Need some help with lights on my trailer

[butchy54]

I have a 1990 yaught club trailer.Here is my problems
1 The Left side of the trailer will only come on when I use the turn signal on,no brake light no lights when the light are on.
2.The right side light are on no turn signals no break there just on when I put the car lights on.and no small side light.I brought the In-closed lights down to be tested and they work fine Any help would be greatly
appreciated. Thanks again Art

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Need some help with lights on my trailer

Did they ever work with the vehicle that you are using?

 

[htv]

Re: Need some help with lights on my trailer

Sounds like a bad ground and back-feeding. Are you grounding through the ball or through the plug? Establish a good ground and see what ya get.

 

[Splat]

Re: Need some help with lights on my trailer

Bad ground on trailer, or between trailer and towe vehicle.

Bill

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Need some help with lights on my trailer

Classic grounding issue by the sounds of it. Check the vehicle with a tester (available cheap at Wal Mart) to make sure the vehicle wiring is good then move to the trailer. Individually ground each item if necessary.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Need some help with lights on my trailer

Ground, ground, ground, always ground. Without a ground at each light it will not work. Just because you have a good ground on the trailer does not mean the ground on the tow vehicle is good. Check them. The coupler is not a suitable ground path.

 

[SouthernAppal]

Re: Need some help with lights on my trailer

I had a similar problem with my trailer lights. I decided to upgrade lights to LEDs and rewired the whole trailer. Knowing that everyone on this list says grounding well is essential., I used a dedicated gound wire to each light. My problem persisted. I went back over everything and then went back over everything again. Finally discovered that the quick connect type of connectors I was using had not penetrated the sheath on the wires. Once I corrected that the trailer lights worked fine. I'm switching to butt connectors.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Need some help with lights on my trailer

First off...running a seperate ground is a waste of time and can cause just as many problems as it is supposed to reduce. There was a recent post where the poster had run seperat egrounds and cause all sorts of problems. Second...never use those quick connectors that pierce the wires. Use solder joints and make sure you wrap them well with tape.

 

[Nobody]

Re: Need some help with lights on my trailer

Depending on the overall condition of the wiring you may want to consider an entirely new harness, they are typically less than $20 and can save a lot of time over trying to run down multiple wiring problems created by previous owners quick electrical 'fixes' or the ones who drove away from the trailer with it still connected.

I also toss the compression t-tap (piercing) connectors in favor of soldering, in some cases if enough t-taps have been used in the same area on a piece of wire (trailer side lights for example) the conductor inside can be broken although the wire appears to be fine.