Trailer Lights Nightmare

[spareparts]

make sure you have a good ground from your truck to your trailer, grounding thru the trailer ball doesn't get it. take a jumper wire and ground the trailer to the chassis of the truck, see if that helps, if it does, start looking at the white wire

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by spareparts

make sure you have a good ground from your truck to your trailer, grounding thru the trailer ball doesn't get it. take a jumper wire and ground the trailer to the chassis of the truck, see if that helps, if it does, start looking at the white wire

Totally agree...Always a good idea to look at the ground first. And you MUST wire the white wire directly to the trailer.. the trailer ball is a great way to get a poor ground.
But he said that the one side works great, so that doesn't sound like a bad ground at the hitch. It "might" be a bad ground at the trailer light itself, where the pigtail wire from the light gets put over the bolt, but I tend to doubt that also. I think Ferm might be on to something with the miswire internally, which is why I said to switch lights and see if that solves the problem. If it does then you know it's the light and not the wiring. If it doesn't then you know it's in the wiring somewhere.

[SkunkBoat]

The lights connect to ground thru the nuts(one of /both of) that mount it to the metal trailer. Once the nuts get rusty, you lose ground. You can try running a ground wire all the way from the white wire to the nuts. I have had success with that approach in the past

Now, you say they are brand new....

Since all trailer lights are made in China, overtightening that nut causes the bolt to spin and ground (internal to the light) to be lost or intermittent.

Solution, THERE IS NONE. TRAILER LIGHTS SUCK!

Get used to it. You're a boat owner now...


P.S. Once you think you have it fixed, try turning on your headlights and check again.

[phatdaddy]

i used to work at a u-haul dealer and i have hooked up hundreds of trailer lights and skunk is on the money. bout the time you get them working, check again and there gone. i am on my third set of leds, get about 3 years out of them. to overcome the ground issues, i use a 100 extension cord for trailer lights. cut to length and use the 3 wires for light, signal/brake, & ground.

[Destroyer]

Everyone has their own solution to the problem of corrosion on the boats wiring. I usually solder all my connections, then shrink wrap them. Lately I've been using the wire connectors from Harbor Freight that as they shrink they seal at the same time. They seem to be working good. I'll let you know how good (or bad) in a couple of years.

Now, back to the problem. I'll try and make this simple. Skunk is correct, the nuts spin down onto the pigtail wire coming out of the light that usually has an eye connector attached to it. The eye connector usually is fitted over and around one of the two bolts that come from the light and are set into the plastic on the back of the traller light. When you fit the light to the trailer mount you push the two bolts through the two holes in the mount, then you slide the wire over one of the bolts. When the nut makes contact with the wire it squeezes it between the nut and the metal of the trailer light mount and makes an electrical connection to the metal of the trailer (ground) Since the lights are new, that means the bolt and the nut are new and don't have any rust or corrosion on them. So either the hole or the area around the bolthole is rusted and preventing a good ground (doubtful since the nut usually scrapes away enough rust to make a good ground) or the light is faulty or there is a problem with the wires somewhere. In all cases, since the light on the other side works great, a simple switching of the right and left lights will be enough to determine if the light itself is faulty or if the wiring is faulty.
If the light that wasn't working on the one side suddenly starts working on the other side, you know the light fixture is ok and you have a wiring problem. Quick and simple...the whole test should take no more than 10 minutes, 5 if you're fast. Simply a process of elimination. Once you determine if the light is good or bad you can work from there, but finding out if the light is ok is the first step.

or

You can take a spare 12 volt battery, or even the leads from a battery charger, and connect the ground wire to the ground of the battery, and then touch the other wires to the positive terminal of the battery to see if the light will light properly. Again, if it does you know your fixture is good and your wiring is bad. If it doesn't then you know your light fixture is bad.

[Jdog]

Thank you all so much for he responces, I will switch the lights and see if that works and they are standard lights NOT Led, the led lights were 54 bucks and the ones I got were only 28 bucks. My cousin has several different testers and volt meters that I can barrow to find the problem.
I will be pissed if the light is bad, but not that much cause I got them at wal-mart lol.
Thank's again everyone!!

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by Jdog

Thank you all so much for he responces, I will switch the lights and see if that works and they are standard lights NOT Led, the led lights were 54 bucks and the ones I got were only 28 bucks. My cousin has several different testers and volt meters that I can barrow to find the problem.
I will be pissed if the light is bad, but not that much cause I got them at wal-mart lol.
Thank's again everyone!!

http://www.harborfreight.com/one-pai...hts-94137.html

I use them on all my trailers. Nice and bright, submersible and cheap. Simply put, they work. Sealed units, nothing to corrode except the wires outside of the lights. I'll never go back to the old fashioned type of incandescent lights.