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This red butt connector joins two lengths of 22-18 gauge wire. Insulated with heat-shrinkable nylon for adjustability and durability.
Features:
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hey, everyone, Ryan here at etrailer. Today we're gonna be checking out the line of Deka heat shrink style electrical butt connectors. Now these are available in a variety of different sizes. So you have the red, the blue and yellow, so small, medium, large if you will. And you can also pick these up in different amounts. You can get 'em individually, as a five pack, or even a 10 pack.
With these heat shrink connectors, what they're gonna allow you to do is pair two wires together, right, and make a a complete circuit. And we'll show you how to do that a little bit later on with these. But these are my go-to whenever I need to make a connection like that. These are what I always grab, especially if the wiring is gonna be outside or in harsher elements. And I say that because the ends of these heat shrinks will seal up, and actually kind of wrap around the wire, and help prevent moisture and stuff like that from getting inside of that connection and causing corrosion.
So if you're looking for, you know, the ultimate protection, so to speak, and help keep your wiring connections in good shape, then something like this is what I'd recommend. Now with that said, there are more standard type butt connectors like these ones here, all right And these, when you crimp 'em down, they don't have that heat shrink on it, right So the ends don't seal, and that'll leave little portions of the inside of the connector exposed, and that's what can happen. Corrosion and moisture and stuff can get in there and start to break it down and deteriorate. Now that's not to say these don't have time and a place because they do. If I'm ever doing stuff on the inside of a vehicle, or where I'm not really too concerned about, moisture and things like that, then by all means, these will do the job just fine.
Now, what size butt connector you're gonna need is this really gonna depend on your application, right So I talked about there being three different sizes. The yellow one's gonna be the largest, that's gonna be for 10 to 12, all wire gauge type wiring. So relatively thick stuff. Something like this is where you would use the yellow connector there. So pretty thick wire.
For the blue one, that's going to work with 14 to 16 gauge wiring, something like this, right More on the medium thickness side of things. And for the red one, it's gonna be the smallest, it's gonna be from 22 to 18, all wire gauge. And when you're dealing with wire, the higher the number, the thinner the wire is, right So for example, 18 gauge would be thicker than 22. Just figured I'd share that. So with these, you know, pretty thin wire, that's what you're dealing with there. And sometimes if you're unsure what you got, a lot of times if you look closely on the wire, they'll be labeled what it is. So this one says 20 AWG, so we know that's 2020 gauge wire, and we need to use the red connectors to complete connections with this type. Now that you know how to determine what size connector that you're gonna need, how many are you gonna need, right Now good rule thumb that we always talk about is always get more than enough, right Because you know, no matter how many times you count what connections you got and stuff, it never fails, right You always need an extra one or something happens. And honestly stuff like this anyway, if you do happen to have a few leftover, they're not bad to have laying around, you'll probably find yourself needing 'em in the future for one reason or another. That's really about it with these. You know, ultimately if you're doing wiring that's going to be exposed to the elements, no brainer, use heat shrink style connectors, will keep it protected and make the connection last longer. Now everyone's gonna use these for a variety of different reasons, right They're super universal, cars, trailers, all kinds of stuff, right Today we're using these to do some wiring on the trailer, make a repair, put a new end on it. And so why don't we go ahead, show you how we set ours up and give you a good idea on how to use these on your particular application. Very first thing that we need to do is take the wires that we're gonna be working with and making our connections to, and strip the ends of the installation back. So about like that is what you're looking for, maybe even a little bit shorter. But you then want to twist the wire nice and tight. That'll give us a good connection, and I'm just gonna make that a little bit shorter there. And then you take your butt connector, in this case we're gonna be using a blue one for this size wiring. Slide that over the bare end of the wire. And what I try to do is make it to where when you put the connector on that bare end of that wire, that's where it stops. You know, that way all the wiring is inside of the metal connector there. We'll take a pair of crimps, get this in, crimp down. You can lightly pull on it if you want to, to make sure it's not just gonna fall outta there, which it's good. Then we'll complete our connection here. All right, taking the other end of the wire that we're hooking this up to, putting it in there, and crimping it down. Going to do that same thing for our yellow wire here. Get that attached. And then for these brown wires, so in our case, we have one brown wire for our new trailer connector, right But we have two brown wires for our trailer and these are both taillight signals and this is too. So what we're gonna do, this is perfectly fine to do so, is just twist these two ends together, get 'em nice and tight. And then we're gonna step up one size to a little bit larger butt connector, put that over both ends of the wire, crimp it down. And then for, since we're gonna be putting one end, one wire end on the other side, what I like to do when this happens, is strip the wire back a little long and then double it over. That'll help the butt connector get a little bit better of a bite onto it. Got that connection made. And now we're ready to shrink the ends down. And so in order to do that, I recommend using a heat gun. And you apply heat to these, you know, kind of just consistently move it around. Try not to keep it in one single spot for too long. (heat gun humming) So that's about as long as you need to keep that heat onto it right there. Once it shrinks down and stop shrinking, that's really all the heat that you need to apply to it. You don't just want to keep it on there and continue to warm it up if we don't have to. So hit these other two and should be good. (heat gun humming) Once you have all of your connections made, it's not a bad idea to actually test everything out to make sure that the connections are indeed good. So being that we're dealing with trailer wiring today, in our case, I just hooked up to a little test box, which is simulating a vehicle, turn our lights on, and make sure power to the back where they're mounted up. We'll track our taillights, our left turn, our right turn and our brake lights. With everything working, you know the connection's good. And then if you want to, you can always come back with electrical tape too and tape these up for an additional layer protection. But with that said, I think that'll about do it for our look at of the line of Deka heat shrink style butt connectors.
Ratings & Reviews
Item was exactly as ordered and of high quality. I had a question as to which of two wiring connections I needed for the lights I purchased. My questioning email was answered immediately and correctly. Good customer service.
Held up well through winter #1 on my snowmobile trailer!
I have bought several items from this company and have been very happy with the pricing, shipping and quality of the items .
Great product. Fit my trailer tail lights perfectly.
Products very good. Installed easily. Look good and work well. Only problem was shrink tubing way too small to fit over connectors. Otherwise everything fine. No biggie. !!
These butt connectors work like you expect them to and at a great price!
Good product but, too small for brake wiring. You did not have the right size.
I was very pleased with my brake shoes. The installation went smoothly. The packaging could have been better. The box arrived in a beat up condition, but the contents were okay.
etrailer did an exceptional job in processing and shipping my order out complete - ahead of projected delivery - hats off to everyone at etrailer - it is a team effort. Thank you for the great experience and I'll check with etrialer on any future needs...…
Haven't rewired the trailer yet, but the items ordered arrived quickly and the order was accurate. Great prices and service!
Jim S.
12/4/2017
Great! I dont use the bot very much, but all the lights still work!!!!
Great selection and quality products. My order arrived on schedule. No complaints
Arby
5/12/2016
Ive had the boat trailer in and out of the water several times and traveled over a thousand miles, including hundreds of miles down Canadian logging roads. No problems at all with the connectors coming loose or corroding.
Being a new boat owner I was quickly overwhelmed by what I didn't know. Re-wiring, re-lighting my trailer was my first project. etrailer has a wide range of products, but most important to me, was their added product information and instructional information which helped me make the right selections to get this done. Add to that is their very competitive prices. etrailer will be my go to source for my future trailer needs.
I really like the idea of any outdoor wiring connector that has self-sealing heat shrink. I don’t agree with the suggestion of using a lighter to activate the heat shrink—use a proper heat gun designed for this.
Just received my order of new backing plate assemblies and some misc small parts. Ordered on line late Sunday night, confirmed I had ordered the right parts Monday morning before shipment went out. Customer service by phone was superb and the gal I talked with was perfect. Shipment was on my porch Friday afternoon. I did open box and inspect shipment that arrived completely intact/good shape and all looked good at this point. Not sure when will get to the brakes on the trailer but will post again when the job is done. So far nothing but good to say about Etrailer.com. Regards, John.
Order was complete and delivered in a timely manner. Only problem (minor) was the 7way pigtail was not wired to color code. Had to use test light to get 3 of the wires in correct location. Could be a problem if someone wasn't comfortable with ringing out wires.
I would like to really thank the team at etrailer for making my order correct. George, Amy and Carol all worked well with communication with me when there was a small issue with the amount of connectors I ordered. They made things right and I have nothing but appreciation for their work and attention to detail to help me out. Thank you again and I will be doing business again!! A+
couldn't use the wire connectors, to small for the wires on truck and trailer wiring harness. The trailer hitch fit good and the wiring harness was as advertised. No problem installing either of them
I had trailer light problems (who hasn't?) and found etrailer on the web. The site was extremely well organized and made it easy to find what I was looking for.
I had a question regarding the kind of wire connector needed. It was answered promptly by E-mail.
The lights and connectors arrived as promised and the installation was straightforward thanks to the videos on the site.
Because my boat trailer is wider 20 Ft, I'm trying to replace my rear lightbar with a Optronics lightbar MCL97RB but my trailer is aluminum and I need a ground wire for that lightbar. That lightbar would ground by connecting the lightbar frame to the aluminum part of my trailer which is not a proper ground. I need Optronics lightbar MCL 97RG which I'm told you don't carry.
Lazer S.
2/10/2026
Sorry we didn't have what you were looking for, Richard. You could use a wire going from the hardware to the axle or a better grounding source if you are unable to find that specific light though. I looked around and couldn't find one that matched the MCL97RG part number, but you may have better luck. Out of curiosity, what kind of boat and trailer do you have?
Just upgraded to a 2016 Odyssey and need to tow my camper.
Purchased the OEM hitch and OEM custom harness (from car to 4 pin on hitch. OEM Hitch comes with nice beefy flange where the 4 pin connector mounts. But I needed a 7 pin for electric brakes and bought this ETBC7 kit to do the job.
I ended up cutting a custom hole in the bumper cover and figuring a way to mount the bracket in this kit directly to the OEM hitch. Wanted to share photos of the install for anyone else in the same boat. Advantage of my install is that the 7 pin is mounted above the bracket, protecting it from injury from low clearance obstacles on the road. One Con, is I had to mount it upside down so it didn't interfere with the metal bumper under the bumper cover.
One issue I remember is that the Ground wire on the 7 pin harness didn't come close to reaching an available frame member, at the side of the car. I had to cut off the ring lug and extend it out to the edge of the car to complete the install. But it is done now!
Exactly what I needed to rewire a 20-year-old trailer that was starting to show it's age with inconsistent lighting performance and continuity issues. In addition to purchasing this lighting harness, I upgraded all my incandescent bulb side markers and taillights with LED units and complete rewired the trailer. etrailer had everything I needed in one place with excellent pricing and superb service. Everything is working great and I love the brightness and visibility of the LED lights.
Perfect finish to installing a water tight LED light kit on my PWC trailer. These are of good quality and I had plenty to spare.
Carlos
5/16/2019
Still water tight and working, would buy again.
I ONLY USE THESE TYPE OF BUTT CONNECTORS FOR TRAILER BRAKE AND LIGHTING WIRING.
Munster
7/13/2016
STILL WORKING GREAT NO ISSUES
I used these when I rewired my boat trailer, and so far they have worked flawlessly. I like that they are much more water resistant than those that were originally on the trailer from 32 years ago. They shrink up nice and tight on the wire thus minimizing any water incursion into the electrical system. Well worth it.
Worked as intended. Time to get the trailer back on the road.
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Heather A.
2/10/2021
We recommend 10 or 12 gauge wiring for trailer brakes. The Deka Heat Shrink Butt Connector - 12-10 Gauge - Nylon Insulation part DW05745-5 will work well for you.
Helpful Links
Wiring/Deka/DW05745-5.html