Trailer Help!

[Bill Hamilton]

Decided to clean the boat real good this morning and it is now looking real good. Cleaned everything and decided to check the trailer. NO LIGHTS. I have tried everything. Truck fuses, replaced the 5 pin connector going into the truck, checked all the wiring and no cuts, connectors and clean (after scraping them and the ground is OK. NOTHING. No side lamps or rear lamps. Gotta be something I am overlooking. Any ideas?????

 

[Bryan McDonough]

Isolate the problem before you spend too much money. Get a volt meter and figure out where you have power.

 

[Greg Garcia]

Have you tried to see if your getting power from vehilce plug? If you have juice at the vehicle plug then go wire by wire. Make sure you hook up your trailer to your vehilce hitch. Hook the safety chain and everything else as if your were going to tow it. Your chain and trailer hitch is the groung for the boat trailer. Clean the hitch ball and trailer hitch. Maybe getting poor ground. Hope this helps.

 

[Jim in VA]

I agree with Greg in that having nothing on all at once would seem to indicate a ground issue. First, use a volt meter to test the truck plug using your hitch ball and/or receiver as the ground link. If everything reads good there, then hook up your rig to the truck after ensuring that you have clean connections all around. (no need to pull it out of the car port). Then try the lights again. Something should work! If not, check the ground wire for connectivity.



Good luck!

 

[mike chip]

i know you said you checked the fuse, but some trucks have 2 fuses like mine. just for the trailer. also make sure you are getting a good ground. sometimes i have to drive mine a few feet before the ground is complete to the ball.

mike c

 

[Jim B]

A volt meter is your best friend for troubleashooting this. First check the truck, verify you are getting power(use the ground in the plug not dirct to the truck). If you are getting power to the plug its the tailer for sure. What i like to do when i have worked with trailer lights is i use a spare battery to power the trailer lights. I use an old 4 way car end plug and connect the ground(white) to the - on the battery and connect the other leads one at a time to verify the lights are working.



Id bet you will find you have a ground issue on either the trailer or the truck. Tbeing hooked to the ball should have no affect on the lights working or not since they should be grounded independent of the trailer ball.

 

[Bill Wright]

Not sure what kind of truck you have but Toyota had a recall for the same problem. They changed my truck trailer harness.



Bill

 

[al cannia]

When that happened on my trailer, it ended up being a blown 15amp fuse on the truck fuse box.I then rewired the trailer and all is ok now.

 

[Bruce Freeman]

Bill, You did not say which boat so I am going to guess it's for the Nitro. Take it for a spin around the area and check them again. I had a problem last year where the trailer set to long and the tounge was not getting a good ground where it slides for the trailer brake master cylnder?



BF

 

[Mark Jaworski]

Hi Bill



My 2007 nissan has a set of fuses dedicated to the trailer under the hood. I know this because I went through what your going through. I had a short in the trailer harness that kept blowing the fuses. Yours may not be the same but its a thought.



I have also had the ground issue in the past.



Advance and/or Auto Zone sell a chepo plug that you plug into your truck harness. It has little LED indicators that will tell you if your truck wiring is ok.



Hope it helps,



Mark

 

[Bill Hamilton]

Well I appreciate all the help as there is no place better than NTOWs for advice (and free). Checked everything one more time and found a 20A fuse blown. There were only 72 fuses and 10 relays in the fuse panel in the engine compartment and I finally found the one that was blown.



Appreciate all the comments and things to check! First time I ever blew a fuse.

 

[Ken Sabin]

Bill-



Not to rain on your parade, but I have to wonder what made the fuse blow. They dont just "wear out". In theory they should last almost forever. Ask yourself- What made it blow? A short is probably somewhere just waiting to rear its ugly head !



MAN, I hate electrical problems !

 

[al cannia]

When I rewired the trailer,one of the clearance lights had a broken wire.My guess is the loose wire would touch the frame,and that blew the fuse.

 

[Bruce Moore]

Glad you found it Bill. As far as the comments that the ball and/or chains are the ground, don't trust it. In a perfect world, it will work part of the time. The trailer side should have a white wire coming off of the connector going straight to a grounding point directly on the trailer frame. The same is true on the tow vehicle side. 90% of intermittent lighting issues are due to not having a proper ground.



BTW,,,,,,,,,,Mornin' Gang



BruceM

 

[Todd Atherton]

got one for you



nitro 901

keeps blowing fuses in truck all 3 of them and the stores tundra as well



bps has changed all wiring, lights , brake actuator and silinoid and it still blows fuses

i can hook up just 4 of the five prongs and have no problem so it has to be somthing to do with the brake switch i would guess but noone can find it can you guyes help



thanks

todd

 

[mike chip]

the easist way to blow a fuse is to try to plug the harness in backwards, and it is going to blow the fuse.