I hate boat trailer lights!

[Jan from Humboldt]

The darn things never last no matter what they say or how much you spend.
Saltwater, copper, brass and 12vdc will combine to kill them in the end.

I just checked mine and they were toast after two years so I went out and bought a set of LED's.

However, I decided to set mine up so they never get wet as they will hang off the boat while trailering and are fed by a cable and when I launch I'll simply un clip them and toss them and the coiled cable in the back of the jeep so they never see the salt water.

[Genelie]

I think someone else here does that as well.

[CRIMAR30]

I can't speak for the trailer I have now,( an EZloader) as it's only a few months old,but on my last boat, it was a Wesco trailer, which I thought was a pretty good trailer, and every time I hit a bump, lights quit working. So every time I took it out, the lights would not work, eventually I replaced the entire fixtures and they worked perfect after that. I could not believe how cheaply the ones I removed were made, the contacts were just a piece of bare metal you just bent to make a contact with the bottom of the bulb, no springs to keep pressure on the bulb at all.

Mark

[MartyM]

It seems like most of the stock trailers you get with a boat use the cheapest parts possible - just enough to get you out of the dealers lot.
I replaced my lights with LEDs this year, but I don't have much faith that they'll last more than a few seasons.
Maybe I low expectations, but I figure the lights are just another annual expense that I have to pay in order to go boating.

[STL170]

On two previous waverunner trailers I gave each two years and always decided to upgrade to LEDs. I would always disconnect the lights and the rear lights were good for a year and the markers needed replaced two or three times a year. This boat trailer was switched before the third time out. I leave the lights hooked up to the vehicle now and have had no problems. I even went for the low buck Wal-mart LEDs and they seem to be doing good. I also pull a ground wire for each light rather than relying on the trailer and rusty ring terminals to conduct the ground loop. Some liquid electrical tape or solder or shrink tube also helps.