Trailer Lighting?

[Robbie]

i know this can be any boat, but thought i'd ask through DS family as well. im taking, or hopefully taking my , new to me, DS2 up the road, approximately 200 miles to a lake on Sunday. everything is ok to go except the trailer lights. i bought new ones, since the lights that came with boat and trailer didnt work. now i have installed the new system, following all directions and nothing. nothing works. ive tried various test, re-wiring, etc. and still nothing.
i bought a continuity or the likes tester, which alligators to one section and needles the connections. and from my car plug everything works: one lights when lights on, second lights with left turn indicator and third lights with right indicator on. so seems that is good. the wire set-up is four plug with ground wire screwed thightly to trailer frame, two wires back to left light and a ground from that section screwed tight to trailer frame and same for right side. what am i missing? any ideas? anyone? thanks for any thoughts! this is very frustrating and time consuming.

[K.C. Walker]

If you pulled new wires, it is most likely a ground problem. It does not take much rust or corrosion to cause a connection problem. Your ground connection to the frame has to be nice and shiny at each location. And you need a good continuous connection throughout the frame. If this is not practical you can run a separate ground wire.

[Robbie]

the three grounds are securely attached to clean trailer section , which is a solid seameless connection throughout the frame. i may steel wool each section and if still doesnt work ill purchase additional wire to run seperate ground. thanks

[TIM WEBB]

TOTALLY agree w/ KC: it's almost ALWAYS a ground issue!

I found it's easiest to just isolate the wiring from the trailer chassis altogether, and run a separate ground wire(s) all the way back. In my case, I have a tilting trailer, and the pivot point for that was where the ground connection was failing ...

If you are "hot" at the tow vehicle's plug, it's almost for sure a grounding problem on the trailer. Also, the alligator clip/needle type tester can "lie" to you if you are not "clamped on" to a really good, known ground point.

For your road trip, you might consider a "clamp-on" set like they have at Tractor Supply or the like?

Yes, it can be frustrating, but ya gotta have lights to tow, so ya may as well get it figured out before ya go!

[algonquin]

The trailer should ground back to your vehicle through the trailer ball on the hitch but this doesn’t always meet with satisfactory results so try running a new and separate ground wire from the trailer back to your vehicle. Brad

[GreenLake]

Definitely run a ground cable. The trailer plugs usually allow for connecting one. Make sure that the ground cable really connects to ground on the car side and run it to all the lights on the trailer side.
I've had some locations on the car side not actually grounded.

Sometimes, you have all the cables connected, but there's a break inside a connector, or inside a wire. I had that problem - it would "fix" itself after a while. Vibrations would connect the wires, the bad connection would heat up, bringing more metal in contact and suddenly things would work for the rest of the day.

Depending on where you tap the power on your car, make sure that you are actually getting power to the connector. For that purpose, you can use a voltmeter or a small tester with several LEDs.

Not your particular issue, but I'll mention it anyway: if you get one of the LED light sets, they seem so much more robust...I was getting thoroughly tired of having to replace bulbs.

[TIM WEBB]

I hear ya GL - I'm seriously considering replacing mine with LEDs. I guess when I get as tired of replacing bulbs as you did, I'll justify the expense ...

[Robbie]

well, thanks so much for the suggestions. i couldnt make anything happen, so i purchased the magnetic temp lights, which dont need the ground. plugged them in and still nothing. so, guess the tester was lying. so here i sit on land missing my trip and ready, somewhat, to begin tomorrow on car plug issue. thanks again.

[TIM WEBB]

Aw, man, sorry you missed your outing!

So, turns out to be the tow vehicle's plug after all? I'd still look for a ground problem first. Also, some tow vehicles (my PT Cruiser included) require a special adapter box as part of the plug wiring, because they have separate turn signal lights ...

[ChrisB]

I would consider removing the lights from the trailer altogether and mounting them on a light bar. I made a light bar/mast cradle that sits across the stern of my boat. The lights and licence plate are mounted on the bar and the wire harness runs on top of the boat up to the bow cleats, then to the car. Twofold advantage; first it gets the lights out of the water so you don't have the water intrusion issues to deal with, second it gets the lights out from under the boat and up in the line of sight of the driver behind you on the road.

In the center of the light bar is a cradle that supports the aft end of the mast.

[Robbie]

Man o' man.! after three days of testing and reconfiguring and configuring, scrapping and testing...i had no idea this car had a trailer fuse in fusebox. my previous cars/little trucks did not. so surely this didnt.? never bothered to look until someone from trailersailer suggest such. well, i now have lights and sure, i feel stupid, but happy stupid. thanks again for all suggestions.

[TIM WEBB]

DOH!

Never thought/heard of a trailer fuse either ...