

 

I have no idea, it came with my Roark hitch as well.

 

bummer...

well, at least we know the HOPPY brand works, i tried it again and no issues so far. everything works great.

UPDATE OF PICS:

- J