trailer lights defying logic and won't work

[javamonkee]

Bought boat/trailer two weeks ago. Installed battery harness for our specific vehicle (2000 Ford Explorer XLT) and everything tested fine. Hooked up to trailer connector and nothing. Noticed lights were not submersible so bought new kit and installed. Still nothing. Checked converter by hooking up to pop-up camper and everything lit right up. But when moved over and hooked to boat - nothing. thought maybe we'd gotten a bad light set so bought another and hooked IT up and still nothing. So, bought a universal converter and still nothing.<br />When tested individually for connectivity, the lights, wiring and ground wire all check out. But when we put them all together - nothing. We have checked connections over and over again and all connections are sound. We have cleaned and tested three different ground points and still nothing. Day three of this and we are baffled.

 

[djvan]

Re: trailer lights defying logic and won't work

Sounds like you have really checked this out thoroughly(sp?) so you probably already tried this but here goes anyway:<br /><br />Make sure you are not trying to ground through the ball.<br /><br />If the lights are rubber mounted they each need to be individually grounded, or run a ground from each light to the main ground in the harness.<br /><br />I don't want to insult your intelligence as these are usually the first thing people check out, just thought I would respond to your dilemma quickly so maybe you could head to the water today. I'm sure others will have other ideas also.<br /><br />HTH's<br /><br />DougV>

 

[ThomWV]

Re: trailer lights defying logic and won't work

It is not clear to me that you changed the wireing harness on the trailer side. It sounds to me like a broken ground pin on the trailer side plug (internal) but that's the only thing that comes to mind.<br /><br />I will tell you this though, I have the only metal trailer in the world in which electricity will not flow. I have very clean grounds at my tow vehicle and on the trailer side and I have tinned wire with its own separate plug providing the white-wire ground. I can check each end with my multimeter and I have continuity from the truck to the mounting bolts on the trailer. The thing is that I do not have continuity back to the frame rails of the trailer at its rear. No kidding. Electricity will not pass through my galvanized trailer. I had to wire up separate ground wires to each light, going all the way up to the front of the trailer and connected to exactly the same bolt that the frame is grounded to, to get them to work. Just like you, it took me days to figure it out. The thing is I really didn't figure out jack $#!T, I just jury rigged it to make it work.<br /><br />Thom

 

[javamonkee]

Re: trailer lights defying logic and won't work

In the past week, we've had a grand total of four harnesses on the trailer side - if you include the original,the replacement, plus the two light kits we bought.<br />It appears that the trailer is the problem for us as well. Hubby went out at 5 a.m. with son and hooked up last set of new lights. He didn't run them through trailer, though. He just connected them and left sitting on ground so he could seem them while he worked on wires on truck lights. He handed one light to son, who accidently touched hitch ball on truck while leaning into back to get something. Lights lit right up. He touched them again to ball and they lit up. Then they ran the lights to back of trailer and attached and nothing!!! Son (luckily, 19-years-old and old enough to hear such language) says hubby threw something and swore profusely. Hubby then removed lights and took back up to ball and touched screw to ball and the lights lit up. That left the trailer. He touched light screw to trailer and got nothing. Then he scraped paint and rust from same spot and touched screw to it and light lit up. Apparently, all the paint and rust on the trailer (yes, three layers of paint that we can see now that we're scraping off HOUSE paint from it) was interfering with conductivity.<br />Meantime, based on above suggestions, hubby ran separate ground wires to each light and that worked! <br />Paint. It was the blasted paint on the trailer. We were baffled because a friend from church towed the bow to our house for us after we bought it (we were out of town and seller was moving). Friend said the lights had worked when hooked to HIS Explorer and that's where we were so confused because we believed the lights had been working on another car. Just found out yesterday that he didn't actually SEE the lights work but that the seller had told him they were "good to go". Now we wonder if this friend traveled 50 miles in the dark with no trailer lights after all.<br />So, thanks to all and I'm sure we'll be posting another question soon ... being new boat owners and all.

 

[rpddoc]

Re: trailer lights defying logic and won't work

Welcome to the world of boating!!! I have a galvanized trailor. My lights mount to a square, hollow shaped, aluminum tube about two feet long. They sit just above the top guide rail. The bottom of this square tube is attached to the trailor frame by a single nut and bolt. When I bought this thing, all the lights worked. Then prepping for duck hunting at midnight one night. No left sided lights. This was not good as I was leaving to murder the enemy (flying ducks) in like two hours. To Wally World I went and bought a new light. No luck. Again to Wal Mart and bought new light set with harness. Fixed. <br /><br />Later that week, I was prepping to go duck hunting again. No left sided lights. Got my dad to come over and help me as he is certified master chysler electrician in the automotive busness and religious fisherman. Some two hours later at O dark 30, we determined that the bolt was slightly loose and not making good ground. Took it off, cleaned it and bolted it up tight. No problems since last season. <br /><br />In short, trailors are notorious for having bad grounds. I know, I used to have horses that we traveled with. Glad your lights are working.<br /><br />TakeEm