Yesterday the lighting plug for my Thule bike carrier fell out and destroyed itself. The plug is 13, the car 7 pin socket. I have used an adapter but as I am going to put a new plug on anyway, can I just wire in a 7 pin plug and do away with the adapter?

Probably better to reinstate the 13 pin and carry on using the adapter.

can I just wire in a 7 pin plug and do away with the adapter?

Can’t see why not.  If it were me I would try and open up the adapter to check what the wiring is to make sure there isn’t anything funny in there but I can’t imagine there is anything active.

You could, but based on you having to ask…

You could, but based on you having to ask…

…you deserve a decent answer to enable you to, and there’s often someone round here that knows the ins and outs, so bravo for asking.

an unqualified opinion from me, but I see no reason not to wire up a 7 pin plug directly, sounds very sensible.

I’ve changed my partners horse box from 13 to 7 then back to 13 when she changed cars, if you are happy wiring a plug and can follow a wiring diagram then it’s simple. Most of the pins are caravan related and redundant in a number board. Obviously triple check it all works etc before going out on the road

The last plug I bought was plastic wrapped to a cardboard instruction sheet showing how to wire to both 7 or 13 pins.

Go wireless and do away with the cable and zip tie in the transmitter.

Yes, the internet has.loads of info, it’s a straight swap. The only slight complication here is with caravan fridge wiring but obviously that doesn’t affect you.

Yes, as long as nothing on the trailer requires something that the 13 pin would give then you’re absolutely fine. For the trailer, I suspect all you’ve got is the standard lights which will work perfectly well on 7pin.

All you need to do is just connect up ground and each of the individual lights that you need and you should be good to go. The only difference between the 7 and the 13 pin is to provide power for things that probably only caravans and more advanced trailers have

I have converted a relatively simple trailer and bike carrier from 7-pin to 13 pin as that’s what my car has and it was no hassle and no issues at all

You will find pinouts online as well as with more expensive adaptor plugs. They will come with a pinout diagram and all you need to do is just match what you need with what you’ve got.