Trailer Wiring Pt. 2--What the ???

[Tennessee Jed]

Do you guys have to tell me how to do everything or what?

I ran a ground wire from the truck harness back to the bolt on the new light fixture for the brake/signal light and it worked great. But the tail lights, which worked before, don't work now. So I spliced a wire for the tail light bolt to the signal/brake bolt and the tail lights still don't work. Do I need to run a seperate wire from the tail light bolt up to the ground on the truck? The trailer is too rusty and painted to carry a ground in the chassis.

I think I've spent more time re-habbing this thing than the time it took them to build it!

[ebijack]

i'm not sure where you starting from but, you need the lights on the trailer grounded to the trailer(white wire on trailer connector grounded also to the trailer). you need a ground wire on the truck 4 pin connector (white wire)grounded to the truck frame. you may have to grind the paint (in a small spot) on the triler to find bare metal(it's there). if you don't have a volt/ohm meter, you can use a 12v bulb with the 2 wires as a test lamp to make sure you have voltage at each light when needed. if this isn't clear enough e-mail me and i'll try to explain further.
hope that helps

[BD]

The jumper wire between the bolts should have given you a ground at the tail light. It may sound like it's a little late for this; but when ever I have rehabed trailer lighting I have gone all the way and replaced all of the wiring. Something else to check and give you headaches is the snap in wiring harness / connector on the vehicle.

[Mahumba]

Just a note here.......To re wire my trailer I use two old extension cord. They are nicely wrapped, thicker gauge and easy to work with!

Try it out next time.

Roger.

[REW]

I don't know if this is the same post or not:
However, if you have a rusty trailer, and can't depend on the trailer to carry current simply do the following:

1. Make sure that you have an excellent 4-terminal harness on your tow vehicle.
i.e. 1-wire for tail lights.
1-wire for right turn signal
1-wire for left turn signal
1-wire for ground

2. Now - install new wiring harness - all the way from the tongue of the trailer to all of the lights - taile, brake, and clearance lights.
Make sure, as you extend these wires - you extend all 4 of the wires.
i.e. extend the ground wire that will be coming from one of the trailer plug wires to each and every light socket - whether it is a clearance light, a tail light, a brake light or a turn signal.

Then - for the clearance lights and tail lights - extend the brown wire.

For the right and left turn signals - extend the yellow and green wires.

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If you have done all of this correctly - installed new lights, sockets, and bulbs - you will have lights that work just fine on your trailer.

Take care
REW

[Tennessee Jed]

This must be some kind of "Voodoo Chile" trailer! For those of you who jumped in the middle of this saga, I had replaced my entire plug/harness, and light fixtures. I knew the truck was okay because it worked for two other trailers earlier this week.

Anyway, I tested using a seperate ground wire from the tail light bolt on the new fixture, hooked up to the truck bumper. Worked like a charm! Then I decided to unhook this new ground from the truck bumper and it still worked. Then I cut the new ground wire off at the tail light, and it still worked! I can only guess that I got the bolt to ground on the trailer with the additional wire in the bolt hole of the trailer.

Boy I'm glad this is over! Thanks for all your help!