Trailer Lights - BAH!!!

cjcocn

Cadet
Joined
Aug 2, 2003
Messages
16
Hello all<br /><br />First off, I have searched through the forum and 132 threads later I still cannot find the answer to my problem. Sorry for the length of this post, but I want to include all info to help you help me.<br /><br />I just re-wired my boat trailer with a Grote Submersible Lighting Kit. <br /><br />You can see the kit here: http://grote.com/cgi-bin/product.cgi?familyid=F0004 <br /><br />The kit came with the following:<br /><br />-LH Lamp w/ 1 green and 1 brown wire<br />-RH Lamp w/ 1 yellow and 1 brown wire<br />-1 Jumper Wire set w/ 1 green and 1 brown wire<br />-Main Harness w/ 4 point flat lead (yellow, brown, green, and white wires)<br />-1 lone brown wire (???)<br />-odds & ends wire connectors, etc.<br /><br />The colours mean this on the trailer AND the truck as well (I checked the truck's wires with a tester):<br /><br />Yellow: LH Turn<br />Green: RH Turn<br />Brown: Running Lights<br />White: Ground<br /><br />To install, I ran the main harness onto my trailer, ensuring that no unintentional grounds were created. I did this by NOT using the supplied metal clips to hold the wire to the trailer frame as they puncture the wire. To ensure the one ground that I did want, I polished the trailer frame with a wire brush to ensure good contact.<br /><br />Next, I wire brushed the holes through which the bolts on the LH and RH lamps would go through to ensure that they were grounded when I bolted them on. I then bolted these suckers on.<br /><br />I then connected the jumper wires to the LH lamp, brown to brown and green to green. After doing this, I ran them along the trailer to the RH lamp area.<br /><br />I connected the LH lamp's yellow wire to the main harness' yellow wire.<br /><br />I connected the RH lamp's green wire (via the jumper wire) to the main harness' green wire.<br /><br />I then connected both LH & RH lamps' brown wires to the main harness' brown wire.<br /><br />Now, remember that lone brown wire that I listed in the kit parts section? Well, that I believed was for the side lights (amber) halfway up the trailer, so I spliced into the main harness' brown wire with a couple of plastic splicing clips that came with the kit.<br /><br />Hooked up the trailer to the truck and VIOLA!!! - didn't work.<br /><br />The running lights come on when the park lights are on.<br /><br />Both LH & RH signals activate the opposing signal, albeit weakly. The tester shows strong power (regular blinking) to the turn signal being activated, but also shows that the opposing signal is blinking very weakly as well (the light in the tester just barely blinks weakly).<br /><br />Pressing on the brake pedal causes all lights to go off on the trailer.<br /><br />All truck lights work, and continue to do so even when hooked up to the boat trailer. All fuses are good and the truck can correctly run a UHaul trailer's lights.<br /><br />The 4 way flat connector on the truck shows (proper) power going to the connector when the tester is hooked up to it.<br /><br />After plugging in the boat trailer, I tested the wires immediately after the trailer's 4 way flat connector on the trailer side. The LH & RH wires are strong on the side that they should be (lighting up the tester well), and cause the light to dimly blink on the opposing side (like the lights themselves do).<br /><br />I thought that it might be the connector on the trailer side and put another new one on, but with the same problems.<br /><br />I also bought another light set and switched lamps, but same problems.<br /><br />I used a set of booster cables to ensure a good ground between the trailer and the truck, just in case the ball and hitch weren't doing the job. This too did not help.<br /><br />The white wire on the truck side is hooked up directly to the regular harness, and I assume finds its ground down the line as I can light up the UHaul trailer perfectly fine. To double check this, I spliced in another ground wire to the white on the truck side and grounded to the frame - no change.<br /><br />Before I shut up, let me add that I hooked up my other truck to the trailer and the trailer behaved the same way.<br /><br />If you are still reading this, thanks for any input and thanks for the time.<br /><br />Chris
 

cjcocn

Cadet
Joined
Aug 2, 2003
Messages
16
Re: Trailer Lights - BAH!!!

PS ... unhooked the side (amber) lights and checked that no unintentional grounds were created here as well.<br /><br />Will hook these up after I get the lights working.<br /><br />Chris
 

n0ukf

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jun 24, 2003
Messages
153
Re: Trailer Lights - BAH!!!

The syptoms you describe make me think there's a problem with your ground. Never rely on the hitch for your ground connection. Do you have any extra wire around the house/garage/whatever that you could temporarily run from each light to the ground wire in the harness (even just one at a time) for testing? If this test helps, you may have to run this extra ground wire permanently or otherwise bond a ground path (welds, or wire jumpers) between the harness ground connection (I assume you made this connection somewhere on the tongue) and each light mounting point. I wonder, is it maybe a tilt trailer? If so, connect a jumper wire from the tongue to the frame.
 

cjcocn

Cadet
Joined
Aug 2, 2003
Messages
16
Re: Trailer Lights - BAH!!!

adrag<br /><br />I read that somewhere and ran the booster cables from the truck to a point past the tongue of the trailer, ensuring that I had both connect points touching bare metal.<br /><br />Nope. Not a tilt trailer.<br /><br />About the "Do you have any extra wire around the house/garage/whatever that you could temporarily run from each light to the ground wire in the harness (even just one at a time) for testing?"<br /><br />Where on the lamp do I hook up the wire? Can I hook it up to one of the bolts that bolts the lamp to the frame? If this would work, I am thinking that I can crimp a connector onto the test wire, put it over the bolt, and rebolt the lamp to the frame. Then, run the test wire to the ground on the main harness.<br /><br />Let me know if this would work to test the ground. If so, I will check it out first thing in the morning.<br /><br />Thanks for the response.<br /><br />Chris
 

Link

Rear Admiral
Joined
Apr 13, 2003
Messages
4,221
Re: Trailer Lights - BAH!!!

Chris:<br />If we could do a poll on the most comman proublem<br />with trailer boaters and RVers... you hit it on <br />the nail! As AmigaDragon said it almost 99.99%<br />a ground problem.. To get around the problem <br />splice into the short 4 wire pig tail on the<br />(white) ground wire... then run it back to both<br />sides of the trailer.. to answer your question as to where to hook it up.. the brown wire is for running lights..(hot 12 VDC) the other side is grounded to the frame.. (bad idea) hook it there<br />and your problem will go away! Note: if the turn signals flash too fast, put in (the veh) a heavy duty turn flasher! <br />With a seperate ground wire run you can take the<br />turn signals/lights of the trailer and they will still work :) <br /><br />Link
 

cjcocn

Cadet
Joined
Aug 2, 2003
Messages
16
Re: Trailer Lights - BAH!!!

Well, thanks for the responses guys.<br /><br />Here's what ended up happening.<br /><br />The trailer didn't ground well enough, even after polishing up all grounding points. What I ended up doing was running two extra ground wires from the short white (ground) on the trailer lead. I ran these to the back of the trailer and, after crimping on some ring terminal connectors, bolted one of the wires to my LH lamp, and the other wire to my RH lamp. I connected them to the lamps by taking off one of the mounting nuts and slipping the ring terminal over the bolt. I put the nut back on and VIOLA! - I had lights.<br /><br />Also, I had to take off each main (red) lens from the lamps and push up on the bulb bracket to ensure that it had a good connection with the plate that completes the circuit.<br /><br />Thanks again for the input guys!<br /><br />Chris
 
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