trailer lights

[crazycarl]

when we went to the florida get together, i installed a new plug in harness on the jeep.  the lights worked perfect.

the boat has been sitting in the drive since.

today, last minute of course, i hook up the trailer for CLR, and the left lights aren't working.

i owned a fishing boat for 7 years and never had to replace the lights on the trailer.  so, i replaced the lights with those exact lights, and nothing!

the lights i replaced were $80 LEDs that i will never waste my money on again.

i checked the wiring and all looks good.  i even have a dedicated ground wire to each light.

i'm hoping my neighbor comes home in time to try his vehicle on my trailer.  i'm thinking the harness on the jeep has once again gone bad.

2 weeks ago we took our 15' sailboat out and i noticed the left light wasn't working on that trailer, but didn't think much of it as they are so old that the housings are actually made of metal.

aside from installing a new harness every time i use the boat, anyone have any suggestions?

cc

[MacGyver]

Bring it to me

Mac

[capt_nemo]

crazycarl,

You are not alone.

Recently had to replace the left light on my Sun Cat Trailer - the whole socket had corroded to the point of disintegration. The replacement light is a different design which supposedly keeps water out much better. We'll see about that.

Shortly afterward my wife noticed that one of the lights wasn't working on our 17' Bowrider Trailer. Started by cleaning both male and female connecters which seemed to solve the problem until the 4-wire connector on the Blazer broke the single pole connector. Bought a new set of connectors and replaced the one end on the Blazer. Lights are working again, but who knows for how long.

I'm tempted to raise the lights UP onto the guide poles on the Bowrider Trailer to keep them out of the water and perhaps adding guide poles and doing the same on the Sun Cat Trailer.

But, think I'll wait until something fails again - too busy building a 7'4" Portuguese Dinghy from scratch.

capt_nemo

[Tim Gardner]

I replaced my fixed lights with magnetic base trailer lights from Harbor Freight.  Take em off before backing into the water. Store em inside my truck behind the rear seat.
Haven't needed to be replaced in years, cost less than $20.

TG

[BruceW]

I've done what Tim does, getting my set from U-haul. Maybe you could plug them in to your boat for power, and have a wind generator for while you are on the highway! Forget the Jeep harness!

[HeaveToo]

Often you will have issues in the harness itself.  Corrosion or dirt gets in there and it causes issues.

Sometimes, when my lights are having glitches, especially if I haven't hooked the harness up in a while, I will spray WD40 into the harness.  It helps out a lot and I would suggest trying that before replacing anything.  That is the first point of failure to check in a lot of cases.  Especially if there aren't any issues with the wires going down the trailer.

[skip1930]

LED's and water don't work.

We just had a bout of none working LED's at our aeroport's display board at our new aeroplane fueling dock that cost $430,000.
We called in the manufactures rep in for his 'Look~see'.

The 'Gallon Dispensed' display stopped working and when the 'box' was opened up and there was a 1/2 inch of condensed water in it.
The 'electronics' were dried out, and sprayed with some magic stuff that did nothing ...

I suggested that two weep holes* be drilled into the bottom of the gasketed and sealed  metal box to let the water out...
... then I was told to 'go do nothing some where else'. But the factory guy said that would be a good idea. Revenge ...  Luv's it.

[The best way to keep the box dry would be to seal it and fill it with Nitrogen. That is not going to happen]

I think a new LED board is on order for $$$$ many of these. Such a waste.

Weep Holes* When I hang a 4,500,000 btu Maxon Immersion Tube-O-Flame burner on the end of an immersion tube to heat water in a tank I drill a weep hole between the burner mounting plate and the outside wall of the tank.

The hole goes in the bottom of the immersion tube to let the condensate out instead of pooling in the immersion tube.

Yep. Water will drip onto the plant's floor to the tune of 100 pounds of water vapor for every million btu's burned.
That's what drips out of your car's tail pipe and rusts out your muffler.

I like Tim's idea. " I replaced my fixed lights with magnetic base trailer lights from Harbor Freight " sounds plausible.

skip.

[JBC]

I tried the ($80 indeed) LEDs on my 16 trailer.  Installed the new wires and lights, hooked 'em up and: nothing.  No stops, turn signals, running lights, nothing.  Worked for hours trying to change ground wires, etc.  Nothing. 

Finally discovered my Volvo wagon needed a new module to support LEDs.  Since I figured installing a new module into the wiring harness of that car would cost somewhere between a new transmission and engine, I gave up, left the new wires in place on the trailer, took off the LED fixtures and added new standard lights.  Worked. Which is good, since I'd just spent $80 for new wires and another $25 for new (old style) fixtures.

I'm still p&%#*d off about that experience three years later, though the lights still work so long as I remember to unplug 'em before launching.  Which was the problem in the first place....

[relamb]

The cure for my trailer light woes:
A) I have a couple of little plugs with LEDs that plug into the flat-4 of the vehicle.  Basically just the trailer-mating plug and some little indicator lights.  These tell you if the vehicle side wiring works or not.  I keep one in each car, I got one when I ordered a hitch online, and another I think from harbor freight.  Less than $5.  Make sure your vehicle side is working before you mess with your trailer.

B) Removable lights. 
1) Most light sets have two bolts sticking out the back to screw them onto the trailer bracket.  Get a pair of stainless or nylon wing nuts that match the threads and mount them so you can unscrew the wingnuts and take them off.
2) get two  outdoor 3-wire extension cords, each long enough to run the length of your trailer.  Just those orange or green cords from Home Depot.   Cut off the three-prong plug from each cord about 10-12" from the end.  You now have the female end with 20+ feet of wire, and the mail plug end with a foot of wire, for each cord.
3) Get a small plastic outdoor electrical junction box and mount it on top of your trailer tongue as far forward as you can without it being in the way.   I tie-wrapped mine to the tongue.   Inside that box, you will splice your flat four trailer cable to the long tails of the extension cords that you just cut off.   One extension cord goes down each side of the trailer,  You use the three wires inside the extension cord for Brake, Turn, and ground for each side.  You can use cord grips if you want in the sidewall of the box, or just run them out a hole.  Wire nut the correct wires together in the box and wrap with a little electrical tape.  Now you have a long extension cord running down each side of the trailer, with a socket on the end, ready to plug in your lights.
4) On your taillight, connect your turn and brake wire to two of the wires from the plug.  again, wire nuts work to make the connection.  Tape them up.  The ground on most trailer lights is through the frame, coming through the bolt studs sticking out of the back of the light.  If you're fancy, crimp a ring terminal onto your plug's ground wire, and it goes on that bolt before you put a wing nut on.  If you're lazy like me, you just strip the wire, wrap it around the stud a couple of times, and screw on the wing nut.  I've epoxied the wire to the top/back of the light as kind of a strain relief, or used tie wraps.  Now your taillight has a 3 prong plug.
5) plug your removable lights into the extension cords when trailering.  Wrap the long cords around the trailer, or tie wrap them to it, or use Velcro ties to keep the cords from dragging on the road.   When you're ready to launch, you unplug your lights, unscrew the wingnuts, and take them off.  Coil up the extension cords so the ends don't get in the water, toss them in the back of the car or put them up on the tongue someplace out of the way.

I've been doing it this way for 25 years on all kinds of boat trailers.  The outdoor extension cords hold up way better than regular trailer wiring, and the lights hold up because they're never submersed.  You can even take them off and keep them in the garage.  If a wire goes bad it's easy to change it out with a new extension cord.  I have a couple of spare lights (left over from crashing into things and breaking their mates) which can be plugged in if you lose a bulb, in less time than it takes to change a bulb.
The only real downside is that somebody could try to plug your removed trailer light into a wall outlet, so don't let four year olds play with your trailer lights.
You can leave your old wiring on the trailer if you want, spliced into the side marker lights, until they finally die.  Same with the rear-center light if you want.  But typically when those give out, I just put on reflectors and forget them.  You get tickets from having no tail lights, not from missing side markers or the center rear.

[skip1930]

It's the Jeep's end that is the problem ... find the Jeep Blog.
Something about an electronic 'block' needed.

I just sold off the Ford Expedition and bought a Jeep. Still learning about the Heep errr Jeep.

skip.