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Posts: 389
Location: Corning, Iowa | Had the boat out over the weekend. Blew one marker light, going down the road. And about thirty miles later blew the other side. I'm guessing a short in the wiring. But, where do I start?The trailer is a 97 Shorelander. The lights didn't just go out, they started to blink, and then went out. Thanks. |
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| Yep, it's probably the wiring. 2 years ago, I had the same thing. Went to a trailer shop and bought a new set of wires and rewired everything. I wrapped all the new wires with flex tube. Trailers are "butt-welded" which leaves sharp edges inside the trailer that are murder on wires. Using the flextube will hopefully protect the wires from future damage.
As long as I was running new wires, I also soldered plugs on all the light fixtures. That way, the next time that someone turns too short and knocks a light off my trailer, I can reach into the "spares" case and plug in a new fixture and away I go.
I bought the plugs at a hardware store. I soldered one end on the fixture and the other onto the wires in the trailer. All my lights are now "plug and play" modular. I added plugs to all the lights, back lights and running lights.
Oh yeah, at the same time that I did that, I also bought LEDs to replace all the bulbs in the trailer. It was ALOT cheaper than buying LED fixtures and the LED's have a 5 year warranty. Check out: www.superbightleds.com
Be sure to drill new ground holes for your grounding wires. After we were all done, my lights were noticebly brighter, especially the running lights.
I have lost 2 lights in parking lot incidents. One marker light and one tail light. Since rewiring and carrying spares, I have not had a problem. Go figure, eh.
We screwed around a bit, but it took about 1-2 hours. I suspect that a person could do it in less than an hour, but what fun would that be?????
Tom B |
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Posts: 2112
Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | that was all excellent advice. one more tip for you,
if you don't have access to a fish tape to feed your wires and flex tube through the frame rails, use a tape measure. just tape the stuff to the blade with electrical tape and fish it through. ok, 2 tips, HEAT SHRINK EVERY CONNECTION! |
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| Actually, you can tie some string to the old wires and use that to feed the new wires through.
Besides heat shrink tubing, we also added a little bit of silicone, then shrunk it. Also greased all the bulb bases with dieletric grease.
Tom B |
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Posts: 1335
Location: Chicago, Beverly | Wow, not one mention of electrical tape.... Silicone, heat shrink, and even flex tubing is great, but all splices and any areas with sharp corners the wires should have several wraps of good electrical tape...by good I mean either 3M Scotch 33+ or 88+, nothing else... Even harnesses that plug together halfway down the trailer should have a couple wraps of electrical tape where they connect... Just some thoughts from a electrician.. |
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Posts: 389
Location: Corning, Iowa | OK, hears what my shade tree mechanic says. First, It's probably the wiring, but maybe with the trailer sitting all winter, the tires have a flat spot, and are shaking the fenders to death. What do you think guys? |
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| kevin - 3/22/2005 8:08 PM
Wow, not one mention of electrical tape.... Silicone, heat shrink, and even flex tubing is great, but all splices and any areas with sharp corners the wires should have several wraps of good electrical tape...by good I mean either 3M Scotch 33+ or 88+, nothing else... Even harnesses that plug together halfway down the trailer should have a couple wraps of electrical tape where they connect... Just some thoughts from a electrician..
I should have included photos.... All the ends of the flex tube are well taped. All splices, that I do, are soldered, silconed and tubed with heat shrink tubing. The way I've rewired my trailer, electrical tape is not used to protect the wire, but hold the flex tube in position.
I am hoping that by eliminating crimp connections that are "sealed" with electrical tape, that I will not have to rewire my trailer again.
Tom B |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | First of all, Tom B it is wonderful to see you post here! You were my inspiration to start muskie fishing and now I have 21 under my belt. thanks again for showing me your Lake X and taking me and Jon under your wing for a day.
I don't think it is as simple as the boat sitting all winter (unless a mouse got to chewing insulation, whicj can happen), most likely a ground problem. When mine went bad I found a wire in the back trailer bracket that went between the two back lights. My motor toter end had crushed the wire against the back of the frame so I only had to replace one wire instead of all of them. If you have a multi-meter you might be able to search out the problem, I would look at all connections at each fixture before checking out the longer runs. good luck, m |
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| My trailer wireing problem turned out to be corrosion at the trailer wireing harness adapter between the tailight plugs under my chevy truck.Drove me nuts rewireinbg the trailer ,cutting off pigtails and replaceing etc..Then it got bad enough this winter that I finaly lost the tailights on my truck without the boat trailer connected,that is when I finaly found the problem.Before thay every time I probed with a test light everything worked at the truck but not at the end of the harness at the trailer lights.Must have been enough ground to work the truck lights ,but not enough to reach back to the trailer lights.$14.95 for a new trailer harness adapter and now I have strong working lights again.So don't over look your conections at the truck lights.
Capt. Larry |
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Posts: 389
Location: Corning, Iowa | Larry, are you talking about the male coupler that going into the female on the bumper? The only lights that went out are the ones on the finders. The tail, stop, turn signals, and the back red marker cluster, all seam to be OK. The tires having a flat spot, seamed alittle off, but I hate wiring, so I'll try anything. Thanks all Doug |
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| Doug,
On my 1996 Chevy Silverado there is a wireing harness adapter that plugs in between the wireing harness going to the taillights on the truck.Then there is a harness that runs from the adapter with a male end that plugs into the female end at the trailer harness.Check to see if your harness from the truck is hard wired in at the tailights or comes from an adapter,if there is an adapter make sure the ground conection is clean from corosion.A week ground will give you a loss of power to trailer lights,the tailights on the trailer may be grounded at the trailer and that is why they work and the side markers do not.
Capt. Larry |
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Posts: 389
Location: Corning, Iowa | Worked on the trailer today. BOTH of the bulbs elements have come loose inside the sealed lenses.Evidently, they were bouncing a lot. Next stop checking tires, and bearings. Thanks everyone for your help. Doug |
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