boat trailer lights

[dondi]

i have a 16 footer. my right trailer light is not as bright as the left one. both lights appear to be the same except the right one only has two wires were the left has three? am i missing something here?

i thought maybe i had a bad connection somewhere ?

 

[Philster]

Re: boat trailer lights

If the left is powering the right, that would explain it.

If the third wire of the left light is feeding the right light with current, it is possible that the right light would be dimmer.

Sounds like the juice is flowing to the left right, then is taken over to the right light. Both lights should have their own power source and one should not be jumped from the other.

 

[ChautauquaDave]

Re: boat trailer lights

Check to make sure you have the same bulbs in each light!

 

[Thalasso]

Re: boat trailer lights

i have a 16 footer. my right trailer light is not as bright as the left one. both lights appear to be the same except the right one only has two wires were the left has three? am i missing something here?

i thought maybe i had a bad connection somewhere ?

Clean the ground for that light.

 

[dondi]

Re: boat trailer lights

thanks guys

 

[Slow Ride]

Re: boat trailer lights

Just replace them! Lights are cheap and need replacing from time to time. Save yourself the headache and replace lights and the wiring for $50-$75 and have them work perfectly for a while. Then when they do malfuction, you will know its the light because you replaced the wire new and it has no splices or anything like that going on. Just my opionion. Its what I would do.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: boat trailer lights

It may be that the dimmer side is wired correctly and the brighter side has the brown wire in the harness feeding the "brake/turn signal" filament. Very typical wiring mistake. There ae two filaments in the bulb. The dimmer filament is the running/tail light. The brighter, as mentioned, is the turn/brake filament.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: boat trailer lights

Just replace them!

I think that's probably overkill as this problem should be easily fixable. However, I will add, if they remain problematic, an upgrade to LEDs is totally worth it! When I install new lights, I generally redundantly ground them. I ground them to the frame but also run dedicated ground wires.

 

[jacoboregon]

Re: boat trailer lights

I agree with ez. It sounds like a ground problem.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: boat trailer lights

It sounds like a ground problem.

It's always a ground problem :

 

[jacoboregon]

Re: boat trailer lights

It's always a ground problem :

Well... it's always good to be "well-grounded" unless you are in your boat at the time!

 

[MH Hawker]

Re: boat trailer lights

It may be that the dimmer side is wired correctly and the brighter side has the brown wire in the harness feeding the "brake/turn signal" filament. Very typical wiring mistake. There ae two filaments in the bulb. The dimmer filament is the running/tail light. The brighter, as mentioned, is the turn/brake filament.

I would agree with that is the most likely issue , that or the wrong bulb. and the bulb is a easy thing to sort out.