My frustration is at boiling point

My shorelander trailer lights will not work properly. I have replaced both lights/wiring the plug from those lights to the truck and the truck plug into the electrical system. I have regrounded everything solid, no blinker either side. All I get is when I turn my running lights/lights on the truck every light on the boat goes on. Brakes-blinkers-everything. I am very frustreated and sick of working on the piece of *#$#^#@. Does anyone have any ideas- I am not an electrician.

Do yourself a favor.

Let Kevin at Absolute Power Sport give you a rough quote.

Less grey hair.

That was going to be my recommendation too.

Kevin: 715-723-7705

Yup…Trailer lights kinda’ suck! I assume that you have already confirmed that the connection from your truck is working properly??? (Nothing worse than putting in hour after hour on a trailer only to find out that the truck’s wiring is to blame…) RR

You need a voltmeter and start at the connection for the truck. Verify you are getting the proper voltages on the truck side of the plug first.

Has this ever worked properly??

I get my ground through the hitch ball so if I am having strange problems I lift the trailer and squirt the hitch ball with WD-40. It is amazing how may problems that fixes.

I have never had any problems with the truck / boat but both are going on 11 years. I had it hooked up to another truck and got the same results, but now I am not so sure if it is not my truck

Been there and am doing it. I have a right turn signal which will not work. Last year I just decided that I will wait until I get a ticket to take it to the shop. Checking the wiring in the truck is above my pay range.

I always start at the truck and work my way back. Good luck, it’s a pain in the for sure.

Had the same problem a couple years ago. tried and tested everything. believe it or not a fuse in the truck had blown. 20 cent problem that took a whole weekend of swearing. good luck, Dan

For a few bucks, one of these can save you a lot of headaches. You’ll at least know that the wiring on your truck is good! Got mine at Fleet Farm.

Some of the trailerlight problems come because the wires pass through the channeling on the trailer. As you drive the vibrations wear through the insulation on the wire anywhere it is touching the frame. This causes alot of short and grounding problems. Buy a kit a Wal-mart and pull all new wires all the way back to the lights. This usually solves alot of problems. GOOD LUCK!!

Foriegn vehicle maybe? Can make a difference sometimes.

I have had the ground on the tow vehicle bad and this also causes those problems

what year/make/model vehicle do you have? also, did you say you have replaced the lights on the trailer, and all wiring?

if not, that’s what i would do, especially if you have confirmed the vehicle wiring is correct. I had an issue with one of my boats a couple years ago, was having weird lighting issues, and after spending a couple hours on it, i decided to just take the extra 1 hour and re-wire the entire trailer – voila…everything worked perfect!

you don’t need to pay someone to fix the lights for you, just spend a couple bucks to get a tester like noted above, and then do a thorough job on the trailer. its easy…

In your troubleshooting, if you haven’t rewired completely, I like to tear apart the lights etc…. I lay the new wire on the ground and test that after I’ve confirmed the truck plug is correct. I use extension cords for the new wire simply to add another layer of protection from laying in the trailer channels.

Solder all connections, heat shrink and seal with electrical tape. As I’m putting the system back together, I test each new connection prior the heat shrink/taping step.

Trailer Wiring Article

Go buy one of the testers (pictured above)and verify that the left turn, right turn, brake lights, and running lights light up the correct LED’s on the tester. If they all work as they should then the wiring on your trailer has issues. Post your results on the truck wiring test.

Easy way to solve the problem,
sell the boat and trailer,
and buy a new one.

I would check the connections on the bulbs and the copper holders, sometimes they get corrodided and are covered with a green substance(sometimes not visible) . clean them and see what happens. I have to do this to my boat every year because i am too cheap too buy sealed blinker assemblies.

Went through that problem a couple of times. Ended up pulling all the wire because trailer was 10 years old. Pulled new wire and hooked up new LED tail lights. End of problems

Gundy

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All I get is when I turn my running lights/lights on the truck every light on the boat goes on. Brakes-blinkers-everything.

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Possible you have them all tied into the running light wire? Some how it is getting power from that wire and not from the wire it needs to. Maybe undo your new plug and start over from there. Before doing that make sure you have power coming out of the truck where it is supposed to be as well.

Or just take it over the Kevin at Absolute Power.

Back to work tonight, I hope to have time to work on it tomorrow afternoon. Thanks for everyones response. I will buy one of those plug in checkers for the back of the truck and go from there!

Hey bigpike run ground wires on the connector too, I had issues myself just grounding through the hitch, funny that I normally never see those white wires hooked up, but I’ve hooked them all on all my trailers now. I cleaned every ground connection with a dremel on the trailer to bare metal. A spent all day doing that once, and I hooked it up to the truck to check out my work and nothing…. I didn’t actually put it on the ball just connected the wires… That when I remember and realize that I was grounded through the ball and hitch and wired the ground wires on the connected problems solved.

I also used outdoor extention cord as my new wire to wires the lights and it would take an ugly act of god to break through and short that wire out

If you worked on the trailer, I’d probably be leaning toward the truck as the issue. Most truck have 2 fuse locations one inside under the dash and one upfront under the hood, fuses in both locations can give you problems.

When in doubt I got a backup plan too I got some of these http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_19177_19177 (usually you can find cheaper models, but you get the idea) and a lighter plug to power the running lights. Here in MN you only running lights on a trailer I believe with blinker lights, IIRC atleast if you can see the taillights/blinkers of the tow truck. Can’t remember all the specfics (so I’d consult the real laws before you try to tell some officer “some guy on the internet said” ). I think as long as you have running lights you’re ok. I’m sure that’s not your goal, but still…

Great link Slayer… also thanks to Steve Root for taking the time to write that.

A week flasher breaker can cause this

Dont need to be dumb but……when I plug in the tester and turn my running lights on the only indicator light that comes on is the ground light. Does this mean I have a ground issue with my truck? Also I am getting no blinker lights at the indicator if I try just them

Fuses and ground are the first place to start on the truck side. Good luck!! Be sure to have a beer while working on projects like this. It makes things much, much better.

If you have a tester like Ralph posted, there is no light for the ground wire ??? If it is the brown wire, that is correct. Also, are you pluuging into a 4 flat spade on the vehicle, or a 6 or 7 way, with a 4 flat convertor ? If it is a 4 flat, make sure the white wire, under the truck is grounded, or you will get no lights to work on the tester.

big G

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Be sure to have a beer while working on projects like this. It makes things much, much better.

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Plus, if you’re like me, when the rage builds, you’ll have something other than your tools to throw!

I think you probably do have a ground issue of some sort. I would go through both grounds (truck and trailer) and make sure they’re good and not tarnished up. I had a bad ground on my trailer, so my lights would kind of fade in and out. Put a new one on and they are very bright now.

Looking forward to hearing the solution on this one. I hope it won’t be long.

You can take a 12V battery charger and hook the neg clamp to your trailer. Then clamp a nail or something to the positive and you can touch your connections on the trailer to see if the lights work. Seems like you have truck issues.