Geoff Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 My trailer is now 10 years old & up until recently the lights worked fine. Last week I discovered only one tail light was working. Yesterday I decided to fix the problem , thinking it was only going to take a short time , however after spending most of the day going through just about every test I could think of , no sucess. The question is , what am I missing ??? To eliminate the obvious here are the tests I did using a multimeter. Car socket , it's a 7 pin socket but ony use 5 being the stop , tail , 2 indicators & the earth. Voltage on the 4 active all checked out OK. Trailer plug. There was some corrosion on the terminals . Cleand it up , cut the wires back to clean wire & reinserted. Test show the was a voltage drop up to 50% on some terminals. Decided not to mess around with it any further so purchases a new plug. Voltage problem at the plug fixed. I then hot wired the lights & all OK , no blown globes & no corrosion on any of the wires or fittings , they look like brand new. So , at this point I've got power to the plug & the lights work when hot wired. I then decided to test each wire both when all were wired to the plug & one at a time removing the three active wires. No sucess !!!! The appears to be no damage to the cable at the front of the trailer but I need to check that out a bit further. I'me going to check it out a further today but if I can't find a solution then may need to rewire the whole trailer , a job I'm not looking forward to. Any thoughts or advice appreicated Geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crossfire63 Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 10/1 your trailer has been wired with copper wire. Chances are the wires are corroded in the harness somwhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyNurse Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 (edited) 10/1 your trailer has been wired with copper wire. Chances are the wires are corroded in the harness somwhere. I tend to agree. It's a pain in the butt, but not all that expensive to replace the wiring loom on the trailer. Edited March 10, 2014 by GreyNurse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fish53 Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Make sure you slide a knife blade into the pin slots of the trailer plug to widen them a little. The sides must engage well with the female fitting on the car when plugged in. I had similar issue to yours and this was the root cause of the lights not functioning. Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Posted March 10, 2014 Author Share Posted March 10, 2014 Make sure you slide a knife blade into the pin slots of the trailer plug to widen them a little. The sides must engage well with the female fitting on the car when plugged in. I had similar issue to yours and this was the root cause of the lights not functioning. Pete Yes , that was part of the problem but a new plug fixed that aspect. I thought the earth was the problem but with further testing today using a combination of hot wireing & connection via the plug , it appears the the brown (tail light) is the problem. Indicators & stop are now working OK provided the brown in not connected. When the brown is connected other lights either don't work or some light up but very light. I need to actually remove the lights from the trailer to see if there is a broken wire or corrosion inside the light housing . Crossfire 63. "10/1 your trailer has been wired with copper wire. Chances are the wires are corroded in the harness somwhere." The same thought crossed my mind & unless I can fix the brown then this may be my only other option. Geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cameldownunder Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Trailer lights: Give the a good wack, and see if they work then. That fixes 99% of my problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Aussie007 Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 change your globes even if they look ok they usually make u chase your tail and are faulty has happen to me a few times Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaners Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Mate,new cable from plug to lights.You know thats the fault,you have power coming through the plug and not getting to the lights which you said are working if by-passed.As they are all not working it could just be the return earth cable is broken,but if it was me I would replace the whole cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davemmm Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Rarely will a cable corrode in the middle of a length. 99.9% of the time it is some form of dodgy connection. The problem I have found when working on mine and couple of mates trailers is that some manufacturers join cables inside the trailer frame rather than at the fitting. If this is the case rip the whole lot out and do it again as too many joins means too many issues. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Incredible Hull Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Hey Geoff, Although you have already tested the car plug with a multi-meter, have you tested the trailer plug directly into a battery? Hope you narrow down the problem, good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flickn Mad Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 change your globes even if they look ok they usually make u chase your tail and are faulty has happen to me a few times I agree, particularly the tail light (brown wire). Also check the earth/neutral loop where all your lights are connected together. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roadrunnerparts Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 If your interested we have an LED solution, with full plug in sealed wiring, from the lights all th way to the trailer plug, tinned wiring etc, 5 year warranty and probably far cheaper than all the time you are spending tearing your hair out and replacing bits and pieces. Give us a call or send a pm if you want more info Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Posted March 12, 2014 Author Share Posted March 12, 2014 (edited) Thanks to all for taking the time to reply & your constructive comments. After nearly 3 bays of testing & fiddling about the problem has been fixed but with some interesting side issues. When I removed the light assemblies from the trailer I found both sides had corrusion where the wiring connected to the lights. The right hand side was the worst of the two. I cleaned the wireing & connections & using a 12V spare battery connected the earth then attached the positive to each of the 4 plug pins. All lights worked correctly. Then came the side issues. Connected the plug to the car socket & the trailer lights played up again so I thought there may be a problem in the 900mm wireing harness from the car to the plug. Spent ages testing the cable every thing checked out OK . I then thought if there was a short or two wires touching then this should reflect in the car lights but all the car lights worked correctly. Also , I had used my box trailer on the weekend & all the lights were OK. So , where is the problem ?? Went to start the car . With all the testing the battery had insufficent power to start the motor. Hooked up the battery charger for a few hours then started the car. With the battey charged & the alternator providing the correct power , the trailer lights worked correctly. In 40 odd years of playing with boats & cars , I had never come across this situation. For interest the car is a VY Holden sedan. Perhaps others who have a trailer light problem may find this thread of interest. Geoff. PS Ian , will keep ypu in mind if I have further problems. Edited March 12, 2014 by Geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yarraone Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 sometimes it is easier to run new wire from front to back I do this every couple of years to make sure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antonywardle Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 (edited) Not sure if it is helpful or not, but I've been having a problem with the left indicator on my trailer. Also it doesn't work on my wifes car, but it did work on a friends car. We eventually found that the female end on both of our cars was slightly wide and I'm guessing that we weren't getting a very good contact. Drove us nuts figuring that one out. antony Edited March 12, 2014 by antonywardle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolongeramember Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Boat trailer lights.... wish I had a dollar for every one I've seen on the road with some sort of light problem. No exaggeration, but I reckon 90% I see on the road have something wrong with them haha. Geoff, what type of lights have you got? If its the type where the wires connect to the lights with pressure and a few screws your going to continue to have problems with them. I have these and I drilled the back of the lights out, fed the wires through and soldered them direct to the globe holders. Then I silicone the holes up. They have no choice but to work now and had no issues for years. Also, I think its a good idea to disconnect them before backing in the water as I've found the sudden cooling from the water prematurely blows globes and cracks the lenses. The stop 18W globe gets very hot, especially when you have had the brakes on for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Posted March 13, 2014 Author Share Posted March 13, 2014 Geoff, what type of lights have you got? If its the type where the wires connect to the lights with pressure and a few screws your going to continue to have problems with them. I have these and I drilled the back of the lights out, fed the wires through and soldered them direct to the globe holders. Then I silicone the holes up. They have no choice but to work now and had no issues for years. Roylo . Yes , it's the pressure type. Whilst this is not my preffered type of fitting & your recomodation is both logical & very sound the lights up until now have worked with no problem for 10 years even though they are submerged each time I launch & retreive . I cleaned them up , applied silicon along with a generous amount of Inox so hopefully they are sealed for a reasonable period of time . If I get a reoccurance in the near future I will either follow your suggestion or take up Road Runner suggestion of replacing the whole system. Geoff T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paikea Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 (edited) davemmm, on 10 Mar 2014 - 8:32 PM, said: "Rarely will a cable corrode in the middle of a length. 99.9% of the time it is some form of dodgy connection. The problem I have found when working on mine and couple of mates trailers is that some manufacturers join cables inside the trailer frame rather than at the fitting." I bought a used Mariner motor for my Seafarer Viking that I owned some years ago. The motor was in A1 condition but there was a spot on the wiring loom going to the control box that had a very small amount of green powder on it. From past experience I knew that to be the product of copper corrosion. I stripped the cover insulation off the loom and found that three of the wires inside the loom had corroded to the point where they were less than 10% of their original size with the remainder completely corroded away and the 10% well on the way with green powder all over them. A recipe for disaster if the wires would have broken whilst out at sea. To fix the problem I cut approx 200 mm out of the wiring, and reconnected each wire by soldering and fitting shrink sleeves then insulation tape over each wire and the loom cover. No problems after that. Shows that you need to regularly check the wiring of your boat to catch any problems before the get out of hand. Cheers Paikea Edited March 15, 2014 by Paikea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyNurse Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 Guys, I've followed this post with great interest as electronics is partly a way of life for me. I think the admin should pin this topic because, as Roylo pointed out, 90% of trailers have some kind of wiring problem after a period of use. It would certainly save trailer users the risk of a fine, not to mention the cost and downtime involved in working out the kind of problem Geoff experienced. Don't you love electronics. Just when you think you've got it wired (pun intended), along comes a situation that defies logic. Anyway Geoff, good to see that you finally nailed the problem. Now go out and celebrate with some good fish hauls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolongeramember Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 I've persisted with my old school globe lights as that is what my trailer came with. I would much prefer LED. LED solves many problems and is much more reliable and maintenance free. Another good idea is to have the wiring one piece front to back with no joins or openings in the outer coating at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee&muzza Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Hi all I'd just like to say as a new member I build trailers down here in Wodonga and 5 core wire i use I sell for next to nothing the best thing you could of done geoff is cut the whole lot off and started with 100 % submersible LED lights new wiring and new plug. and run the earth back though the car's earth One other thing to guys don't for get youre bearings !!!!! As I have to travel to do my salt water fishing I see heaps of trailers on the side of the road with wheels missing and its all because of people forgetting to re gease the bearings and they get hot and fall to bits . Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Aussie007 Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 u can buy some combination lights from the site sponsor think its roadrunner? http://www.roadrunnerparts.com.au/LED-Lighting/Rear-Combination-Lamps-1 would be awesome if they had prices up, i think roadrunner will get annoyed people asking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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