trailer lights

My Ranger trailer has a problem with running lights, they don’t work. My signals and brake lights work well, except when I turn on the vehicle lights then, nothing, any ideas?

brown wire, check it near the hook up, if none of them work.

You may want to check for a blown fuse.
Usually when my running lights don’t work it’s because of a blown fuse.
However, if it is the fuse, you’ll need to figure out what is causing the fuse to blow.
It’s one of the most frustrating things I do when it comes to boat and trailer maintenance, as I’ve spent my share of time working on my trailer light issues.

uncle-glen-1 wrote:

My Ranger trailer has a problem with running lights, they don’t work. My signals and brake lights work well,

except when I turn on the vehicle lights then, nothing,</blockquote>

any ideas?

You are not getting a good ground. Best thing to do is run a dedicated ground wire to each individual light, rather than depend on the trailer frame and hitch for the ground.

Dave might be right but I’d check the fuse first. Should be a fuse panel in the truck that has all your trailer lights. Usually under the hood.

Yup, when you see that kind of weird behavior….turning on the vehicle’s running lights makes the brake lights stop working on the trailer….that means there’s a bad connection somewhere on the “ground” side of things. Running that dedicated ground wire is the single best investment in your trailer you’ll ever make.

SR

It’s always the ground! No truer words were ever spoken.

Check the ground on the truck and trailer.

90% of all wiring problems is the ground. Check the ground. and when your done check the ground again. Easy way to fix is hook up trailer lights with out puting trailer on the ball. Make a jumper wire from ground of battery to light. if light works you have found problem.

Hi Guys, thanks for all the help on this problem, the advice was right on. It was a ground wire, not on the trailer, but on the plug in connection on the vechicle itself. Again many THANKS!

Boss Hawg wrote:

It’s always the ground! No truer words were ever spoken.

A year ago I ended up in a hotel room instead of finishing the drive to the lake because of a ground. Totally agree.

Last Saturday night my nearly new pickup became my hotel room. Fuse blew for the running lights. Stupid GM didn’t supply a spare fuse and none to be found at 2am. I guess it’s not always the ground.

Maybe next year I can drive both to and from Rainy without trailer light issues???

patk wrote:

last Saturday night my nearly new pickup became my hotel room. Fuse blew for the running lights. Stupid GM didn’t supply a spare fuse and none to be found at 2am. I guess it’s not always the ground.

Maybe next year I can drive both to and from Rainy without trailer light issues???

in another forum,tools were mentioned for the boat,a pack of different fuses would be good also for the truck and boat,and just so you know if and when there is a next time,you could have pulled the A/C fuse,or a heater fuse,horn fuse, rob a fuse from any circut that you are not needing, dont rob any security or engine fuses,anything that is close in amps, or a little higher wont hurt for a while,unless you had a dead short that would blow a higher amperage fuse anyway,