Highway robbery...No sale

[ohiofarmer 3,366]

I went to the Rural king store today and it was crowded in the parking lot. It was time to replace the truck connector and trailer connector.I wanted a seven pin because they can last longer. 

    So I figured that the TSC store would be less crowded and found all kinds of connectors. The truck female connector was fifty bucks and the trailer was twenty five. A seven to seven with twelve foot cord was over a hundred..

    I told the helpful guy in the store that a rig made in Mexico did not warrant that price and could not believe anyone would pay it. I would go to harbor freight and make up connectors from common extension cord terminal connector first.

    Rural King did have a combo kit including a mounting clip for fourteen so I bought that instead also made in Mexico. It turned out the female said China and the male Taiwan. They were six pin connectors but I will deal with it

   Put another way I can buy enough gasoline to travel two thousand miles for the TSC price.

  I just have to wonder who decides how much to charge along the supply and retail journeys that this stuff takes. It seems that the stuff you must have now is subject to the most unreasonable to the most unreasonable pricing since the Covid madness business model.

    The TSC manager admitted that he was shocked at some of the pricing and commented that online marketing eS hurting them. There were equal numbers of customers in the store when I was there on a Saturday....

Edited May 12 by ohiofarmer
Add picture

[adsm08 3,092]

5 minutes ago, ohiofarmer said:

I went to the Rural king store today and it was crowded in the parking lot. It was time to replace the truck connector and trailer connector.I wanted a seven pin because they can last longer. 

    So I figured that the TSC store would be less crowded and found all kinds of connectors. The truck female connector was fifty bucks and the trailer was twenty five. A seven to seven with twelve foot cord was over a hundred..

    I told the helpful guy in the store that a rig made in Mexico did not warrant that price and could not believe anyone would pay it. I would go to harbor freight and make up connectors from common extension cord terminal connector first.

    Rural King did have a combo kit including a mounting clip for fourteen so I bought that instead also made in Mexico. It turned out the female said China and the male Taiwan. They were six pin connectors but I will deal with it

   Put another way I can buy enough gasoline to travel two thousand miles for the TSC price.

  I just have to wonder who decides how much to charge along the supply and retail journeys that this stuff takes. It seems that the stuff you must have now is subject to the most unreasonable to the most unreasonable pricing since the Covid madness business model.

    The TSC manager admitted that he was shocked at some of the pricing and commented that online marketing eS hurting them. There were equal numbers of customers in the store when I was there on a Saturday....

 

That all sucks. Frankly I like Rural King a lot more than I like TSC, unfortunately the nearest RK is 45 minutes away, vs less thatn 15 to TSC if the traffic is bad.

 

So I basically only get to RK if I'm already heading to Hanover for something else.

[Pullstart 66,380]

We don’t have a Rural King chain, but I do tend to shop around at the farm stores.  I’ve also been stuck on the road with a bad pig tail and had no choice but to make the purchase.  They win when they can..

[953 nut 59,564]

9 hours ago, ohiofarmer said:

I just have to wonder who decides how much to charge along the supply and retail journeys that this stuff takes.

Ultimately we, the customers, make the decision concerning an item's price. If the asking price is too high it sits there in the store taking up valuable shelf space until someone reduces the price to a reasonable amount or the customer finds an alternative supplier and the overpriced item continues to sit there.

[rmaynard 16,268]

When I rewired my trailer after adding brakes, I too needed a 7-pin connector. After shopping TSC, Lowes, Home Depot and Walmart, I decided to bite the bullet and buy from Amazon. What I got was a 4-pin to 7-pin adapter, $16.29 delivered, and a 7-pin pigtail for the trailer. $28.99 delivered.

After inspecting, I found the quality every bit as good (or bad) as any of the others, but at a much lower price.

If I were using the trailer every day I might consider upgrading, but so far so good.

 

[ohiofarmer 3,366]

I looked at something like this last night. I didn't understand why anyone would want a big long cord on the trailer end, but now it makes sense to just make short runs to the lights at the back of the trailer It might even make sense to add another female connector full of brake grease to plug the thing in when not in use.

     At the prices you quote, I plan to have a spare set of .everything .

     A young guy got stopped in town with a piece of lawn equipment on a trailer and the police officer ordered him to drop the trailer in a parking lot where it was an open in itation to theft. He raised holy he!! With her and she finally consented to let him drop it in the police parking lot

   I would have escorted him the give .miles home. You know , like to serve and PROTECT. 

    That's why my lights gotta work. Out here in the county we have the option of driving slow with a SMV sign ☢️ . Not so using a tractor in town.

[squonk 43,583]

The last 2 days I've gotten behind 2 trailers with no lights and yes both stopped in front of me and turned.

 

And I don't know about today's DOT laws, but back in the 90's the local Sheriff and State Police had opposing views on what was legal for trailer brakes. One of them set up a checkpoint by the land fil and guys were dropping trailers and heading to our Napa store buying batteries, breakaway switches and complete brake kits. I sold 5 kits myself that day. 

[SylvanLakeWH 28,231]

Cheap insurance - I carry a magnet mount trailer light set from HF in case I have lighting issues... have had them for years and used a couple times usually on boats when the bulbs burn out... also have used a few times when weather was really bad and wanted some additional lights... use one of these to do it:

 

 

 

Had a sailboat trailer that I zip tied these to it and had "permanent" trailer lights...

[Handy Don 13,842]

2 hours ago, SylvanLakeWH said:

Neat idea. My boat trailer is all aluminum and the boat’s only metal is brass! Guess I’ll be dreaming up some sort of clever attachment!

[SylvanLakeWH 28,231]

@Handy Don I used big zip ties to assist the magnets on a metal trailer fender. Other benefit they were on top fenders so they didn't get submerged when launching...

 

Maybe use a piece of thick sheet metal bolted on?

[Handy Don 13,842]

14 hours ago, SylvanLakeWH said:

@Handy Don I used big zip ties to assist the magnets on a metal trailer fender. Other benefit they were on top fenders so they didn't get submerged when launching...

 

Maybe use a piece of thick sheet metal bolted on?

I've got a lot of higher priority projects right now, but this will simmer in the back of my mind. I’ll let. you know if anything comes of it. My trailering for the boat is usually only a couple miles to and from my local river launching sites.

[adsm08 3,092]

On 5/12/2025 at 10:34 AM, ohiofarmer said:

 I didn't understand why anyone would want a big long cord on the trailer end,

When I rebuilt my truck I did an in-bumper mounted trailer plug. Because of the way the bracing is built I had to put it about 3/4 of the way to the end. A regular length whip is fine if I only ever need to go straight or turn left. If I want to go right Ineed a much longer cord, or it will pop out.