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 Post subject: Trailer lighting dead
PostPosted: Wed Apr 20, 2016 10:44 am 
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Sting Ray
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Location: Adirondacks, Upstate New York
Sorry to bring up yet another hard-to-diagnose trailer wiring problem! My trailer lights have never worked since I bought my 2015 H180 last year. I read every thread about trailer lighting and tried a few of the suggestions. I'm plugging a 4-way flat (didn't opt for the reverse-lockout 5th wire on the car) from my car into the 5-way flat on the trailer. All the trailer connections and ground wires seem tight, except for one ground wire screw for a brake light. I think the screw or the hole are stripped because I can't get the screw to grab and hold tightly. From what I've read, the ground wires are key to all of this working. Note that NONE of the lights work on the trailer -- not just the one with the stripped screw.

I'm also curious, does the trailer coupler need to be resting on the ball mount for all of this to work. I've read that the trailer gets its ground from the ball. With my multiple attempts to fix this spread over six months, I forget if the trailer was on the hitch every time. I know it was mounted at least once.

FYI, I had the car's 4-way flat connector tested at the mechanic that installed it. Car wiring is good.

Unfortunately, my boat & trailer are 45 minutes from my dealer so I can't drive it to them without the lights working. I'm sure that will be the day a state trooper is trying to meet his quota. Trying to fix this myself. Thanks.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, I drive and launch on a private road so I haven't needed the lights to this point. Hoping to get out on some real roads in the future though.

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 20, 2016 10:58 am 
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If none of the lights work I would suspect it's a bad ground. There should be a white ground wire on the trailer that connects the trailer frame to the plug.
You can also test each light function using a vehicle battery and some wire jumpers.

There is a ton of helpful troubleshooting information on this site:
https://www.etrailer.com/faq-4-5-way-tr ... oting.aspx

Hope this helps!

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 20, 2016 3:31 pm 
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No do not depend on the trailer ball for the ground. The trailer wiring is ultimately grounded in the vehicle trailer wiring. The white wire in the trailer harness must be grounded to the trailer frame. However even this can be troublesome. What I did was run a ground strap from the trailer tongue (where that white wire is grounded) to each frame side rail. Then ran additional ground wires from the rear end of each side rail to the tail light housings and also to the center rear 3 light unit. This prevents rust or even paint or galvanizing on the trailer from disrupting the ground path.

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 20, 2016 4:45 pm 
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LouC wrote:
No do not depend on the trailer ball for the ground. The trailer wiring is ultimately grounded in the vehicle trailer wiring. The white wire in the trailer harness must be grounded to the trailer frame. However even this can be troublesome. What I did was run a ground strap from the trailer tongue (where that white wire is grounded) to each frame side rail. Then ran additional ground wires from the rear end of each side rail to the tail light housings and also to the center rear 3 light unit. This prevents rust or even paint or galvanizing on the trailer from disrupting the ground path.

Hey Lou - Have you ever posted a pic of your wiring setup? I think I'm visualizing what you've done, but a pic would be great.

Picking up a couple of these inexpensive testers can be handy so that you can narrow down where the issue(s) are:
https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-an ... 20117.html
https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-an ... t/I26.html
I have the 7 pin tester for my truck and then the 4 pin tester which I use further back where it converts to a 4-pin flat connector + the backup solenoid wire.

I have had blown fuses in the truck, bad grounds, and most recently (last weekend) I noticed that one of the wires at my 5-pin flat plug had essentially corroded through, which solved an ongoing intermittent issue with my left brake light....

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 20, 2016 5:41 pm 
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I'll try to post up a few pix, its really simple. The "RIGHT" way would be to run ground wires all the way through the frame, and if I was doing another re-wire I'd do that. But this uses ground wires to jump the gap between the bolted together parts of the frame, that cause resistance and breaks in the ground path. Here we have either galvanized trailers, 95% of them are bolted together, or aluminum the same thing. And even tho they don't rust, you still get oxidation on the finish, and oxidation = resistance = non working lights.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/12tw39yni1ozt ... +%23+2.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/avxypnhqp1t37 ... +%23+3.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/89mg0ytno14q6 ... d+%231.jpg

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 20, 2016 8:59 pm 
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230 Mike
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LouC wrote:
The "RIGHT" way would be to run ground wires all the way through the frame, and if I was doing another re-wire I'd do that.


+1. I've still never had a trailer electrical problem but the first time it happens, that's what I'm going to do. It wouldn't be a big job. Too bad you have to re-do everything these days to make it right.

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 20, 2016 10:16 pm 
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230 Mike wrote:
I've still never had a trailer electrical problem....

Ah, the advantage of fresh water boating.... :)

Lou - Thx for the pictures!

Erik

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PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 1:23 am 
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230 Mike
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True enough, but they still rust! Just not overnight. :shock:

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PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 7:06 am 
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I am fighting the an issue with my lights right now. They are all dim, I have checked the ground and still the issue resists. Trailer wiring is cheap and easy to do. Plus I want to know that my lights work when I plug them in. The thing that sucks is having to solder all those dang connections again.

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PostPosted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 8:00 am 
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While the ground wire may be solidly attached to the frame, the light housings may not be well grounded due to rust where they bolt on to the frame.

I learned about extra grounds many years ago with my first car. A '60s VW powered Fiberfab Dune Buggy. Had to run separate ground wires for every light etc because of the 'glass body. Wound up installing a new main harness as well..

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PostPosted: Sat Jun 04, 2016 5:42 pm 
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Shark

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If the trailer light plug on the vehicle was installed at the factory, check the tow vehicle's fuse box. While cleaning the connections on the vehicle with steel wool I must have shorted out the fuse. After over an hour of not getting the trailer lights to work I finally checked the vehicle fuse, DUH.

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PostPosted: Sun Jun 05, 2016 9:13 am 
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Here is a crude drawing of how I hooked up the additional ground wires. Keep in mind that they should terminate on the actual light housing except if you have LED's in which case it connects to the white ground wire provided.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/17m1a05evh1qc ... c.jpg?dl=0

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PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2016 3:18 pm 
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Sting Ray
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Location: Adirondacks, Upstate New York
Obie, based on the fact that my aftermarket trailer wiring installer tested the connector at the back of the tow vehicle, we can confidently say the fuse is good. But thanks for the extra suggestion!

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2016 5:44 pm 
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Location: San Antonio, TX
Captain,
You're most likely looking at a ground issue. On my car hauler, the ground comes thru the hitch (from tow vehicle to trailer). It's not ideal, just the way it's setup. If my tow ball is rusty, it takes a couple minutes of driving down the road for the trailer hitch to "rub" the ball enough to eventually make a connection. (Just something I deal with) On other trailers I have, I try to make sure the ground connection comes thru the wire plug connection.

Also, I'd double check to make sure you're going from the 4-way to the 5-way connectors correctly. Are you using an adapter? I've never had a trailer with a 5-way connection, so I'm not sure if you can just plug the two together and make it all work right. If you know someone else with a 5-way on their vehicle, maybe try to convince them to let you hook your trailer up and see if the lights work?

Otherwise, you might be good to try each individual light with a separate power source to verify operation. Then use that power source to operate each lighting system at the trailer plug. A step by step shake down of the trailer lights this way will help you narrow down the problem.

My guess, it's going to be at your vehicle-to-trailer connection.

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