Trailer/brake lights

[Stalker]

I have a 6 prong plug on my truck (Breaks and extra power I guess, but it isn't RV plug) I bought and adapter at U-Haul and none of the lights work. I then went to AutoZone and bought another. Now the front amber running lights work, but none of the others. Suggestions? The boat and trailer are 2005 and they are new to me. 210CC 150yam
Thanks in advance

[jpgator]

If you are handy dandy with a volt meter I say go for it - if not find someone who is. First find out if you have the right voltage coming from the plug on truck without trailer hooked up (parking lights, turn signals, brake lights etc.) should be 12 to 14 volts. Make sure you have the right plug. With the trailer plug unhooked from truck - put 12v on each pin on trailer plug (don't forget the ground hook it to the trailer) see what comes on and then write it down. Make sure the pins coincide with pins on truck. Brake to brake - parking to parking etc. Sometimes people have problems with their wiring and instead of fixing they just put patches to make it work or move wires around.
Plug everything up and start working backwards from the lights. Make sure you have 12 v at light (if yes bad bulb or usually bad ground) (if no start tracing backwards towards the plug and see where you lose the 12v and that is likely the area of concern - a splice or joint of some sort. Lots of times you have bad grounds and you don't want to mess with those they will make you go crazy and very difficuly to diagnose . Hit brake lights and turn signals come on - hit turn signal and parking lights go on - go figure - thats bad grounds for ya. Make sure you have good ground between trailer and truck. Sometimes a visual inspection of lights will tell you its a bad ground and sometimes a meter will say its good and visually it looks good but its not. All I can say is have fun - hopefully bad plug - sometimes its easier to just rewire the whole trailer....
John

[Stalker]

jpgator,
I'm going for it. I'm stubborn, have little free time, and don't have a volt meter but I love a good challenge.

[Stalker]

Update:

I found a loose wire to the running lights in the back. I plugged it back in and all the running lights work now. Still nothing on the signal and brake lights. The connections are corroded. Any ideas on getting them clean again??

[jpgator]

Eletric and water doesn't mix well. Sometimes you can use baking soda and water it will help kill the acid. Use a tooth bush to clean. You may have to place short pieces of wires also if you do - do not use electrical tape. Solder you connections and use the liquid electric tape. Regular tape holds in moisture and adds to the corrosion. Somtimes wires will actually corrode inside the sheathing. Thats why I say sometimes better to just rewire the trailer that way you have no splice. But that may be too much for you to do right now. Coat your connections with never seize - (screw type connection-grounds etc) not splices - this will help them from not corroding. Also keep your plug on the trailer lightly greased with a lithium grease or something of that nature.

John

[Jan from Humboldt]

If you want opinions it's been my experience that once trailer lights and wiring decide to crap out on you it's best to just rip it out and re do it all.

Saltwater, copper and DC voltage is a bad mix and it will just keep pestering you with breakdowns. When you install new apply liberal amounts of marine grease and silicone sealer to any points where you might get water intrusion.

I'm about to re-do mine and am thinking of doing what I did on my other boat and that's having the lights set up so they attach on the boat and not on the trailer...The down side to that is you need to remove the lights and cable fro the boat when you launch it but it doesn't take that long and you never ever need to screw around with corroded lights that don't work.

Timely thread. My starboard taillight went out last week and I figured it was just a matter of time before the port light went. Decided to order 2 new tailights and mount them on the boat. I had some starboard left over from a previous project so I used that to mount them to. Had to extend the wiring from the light to the trailer, but it was a very simple job. Will try to attach photos.

[elroy]

Yesterday I noticed a light out again on my ez loader, which is only 1 yr old, so i called the company. I talked with John and he is sending me a new set FREE! I told him I was just wondering what I could do to fix the problem. Problem solved { I hope}. Anyway it was great service!

[jpgator]

Slick set up 'chief' and yes I do agree better to rewire than trace and fix - it will only be a matter of time before issues begin to arise again.
New lights from ez loader? how did you rate? Hopefully they are the waterproof lights, but even those in a matter of time will have issues. You can't dunk in saltwater and not have issues........

[Stalker]

Chief,
Lights look great. Have you put them in the water? How do you run the power to them (Quick connect of some kind to the old wire on trailor?) and what do you do with the hanging wire to the lights while on the water?

On mine, the quick connect from the trailor wire to the light wire are severely corroded. I cut the wires back on both and its nice and clean. Now I just need to decide what to do. Thanks for the ideas