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Posts: 140
Location: Northern Illinois | Question for the mechanical guru's.....Picked up a new to me boat & trailer. Tail
lights were broken. Picked up two new LED trailer lights & wired them up. The turn
signals & brake lights all worked. Kicker is they won't work at all w/my truck lights
turned on. Was hoping someone might have some suggestions other than always
get home before dark. I checked my truck w/my skidsteer trailer & everything on
that trailer works properly. Any ideas?? |
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Posts: 76
Location: New Lenox, Illinois | Sounds like you may have a bad ground on the trailer
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Posts: 1756
Location: Mt. Zion, IL | Check to make sure the 12 v for the running lights and the ground are not switched. You should get continuity from ground to running lights and ground to each turn signal, but not from the running lights to the turn signals. Also check the ground wire and the trailer frame for continuity. |
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Posts: 3508
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Hiya,
Are the tail lights lighting up when the headlights are on but the signals and brakes don't work or is there no power at all?
Still thinking about this, but here is what I am thinking right now... First, I don't believe this to be a grounding issue as the lights are working...just not in the correct order. What I'm wondering is if the signal wire and the running light wires are switched on the tail lights. What color are the leads coming out of the light? Are they white, black and red or are they color coded for the trailer (white, brown, yellow and white, brown, green)...or...are they just red and black? If just red and black with no white, the ground is the bolt that secures the trailer to the frame.
Here's my humble hope in this: If the signal/brake lights work when your headlights are off, my gut says the lights will not be very bright when the signal or brakes are on or blinking. When you turn on the headlights, the lights are bright, but the signals don't work.
If this is the case, I feel all you may need to do is switch the wires at the connection, then retest... My hope is all you have is to switch the wires up at the tail light connection.
If the lights are not coming on, we have a little more to figure out...
Steve |
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Posts: 140
Location: Northern Illinois | Just checked the trailer & this is what I have hooked up:
Drivers side tail light: has brown wire to trailer black wire
has yellow wire to trailer red wire
white from light to bolt (ground)
Passenger side tail light: has green wire to trailer red wire
has brown to trailer black wire
white from light to bolt (ground)
As is now, the signals & brake lights on trailer work until I turn on my truck lights,
then I get nothing at all from the boat trailer lights.
Thanks for taking the time to try & help. I appreciate it a lot.
Steve |
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Posts: 3508
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | o.k...
do you have a test light at all? Looks like a pen with a wire out the handle with a clip on the end?
If so, remove the wire connections from the new lights. Turn on the running lights and test the brown wire of each side of the trailer by clipping the wire to the ground bolt, and touching the brown wire. Light should come on. If not, the issue is further up the trailer. Repeat the same process with the signal lights, then repeat with the running and signal lights on.
you can get away with just turning on your hazard and running lights so you don't have to keep running back and forth to the truck to change the signal.
Continue testing up the line to see if you can determine where the issue lies, and hopefully you can narrow down where the issue is.
I'll help as much as I can..
Steve |
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Posts: 140
Location: Northern Illinois | Thanks Steve. I'll pick up a tester when I'm running around today & check
it out later. I'll let you know what I can figure out. |
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Posts: 256
Location: plant earth | The led bulbs are diodes that emit light if that makes sense. Which means they are polarity sensitive. Sounds like a feed back problem. Make sure the positives and negatives are correct. A standard incandescent bulb is not polarity sensitive with means it can operate with the + and - backwards. I'm going to guess that one of the lights is backwards. Should be a quick fix. Ryan has you on the right track.
Edited by jdeezay74 4/15/2014 12:24 PM
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Posts: 5874
| LED= Light Emitting Diode.
Yes, they are polarity sensitive.
I think you're going to find a ground is bad somewhere. If the brakes and turns don't work when the headlights are on, then I'm looking at grounding issue. |
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Trailer wiring