Passive Trailer Converter vs Powered

[BuzzKill]

Has anyone had a passive hoppy trailer converter and then switched to a powered one when using it for the Run, Stop, Turn mod and noticed a difference in the brightness?  I'm running a passive atm, but my turn signals just arent very bright at all.

[sandy]

I can't tell you a difference in brightness. I've only usd the powered converter on both of my bikes. BUT!! On my last trip, I developed a short in the trailer light. It blew the fuse for the powered converter and I still had bike lights. If you don't use the powered model, you lose the bikes lights too. Then you don't know where to start looking for the problem. I found a broken wire in the trailer light fixture when I got home.

[Walküre]

I also advocate the powered one - it isolates the bike system, from the trailer system, so one will not affect the other. One thing I have learned over the years, is very often a trailer is used seldom, and they seem to manage to get short-circuits, opens, etc, that you wouldn't expect. I just prefer mine to get it's power directly from the bike's battery, than any of it's wiring.

My $.02 worth - you should only have to do it once. However, it does matter if you have LED taillights or Incandescents. Here's a thread on which Hoppy converter to use, if you choose to go with that brand:

Hoppy Powered Converter thread

R

[Craig N. AZ]

I did just the opposite. After having my second Hopkins power taillight converter (46255) short out on the road, I had rewire the bike to run the trailer off the bike and couldn’t see any difference in the brightness of the lights. While using the undersized wiring of the bike was not my first choice, it was my only option on the road. I don’t understand what the function of a “passive” converter is. Isn’t the same as just wiring it directly into the bike? Hopkins was good about replacing the first unit but I haven’t contacted them about the second unit yet. I had better luck with the converter I made out of automotive relays but it took up to much space.

[Walküre]

Passive converter just converts from 5 wire to 4 wire. It doesn't isolate the bike voltages from the trailer voltages.

If you burned out your 46255's, reading my linked post might answer some questions.