Trailer lights; what a fun job

Anybody enjoy doing trailer lights??

After an evening of crappie fishing that was interupted by a thunderstorm a friend and I (The Famous Grouse) decided to re-do the trailer lights on my Grumman Sportboat trailer. Special thanks to The Famous Grouse for helping me and showing me how to install them correctly.

Since it was a re-do, I decided to spend the extra $20 and upgrade to LED’s. This was my first time doing trailer lights. The easy part was stringing the lights through but the tedious part was all the connections; including good ground wires connections, using heat shrink connectors, and protecting all the pinch points.

I even had a mouse jump out the tongue when we brought it in the garage; along with an old hornets nest inside the tongue.

After pulling the old wires out, we found mice had chewed through the wires causing a short. Anybody have any suggestions on how to prevent mice from getting into the trailer tube??

You could use that expanding spray foam. However, it might hold water and rot the trailer out over time.

You wont regret the LEDs KWP

Did the same earlier this year.

As for the mice, I can say that poison didnt deter them in my case. Put out a box that had the little pellets on the opposite end of the shed about a month ago, folded the tounge back when I brought the boat up to the garage today and lo and behold there was a pile of poison pellets inside the tounge. Guess that was the mice was of flipping me the middle finger

Quote:

---

Did the same earlier this year.

As for the mice, I can say that poison didnt deter them in my case. Put out a box that had the little pellets on the opposite end of the shed about a month ago, folded the tounge back when I brought the boat up to the garage today and lo and behold there was a pile of poison pellets inside the tounge. Guess that was the mice was of flipping me the middle finger

---

You got him. They take the pellets back to their “home” and eat them. Then die, then they decompose without leaving a smell.

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

Did the same earlier this year.

As for the mice, I can say that poison didnt deter them in my case. Put out a box that had the little pellets on the opposite end of the shed about a month ago, folded the tounge back when I brought the boat up to the garage today and lo and behold there was a pile of poison pellets inside the tounge. Guess that was the mice was of flipping me the middle finger

---

You got him. They take the pellets back to their “home” and eat them. Then die, then they decompose without leaving a smell.

---

LOL! Good luck with that. The pellets suck! They may kill some mice but on many occasions I have found the mice carrying it to a certain spot and depositing them there without eating them. The most recent was over the winter my mom brought her car in for an oil/filter change and they replaced the cabin filter as well. When the tech removed the filter a pile (2-3 cups) of pellets fell from behind it. Another time was at work, we were storing some lost and found items in a large 35 gallon garbage can in a back storeroom to send to goodwill, I was going through it bagging everything up one day and about halfway down I came across a single shoe filled with pellets, nothing else just the one shoe.

The blocks are awesome as they have to chew on it to get anything, the pellets they can just grab and bring wherever they like.

As far as preventing mice in the trailer you may want to find some stainless steel wool and stuff it in there tightly.

This is a project I want to do this fall, current lights are ok but like the idea of LED. Are they pretty spendy?

Quote:

---

This is a project I want to do this fall, current lights are ok but like the idea of LED ( that’s what this thread is about,right?) Are they pretty spendy?

---

No, like the OP said, about $20 more, and definitely worth it.

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

This is a project I want to do this fall, current lights are ok but like the idea of LED ( that’s what this thread is about,right?) Are they pretty spendy?

---

Haha, Thanks Munchy! Didn’t see that, too tired I guess.

No, like the OP said, about $20 more, and definitely worth it.

---

Quote:

---

Anybody have any suggestions on how to prevent mice from getting into the trailer tube??

---

Buy a pet snake.

I would have to agree on the pellets. The blocks are a better way to go and then only if you don’t have any children or pets around.

STEEL WOOL , put it in the holes/openings its the ONLY thing mice will not chew through. This is true for homes, campers ect you can’t just block or fill a hole they will chew threw anything except steel wool

Quote:

---

STEEL WOOL , put it in the holes/openings its the ONLY thing mice will not chew through. This is true for homes, campers ect you can’t just block or fill a hole they will chew threw anything except steel wool

---

Filled radiator holes with steel wool and expanding foam and chewed right through both no problem. There are exceptions.

“Anybody enjoy doing trailer lights?? “

Actually, I don’t mind doing it. I take satisfaction in doing everything up right and proper. Besides using only LEDS, I upgrade by stringing the wires thru a loom the entire length. Might be overkill but it gives everything an extra layer of protection.

Quote:

---

Anybody have any suggestions on how to prevent mice from getting into the trailer tube??

---

Fish more…

Quote:

---

Since it was a re-do, I decided to spend the extra $20 and upgrade to LED’s. This was my first time doing trailer lights. The easy part was stringing the lights through but the tedious part was all the connections; including good ground wires connections, using heat shrink connectors, and protecting all the pinch points.

---

I “enjoy” doing trailer lights in the sense that I LOVE getting rid of those PITA old-style incandescent bulb lights and installing something that actually works RELIABLEY.

LED lights, IMO, are the ONLY option. That extra $20 is so worth it because ever since I added LEDs to all my trailers (3), I haven’t had a single issue. Ever. I just plug them in and go. I don’t even unplug them at the ramp, just back in. They’re that good.

I’m a big fan of the belt + suspenders approach when doing trailer wires.

On KWP’s trailer we did the following:

1. Every connection is double-sealed. I use heat shrink crimp connectors AND I put heat shrink tube over the top of these, so they are double sealed against moisture and vibration.

2. Every fixture has its own ground to the frame, plus the harness itself is grounded to the tongue. All grounds are stripped to bare metal and then painted over with liquid electrical tape to keep corrosion from starting.

3. All stress points are protected. Rubber grommets protect any hole in the frame that the wire passes through. This is huge because every hole has sharp edges that will eventually cut the wire’s insulation.

Any place where the wire gets tugged on gets tied off with zip ties so that connectors aren’t receiving the stress of every pull. Any sunlight-exposed wire like the plug lead to the vehicle gets protected with loom or flex conduit.

Quote:

---

After pulling the old wires out, we found mice had chewed through the wires causing a short.

---

That is something of an understatement. I struggled to find even a 1 foot long section of the old harness that didn’t contain a place where the mouse ate enough insulation to cause a short. In the 15 feet of harness, there were probably a few hundred points that could have cause a short if they touched metal. So it’s no wonder the old lights didn’t work.

We really know how to party on a Saturday night.

Grouse

One addition I’d make is that there are 3 essential tools for trailer light installs. If you don’t have these, the light installation is a great excuse to buy them.

1. Dremal tool or equivalent high-speed rotary tool. Perfect for grinding down to bare metal where you’re going to ground a fixture. Also great for cleaning up anything that has corrosion on it. I use a stainless wire wheel, but the grinding stones work fine as well.

2. Heat gun. No! A hairdryer will not work for heat shrink electrical tubing. These are routinely on sale for <$20 an they are very useful around the house.

3. Fish tape X 2. Or you can also use thin, very strong cord, but fish tapes are better because you can push and pull.

I cut the old wires and attach the fish tapes to the old wire harness back at each tail light. Then I use the old wire to pull the fish tapes up the channel to the tongue.

Then attach the new wire at the tongue and pull it toward the back of the trailer using the fish tapes.

WARNING: Make sure you have the right wire colors on the correct side of the trailer. I almost managed to screw this up on KWP’s trailer.

The 3 tools above make the process much faster and easier.

Grouse

put a couple of dryer sheets in the tube. mice hate the smell.