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first time hooking up the boat this year and my trailer lights are acting up. My brake and turn signals work fine until I turn on my head lights then nothing works http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/crying.gif .... I have a five wire system and I am wondering if my driving lights have a short or is this a ground issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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It sounds like a ground issue. Check the white wire connection on the tongue.
The ground at the tongue is fine but I have a swing away tongue... Is there another further back on the trailer?
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by keisbs »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The ground at the tongue is fine but I have a swing away tongue... Is there another further back on the trailer?</TD></TR></TABLE>
It is a ground issue and yes you need a ground behind the swing away tongue and a good ground on the tow vehicle.
Check the white wires at every light.
Some may be attached to the frame.
Remove them and clean the frame to bare metal.
You may also have a common ground under the trailer,usually near one of
the crossmembers.
The negative side of the light circuit goes from the truck battery to the truck frame, then to a wire in the trailer harness, then from the trailer harness to the trailer frame, and then from the trailer frame via a wire or part of the mounting bracket at each light. Not exactly a reliable setup, especially after a few years of dunking the trailer in the water.
The run through the trailer frame is usually the problem. You can narrow the problem down by getting about 20ft of wire with an alligator clip on each end. Connect the trailer wiring, but don't let the truck and trailer touch.
Start with one end of the wire clipped to the bolt that mounts the ground wire to the tongue, and clip the other end to bare metal on the truck frame. if this fixes the problem, you have a ground wire issue in your vehicle to trailer wiring.
If that doesn't help, leave one end of the wire connected to the tongue ground, and connect the other end to bare metal behind the swing-away portion of the trailer. If that fixes it, your problem is the joint there. You may have to install a jumper wire to conduct current past the joint.
If that doesn't help, take the jumper to one of your tail/brake/turn lights. There will be a ground attachment there. It may be a pigtail from the fixture/connector to the frame, or it may be part of the mounting bolt that holds the light to the trailer. Figure out how it is grounded, and then connect your ground lead to that point. You should at least see normal operation out of that light. Inspect the point where the individual light grounds to the trailer. It may need cleaning/sanding as mentioned above.